Canberra’s own political punk rockers Super Best Friends are finally launching their debut album. Entitled Status Updates, it’s a heavy attack on politicians – and the people who voted them in.

As a punk hotbed, Canberra doesn’t often get a look in. Compared to Sydney or Melbourne, live venues are scarce. It hasn’t deterred Super Best Friends, says easy-going guitarist and vocalist Johnny Barrington.

“There’s a great punk scene here, especially with the younger bands. Canberra was usually known as the metal capital of Australia throughout the ’90s and 2000s. It always had a good punk undertone. I think The Church are from here, from way back,” he guesses. “But we’ve always been a bit scorned for being punks from Canberra. ‘How can you be punk if you come from Canberra? All your parents have well-paying jobs and everyone’s so clean-cut.’ Well, that’s the perfect breeding ground for punk rock music. Middle-class white angst at its finest,” he laughs.

There’s more than a grain of sense in raising punk hell in our national capital. If the punks scream, the pollies just might listen.

“The people who grew up with Nirvana and ABC Radio and even the Sex Pistols are entering Parliament now,” Barrington says. “They might be more open to listening to punk rock. They might not care what some stupid band is saying on the weekends, but it might get through. You never know. We don’t protest or picket anything, but we just talk about what we think’s a bit sucky. It’s still democracy, isn’t it?”

Talking about what’s “sucky” is the heart beating through Status Updates. Despite the Besties having been around since 2004, their debut has been stuck in purgatory.

“We didn’t really have the kind of weight thrown behind an album,” Barrington says. “That’s why it’s taken a bit longer. It’s called Status Updates because it’s about being vocal [about politics] on Facebook. You find yourself doing that, walking away thinking, ‘God, I’m such a wanker, telling people what I think constantly.’ I thought it worked nicely with the cover: on a train while you’re zoning out with social media.”

The album touches on other themes too. Barrington points to a “macho culture that seems to ruin drinking for everyone”. Also in the crosshairs are attitudes towards women and pubs built for fashion, not fun. The band aimed for a real social awareness, hoping it would rub off on punters.

“The band’s been writing political music for a long time,” Barrington says. “We kind of went through that Camelot phase in Australia where people weren’t so worried about things. I even got caught up in the whole excitement of the Kevin ’07 era and how things are gonna change. But no, we’ve gone back in time. Now two years into the current government, it’s clear where you can point your frustrations. I don’t expect this to go gold or anything [but] I think people will be more receptive to an aggressive, political album than they may have been five, six, seven years ago. We even have a song called ‘Moving Backwards’ and it’s a play on the whole ‘moving forward’ thing. It’s a light jab at the public, actually.”

To record the album, the Besties stripped their sound down to just guitars, drums and vocals – and lots of them. The keys and synths are all but gone. “We had this phase of getting over punk and thinking ‘Patton is God’, listening to Mr. Bungle, so everything had to be freaky. Over the last few years, we just wanted to make it a bit simpler. It’s allowed the music to get a lot more straight ahead, but it’s [also] gotten more heavy and guitar-driven. It’s closer to the bands we grew up with, like Frenzal Rhomb and watching bands on Recovery when I was 13.”

Shihad’s Tom Larkin served as producer for the album. It’s no surprise he added a pinch of trans-Tasman rivalry into the mix. “He’s a great dude to work with, even though there was that light jabbing between the Kiwis and the Aussies,” Barrington says. “Especially when we recorded ‘Out Tonight’. I’ve got a really kinda ’Strayan accent. As much as I try to enunciate, I just can’t get rid of that,” he laughs. “I couldn’t get that ‘night’ nice and soft. I kept on going ‘noight’. It’s a struggle to be this Aussie sometimes.”

One of Super Best Friends’ drawcards is their video for ‘Round And Round’, released back in 2013. It features then-Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, Tony Abbott, Christine Milne and even Clive Palmer. You can even see Nick Xenophon standing on his desk playing bass. But can he actually play? “I think we tried to mask it as much as possible,” Barrington laughs. “But he can do a pretty mean downstroke on the E string, though. Our former bass player Matt Roberts put it together. It’s an amazing piece of work. We got lucky. But as for Nick, maybe he’ll show up in Adelaide and we can see for ourselves!”

Indeed, when Super Best Friends wind around Australia throughout April, they might give local members pause to listen. Weirder things have happened.

Status Updates out now through Gun Fever andSuper Best Friends playOxford Art Factory onThursday April 9.

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