Feedtime

Australia's feedtime, deliberately rendered in lower-case lettering, attracted an intense underground following through its raw, hard-hitting, bass-driven approach, a forceful blend of punk rock, blues, and hard rock. Two longtime friends from Sydney, Rick and Allen, launched the band in 1979, forgoing surnames just as they rejected the capital “F.” Rick handled guitar and specialized in bottleneck slide figures, drawing inspiration from Rose Tattoo and the Australian punk outfit X, distinct from its Los Angeles namesake, while Allen, drawn to acoustic blues, played bass. They first added drummer Dave, who departed in 1981 after tiring of the polarizing response their music provoked. Allen’s sister filled the drum chair briefly before the group discovered that fan Tom possessed genuine drumming ability and installed him as the permanent percussionist. The trio self-financed and issued its self-titled debut in 1985; two tracks from those sessions appeared on a compilation issued by the Australian independent label Aberrant Records, prompting label chief Bruce Griffiths to offer feedtime a contract. Aberrant brought out the second album, Shovel, domestically, while Rough Trade arranged its American release. Later that year a third album arrived: Cooper-S assembled cover material refracted through feedtime’s sensibility, encompassing songs by the Rolling Stones, the Stooges, the Ramones, and the Beach Boys. Butch Vig entered the production ranks to mix the fourth album, 1989’s Suction, yielding the band’s most approachable recording, yet internal strains finally erupted and feedtime disbanded just before its scheduled first American tour. The members reconvened for several live shows in 1994, and two years afterward they cut a one-time reunion album, Billy, with substitute drummer John replacing the unavailable Tom; Amphetamine Reptile handled the American edition. In 2012 Sub Pop Records, whose flagship act Mudhoney had long championed feedtime, issued the box set The Aberrant Years that gathered the group’s first four albums, spurring a brief American reunion tour. Rick, Al, and Tom returned to the studio several years later, resulting in 2017’s Gas, their first studio album in twenty-one years, released by the independent label In the Red Records.