Amyl & The Sniffers - 'U Should Not Be Doing That'
With their clear presence on live and festival line-ups, it had gone completely over my head that Amyl & The Sniffers hadn’t released any new music in over three years, until they released ‘U Should Not Be Doing That’.
The band are back with powerful punk rock track ‘U Should Not Be Doing That’. Pungent vocals lead the track and thunderous drums move it forward. Recorded with Nick Launay (Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds) this is the first new music from the Melbourne band since second album ‘Comfort To Me’. It’s the perfect introduction to this vivacious outfit and their upcoming live performance at Primavera Sound Barcelona! Delicious grit and an unapologetic punk sound make this a fantastic anthem with some dark yet refreshing punches.
On their latest single, Amy Taylor said: “Lyrically it’s pretty self-explanatory. ‘U Should Not Be Doing That’ makes me laugh, but it’s also in a way poking fun at the shock that people still feel at a little bit of skimpy clothing, and the bitchy high school way that the music community still is (yes I’m talking to you random 40 year old metalheads sitting around a table doing lines and bitching about a 28 year old chick in a band for wearing shorts and “selling out”) but it mainly makes me laugh. It’s unconscious and meant nothing at the time of writing it but now I think it’s a comedic way of rubbing the dog's nose in its own dog piss after it peed on your favourite rug or something.”
Here’s the attitude of a band that has seen and heard too much and is aching for change within an industry still led by people no longer knowing how to use social media yet it being one of the biggest tools for emerging artists to break out of the chains of their hometown, and reach a wider audience. Amyl & The Sniffers have never adhered to genre-confinements and on ‘U Should Not Be Doing That’ they emphasise the importance of letting creatives do what they do best. They’ve thrown out the rulebook and do it again on their new release, showing they have lost none of their captivating sound and personalities and only gained in strength.
Amyl & The Sniffers have confirmed a small club show at London’s Scala on the 27th of May, will be headlining Bearded Theory Festival and head out on a North American tour in July and August including supporting Foo Fighters on several of their shows. It’s clear the band have got more to offer, and with ‘U Should Not Be Doing That’ give us a taster of what is hopefully soon to come!
Words by Laura Rosierse
