Australia’s beloved punk/metal/pop group the Hard-Ons (be careful when you google that kids!) just dumped hundreds of tracks on their Bandcamp page. Singles Collection, EP collections, expanded releases… many previously unpublished or only available on vintage vinyl, like this self titled EP shown in cassette form above. I believe this record (pictured above) was one you once had the option to select with your subscription to Thrasher, which was a thing they used to do. If that’s not how I got my copy, I’m pretty sure I bought it based purely on the cover. The punk purist in me had a hard time getting acclimated to metal aspects, but tracks like Girl in a Sweater and Then I Kissed Her definitely appealed to the Descendents and Simpletones fan in me.
UPDATED 2-25-21: There’s a Hard-Ons documentary in the works.
The Hard-Ons are a truly unique band, multi racial, multi-musical influences… They range from Metal, even Dark Metal, Indie, Punk, Pop, Pop-punk… The same album can feature songs that are offensive, ridiculous, beautiful, absurd, sweet, disturbing… You name it. Their output is so prolific that at times it can blend together a bit, but you can pretty much pick any release and find something you’ll like if any of those genres appeal to you.
The byline of this post should be about how affordable these tracks are, which is insanely affordable. I don’t know if the Australian dollar is weak or not, but you can pick these up for less than 10 USD with the option pay more if you want, which is why I’m not linking to source of the cassette tape graphic, an old post that offers a download of the digitized cassette.
If you want to get their self-titled 1987 EP compilation, you’d want to buy the expanded Smell my Finger which also includes the Smell My Finger Mini-Lp, Hot For Your Love Baby Lp, Surfin’ On My Face 7″ Ep, All Set To Go 7″ and 33 (!!) bonus tracks. Bonus content is usually demos, alternate takes or live songs. It’s a lot to sift through. In fact that’s my only beef with these: there’s so many tracks and no info on original release dates and groupings. You’ll need to head over to their Discogs listing to make sense of it if you’ve got OCD when it comes to organizing your music library.
The Hard-ons are still gigging with the OG lineup after a brief (but still good) stint without Keish. Check them out on Facebook.
Update: Check out this skateboard release from Tym Guitars form Australia, where else?
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