“Let’s give it up for garage punk-pop legends Bloods.” - frankie
“Bloods PNW-esque garage punk with bubblegum pop, lacing the surprising mix with dark undertones and a refrain marked by a familiar schoolyard rhyme.” - FLOOD
“An absolute banger...totally infectious” - The AU Review
“...loose, roof-raising garage-punk, you'll go gaga for Bloods” - Mixdown
Sydney’s favourite rockers Bloods today shower us with a hefty dose of 90’s-inspired pop-punk with the release of their EP Seattle. An ode to the city in which it was created and an unapologetic honoring of female triumph, Seattle is out now via Share It Music.
In celebration, Bloods have also revealed a gorgeous clip all aflutter with fun illustrations and collage to accompany their pointed new single ‘Girls Are Just F*cking Cool Like That’. The clip premiered overnight on AudioFemme who declare "...this f*cking rocks". The single is an almighty celebration of female resilience, with a first verse that touches on MC’s personal experience of how invisible women can be made to feel after they have a baby. “Well I had a baby, and I’m not dead, no matter what you say/Yeah she is amazing, but it’s ok I’ve still got dreams inside my head”.
“I wrote this song because I think women are so resilient and they don’t get enough credit for that resilience. It’s a song that celebrates our badass-ness. This is a song dedicated to women who get up every day and say ‘fuck you, I’ll do what I want’ despite societal pressures or institutional and subversive racism/ageism/sexism,” MC preaches! “Women who don’t see themselves represented and work in the face of that to chip through that concrete ceiling.”
Check out the music video for ‘Girls Are Just Fucking Cool Like That’ below.
Bloods hit the ground running in 2020 with the release of their comeback single ‘U & M E’ which premiered on FBi and FLOOD Magazine. Inspired by the Nat King Cole classic ‘L-O-V-E’ and featuring Seattle icons TAD, the single coolly balances a playful lyrical conceit against a detached sexiness and the result is arguably Bloods at their brooding, hedonistic best.
In March, the band revealed a second taste from the EP with ‘I Hate It’. The single was initially inspired by two of the most iconic teen flicks, 10 Things I Hate About You - specifically Kat’s famous poem - with some sprinkling of influence from the cult teen classic Josie & The Pussycats.
Three further tracks round out the 15-minute Seattle EP - the middle finger waving kiss-off of ‘The New Guy’, the buzzsaw sugar rush of ‘Waste Of Time’ and a Bloods-esq idiosyncratic take of The Smiths’ ‘Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others’, which closes out the EP and reclaims the classic as a pro-feminist anthem.
The body of work was created in (you guessed it) Seattle; the city without doubt most synonymous with the 90s; the era undeniably pulsating through Bloods’ DNA. Pouring through rock mags and staying up late watching music videos on RAGE, trying to catch a glimpse of her flannel-clad rock heroes, it would’ve seemed unthinkable to teenage MC that one day she’d be standing in a studio in Seattle about to record with her own band.
But here is where MC and her bandmates Dirk Jonker (drums) and Mike Morgan (guitar, bass and backing vocals) found themselves - recording at Jack Endino’s Sound House (y’know just the guy who recorded Nirvana’s Bleach, no biggie), with Steve Fisk on production and mixing duties (Soundgarden, Mudhoney) and using the very amp Kurt Cobain played through on his band’s debut record. Seattle follows Bloods’ celebrated albums Feelings (2018) and Work It Out (2014).
Seattle is unmistakable and on purpose; it’s sharp and biting and it celebrates two things deeply influential and important to MC, Dirk and Mike - the city of it’s namesake and a celebration of female empowerment.
