Flickertail – Hurry Up And Wait

Flickertail hail from Sydney’s Inner West, but there’s apparently some Irish lineage in them too. They previously operated under the handle of The Bitter Sweethearts and drop names like Thin Lizzy, The Darkness and Oasis as inspiration if you filter that through a garage band you’re about on key. They operate on the catchy end of rock, tunes that by the time the second chorus comes along you can sing along with them, with some wordplay and a little dry twit thrown in for good measure.

The kind of songs we no longer hear in the British charts, but over in Australia back in 2014 ‘The End’ was being played on Triple M and regional radio throughout New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland, and ‘Guinness is Thicker than Blood’ apparently got even more airplay. They have played gigs alongside numerous Aussie bands while supporting the likes of The Supersuckers.

Flickertail feature Liam Whelan (Lead vocals/lead and rhythm guitar), Jonny Goldrick (Lead and rhythm guitar), Matt O’Callaghan (Bass) and Marcus Fraser (Drums/vocals). Hurry Up And Wait is a new five track EP they’ve brought out through Golden Robot Records, with the track ‘Back of My Mind’ also available as a single – There’s also a video to accompany that you can watch here at Ramzine. It was filmed by Jack Barratt and directed by Goldrick,

The EP opens with a glam take on Lizzy’s patented harmony guitar sound as intro to sing along shout-out ‘Let There Be Love’ and is followed by a soft shuffle rock number with a whiff of Beatles about it in ‘Talk’ – There’s an amusing video using Barbie and Ken type dolls for this one.

With ‘Fade Away’ you can see where The Darkness influence seeps in, but if you add the Oasis one what you get is The Arctic Monkeys with a bit of funk on the side and it works well. ‘Green Eyed Girl’ is a faux ballad with more harmony guitars featured, leaving ‘Back Of My Mind’ to complete the set. Apparently inspired while reading James Joyce’s Dubliners but that could the band leading us down a dark path (where we might end up in the backyard where the video was recorded). Coming in at only three and half minutes it still feels like a bit of an epic from the band as it’s the most arranged piece on the record while still retaining the loose feel they have, whether by design or otherwise.

Flickertail deliver earworms about kitchen sink dramas and love songs for those waiting for the pub to open – On the evidence of Hurry Up And Wait listeners might need to form an orderly queue.