Auckland’s Yukon Era have released their eponymous debut EP. It contains five tracks and is pretty good. The band have been scoring some neat support slots of late – Mac Demarco and METZ to name but two. Often this can be down to who you know rather than being any good, but based on their debut release, Yukon Era deserve some time on the big stage.
The songs themselves have a certain sound – mostly what you might expect from ‘garage punk’ – scything guitars, bang-on drums, reverb, distortion, feedback and droney vocals. In terms of innovation this is not setting the world alight. But I think that’s the intention. It’s the sound of five very young fellas doing what they do, writing songs, recording songs, playing shows. And so on.
Comparisons to The Horrors are probably not too wide of the mark on many of the songs and that can’t be a bad thing. The truly cynical may ask what the point is, but does there really have to be a point? Being young, having fun in a band and writing songs, (however original), probably shouldn’t ever need to be justified, particularly to old farts like me that have heard too much music for anything to sound truly fresh and exciting.
The most exciting track to my ears is the ever so slightly math-rock opener ‘Leash’ where I am reminded of 90s indie-rockers Seafood and, weirdly, a dash of Teardrop Explodes. The other four tracks are certainly more garage rock, and that’s cool.
Yukon Era are a young four-piece garage punk band from Auckland’s North Shore consisting of singer Christian Dimick, guitarist Lachie Thurlow, bassist Pierre Beasley and drummer James Thorrington.
They released their self titled debut EP in February which received wide acclaim locally and overseas and have caught the attention of 95bFm, Vice’s Noisey, Tone Deaf, Radio New Zealand and Under The Radar.
“Five songs of spirited and shambolic garage-rock that come wrapped in a kind of Libertines-ish charm” - The Wireless