Chook Race

Australian bands channeling the ragged, unkempt aesthetic of early Flying Nun acts proliferated during the 2010s, and Melbourne’s Chook Race counted among them. The trio also absorbed the bright, ringing style of American jangle-pop groups from the 1980s such as R.E.M., while retaining abundant lo-fi texture in their makeup. Guitarist and vocalist Robert Remedios, bassist Matt Liveriadis, and drummer Carolyn Hawkins—who subsequently joined Pronto and School Damage—assembled the band in 2010 and began performing in their hometown. Their debut single appeared in 2012, containing three concise pop numbers that Mikey Young of Total Control and Eddy Current Suppression Ring mixed and mastered. Late in 2014 they issued a split single with Sydney’s Unity Floors on the Mystic Olympic label. Earlier that January the group had tracked their first album alongside Tom Hardisty of Woollen Kits. Self-released in early 2015, About Time attracted the attention of Trouble in Mind Records in the United States and Brisbane’s Tenth Court, prompting the two labels to co-sponsor the follow-up. Captured in one day under Hardisty’s guidance and mastered once more by Mikey Young, Around the House reached stores in September 2016.