<p><span><span>- If the City of Adelaide is listening, I reckon you should consider updating your tourism slogan to: “<em>Come for the churches, stay for the shit hot garage duos.” </em>Catchy, no? For a few years now, Radelaidian acts like <strong>TOWNS</strong>, <strong>Mum Friends</strong> and Teenage Joans have been perfecting a recipe for heartfelt headbanging which calls for nothing more than two best mates, a guitar and a drum kit. And with the release of their debut EP, <em>Taste of Me, </em>TJs are set to have listeners coming back for seconds, at the very least.</span></span></p>
<p><span><span>In 2019 and 2020, guitarist <strong>Cahli Blakers </strong>and drummer <strong>Tahlia Borg</strong> released two well-received singles - <em>By the Way</em> and <em>Three-Leaf Clover</em>, the latter nabbing them triple j’s Unearthed High trophy. <em>Taste of Me </em>justifies the buzz surrounding their rise while staying true to their voice on those early cuts, snippets of laughter and conversation left in the recordings. But there’s definitely an extra lick of polish on these songs: calculated builds from moments of intimacy to big, singalong bridges, more of Tahlia on vocal duties (please and thank you) and a solidified confidence in the sound of the band. </span></span></p>
<p><span><span>You can hear some of <strong>Connor Brooker</strong>’s influence on hooks that are stickier than gum lodged behind your ear, like the cathartic chorus on <em>Something About Being Sixteen: </em>“<em>This is overdue/I’m getting over you,” </em>sings Blakers, with fake-it-til-you-make-it conviction. There’s the TOWNS-esque power chords, the sweet and sardonic vocal delivery of <strong>Hayley Williams</strong>, the grunge tones of <strong>Tired Lion. </strong>There’s also a nod to the confessional melodrama of <strong>Taylor Swift</strong>, which makes these songs a weirdly great companion to <strong>Olivia Rodrigo</strong>’s blow-up debut last week.</span></span></p>
<p><span><span><em>Taste of Me </em>covers all the quintessential adolescent stuff in its subject matter: Smoking darts, spilling your guts out over voicemail, wanting to be wanted, then wanting to be left alone. With the exception of the Rodrigo record, <em>Sour</em>, the thing that sets the EP apart from the rest of the pop-punk pack right now is the verisimilitude of the teen spirit on it. On <em>Apple Pie</em>, Blakers’ heart is bruised. “<em>Tell her that you love her and she’ll break your heart”</em>, she sings, before brushing off the rejection: “<em>But that’s a part of growing up.” </em>There’s no remove between the feelings and the songs - this isn’t Taylor Swift re-recording <em>You Belong With Me</em> at the age of thirty. </span></span></p>
<p><span><span>Listening to these songs calls to mind all the touchstones of experiencing music at sixteen, seventeen, eighteen. There are lyrics to be yelled in the backseat of a P-Plate car on the highway and songs that will play out of a crappy bluetooth speaker in a park somewhere, as friends share a large fries and thickshake after class. School’s out for both Cahli and Tahlia now, but I get the feeling that the fun is just beginning.</span></span></p>
<p><span><span>- Aleisha McLaren.</span></span></p>
<iframe style="border: 0; width: 100%; height: 120px;" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=1572649737/size=large/bgcol=f…; seamless><a href="https://teenagejoans.bandcamp.com/album/taste-of-me">TASTE OF ME by Teenage Joans</a></iframe>
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