Ergot Records

This little purrl of a record has been out for over a month, and with Umm Kulthūm mania finally subsiding here on 2nd St. it’s about time we show it some love.

Following an appearance on last year’s excellent ‘Going back to sleep…’ compilation on A Colourful Storm, Naarm/Melbourne group Who Cares? make their debut proper on this eponymous four-track 7” EP. It opens with an acoustic three-chord strum, crude drums, and the line “Pussycat pussycat where have you been?,” prompting immediate thoughts of The Vaselines from this listener. But there’s something more sinister at work here, a darkness rather than an oblique sexuality lurking in the brooding apocalyptic drone that envelops the song and much of the record. Pink Reason, Current 93, and especially the resigned melancholy of Sibylle Baier are more appropriate touchstones.

We had the pleasure of playing the EP in the shop for , who gave us a little bit of insider Oz knowledge pertaining to closing tune “Hard Yakka,” a term which is both Australian slang for strenuous labor and an Aussie clothing company that specializes in workwear. At under ten minutes, ‘Who Cares?’ is anything but hard work, leaving one wanting more like a great Guided By Voices song and showing great promise for a full-length statement we hope is around the corner. Another home run for after 2024’s Dregs LP, and further proof that there is something quite potent brewing in the land down under.