It’s easy to get swept up in Melbourne’s music, where an exciting rough diamond seems ready to be discovered almost every day. It’s also slightly too easy to chide Sydney’s music scene if you’re from there, to brusquely dismiss it as inferior to its beloved Victorian counterpart.
In reality, though, Sydney’s independent rock scene is having quite the moment. Following the successful path forged by Body Type, Sweetie are the next local band ready to break out of their home city this year.
The four-piece create trembling and thoughtful post-punk that falls somewhere between Chastity Belt, Melbourne contemporaries Blonde Revolver, and Savages (“Savages of Sydney” does have a nice ring to it).
And don’t let that misleading band name fool you: there’s a lot of impressive snarl in Sweetie’s sound, led by lead singer Lily Keenan, whose magnetism recalls Iceage’s irrepressible Elias Bender Rønnenfelt; every spit lyric, every drawled line finishes upon their rigorous command.
Sweetie’s new single, “Liminal Bliss”, is a spirited ode to finding inner peace, even if that’s often a tricky thing to achieve. “This song was written in lockdown,” Keenan explains. “It reflects on the frustration of grinding to a halt in a world that favours progress at all costs. Forced into a liminal space between jobs and relationships, I was surprised to find peace there.”
Confident vocals and battering guitars drive “Liminal Bliss” forward into an incandescent climax (one seriously reminiscent of Savage’s finest track, the towering “Husbands”), and it’s tremendously difficult to succumb to the track’s charming energy for just one play at a time.
What “Liminal Bliss” confirms is that Sweetie are one of their city’s buzziest bands for a major reason. Luckily for us, the track is the first taste of the band’s second EP, which is set for release later this year.
Keenan, Rikki Clark, Janae Beer, and Lucy Warriner will be launching their new single with a special show at Waywards in Newtown on the first of next month, and tickets are available now here.
Sweetie’s “Liminal Bliss” is out now via Blossom Rot Records.
