‘The green and gold displays, Safe homes and apathy, Democracy for free, Spoon in mouth, we’re fucking gagging!’ (Spoon In Mouth Disease)

The history of hardcore punk has become so well documented that it now comes as something of a surprise to stumble across a band that you have not previously encountered.  This intrigue heightens further when you see the lineage of successor bands that followed, ranging as they do from Diät to Miles Away, and from Extortion to Total Control.  As the needle drops, your musings on never having encountered Jaws before are soon far outgunned by the pleasure of belatedly having done so.

Jaws were a hardcore band from Perth and were active from 2005, before playing their final show in 2008.  Side A of this reissue brings together the band’s entire twenty track discography, spanning both their self-titled 2005 demo and their sole album, 2026’s Slow Motion Suicide.  Both of these releases were rooted very much in that era, but with some very particular twists.

We’re talking melodically shaded hardcore – think, perhaps, peak Rivalry Records.  It is influenced by the first wave of late 1980s’ youth crew bands, but arguably even more so by the rapid-fire belligerence mid-1980s’ USHC, and then spiced with a flaring rock’n’roll abandon.  Meanwhile, the energetically rasping vocals grapple with rampant consumerism, political lethargy born from relative prosperity, and stultifying social conventions.  The tension ratcheting Spoon In Mouth Disease, the spitting fury of I Did This All Myself, and the blistering Barcode My Life capture the band’s spirit particularly vividly.

The flipside catches the band playing their farewell show in 2008 – a set captured in all of its frenetically raw intensity.  A really well put together package is completed by an excellent A4 booklet that includes lyrics, fanzine interviews, flyers, and live photos.