| Lazertits have made a big statement out of their two previously released and highly infectious garage punk songs “Gender Studies” and “Dirty Brown Couch,” over the weekend they graced us with their debut EP, Aubergine Dreams.
The five actual best friends – Amy Pettifer (vocals, some bass), Rose Watson (vocals, some bass), Emily Goodman (drums), Victoria Jakobsson (guitar) and Lexi Love-Dack (guitar) – came together as a band in their late teens and early baby twenties for a one-off performance at a New Years Eve party in 2013/14 as more of a statement, than anything else.
However the friendships started well before that.
Amy, Emily and Rose met in year 7, self referred to as “loner besties,” they bonded over their love of the 90s alternative rock heartthrobs, Jane’s Addiction and The Used, exchanging mix tapes and taking awkward classical drum lessons with the school’s in house percussion teacher.
After leaving school, the three of them rotated through a share-house in Brunswick, inevitably meeting Lexi and Victoria somewhere between the share house and house parties.
It wasn’t until an annual new years eve festival at a friends property, that the idea of Lazertits even entered the minds of these five; deciding that their male counterparts shouldn’t be the only ones performing at their friends music festival, the girls prepared a performance of 3 songs – 2 covers and 1 original. It was shortly after that show that the first proto-Lazertits song-writing sessions ensued.
They played a handful of house parties and shows, before recording “Gender Studies”, with friends; Sam Maguire, Lachlan Milne & Nick Merrilees at JMC Academy as a Uni project. The track gained an overtly enthusiastic response from the city’s DIY community – they sold out of t-shirts, packed out venues time and time again – and grabbed the attention of The Age Newspaper and community radio.
The band recently holed up in Amy’s Dad, Chris Pettiffer’s, studio, for a few days and have finally emerged with their debut EP, Aubergine Dreams.
Lazertits have a knack for being goofily sarcastic and warm spirited all at the same time. Auberguine Dreams is clever and charming – about University, and fresh-out-of-uni concerns – applauding yourself because you’re a lady (“Ladies”); how dumb the objects of your sexual desire can be (“Dirty Brown Couch”) and the challenges of being vegan and running out of things to post on Instagram (“Very Berry Milkshake”).
They’ve filtered feminist theory, social commentary and general intellectual bad-assery into an EP that Australia, in 2016 doesn’t just want, but needs. |
