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Photo – Roger Deckker

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Noisy Sydney duo Party Dozen return with new single ‘The Big Man Upstairs’, and the announcement of their new album, Crime In Australia, to be released on their own GRUPO imprint on Friday 6th September.

Crime In Australia is the follow-up to 2022’s Australian Music Prize finalist The Real Work which included the Nick Cave-featuring ‘Macca The Mutt’.

‘The Big Man Upstairs’ is a striking return. With a looping nod to vintage shoegaze, the band describes it as ‘a softer, sweeter side to Party Dozen; an antidote to the swash tubbery and sax honkery’. The single is accompanied by a video which uses documentary footage to tell the story of Joh Bjelke-Petersen, the “hillbilly dictator” who ruled Queensland for two decades, using corruption and police power to stifle dissent, arguably inadvertently creating the conditions for a punk underground to flourish.

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‘It’s a story full of such unbelievable corruption and thirst for power that feels sadly relevant to the state of the world at the moment. A government rife with corruption and an inevitable explosive response of punk rock, activism and counter-culture. There were some very important movements happening at the time but of course we had to focus our scope more on the music side of things. It just doesn’t seem real. A special police task force waging war on music?? Crime In Australia, like all Party Dozen’s work, was written, performed, recorded, mixed and mastered by the band themselves (Kirsty Tickle, saxophone and Jonathan Boulet, percussion) in their Marrickville, Sydney studio. Of the title, the band say: “We began without any theme in mind, just the beginnings of some song ideas. As we were discovering the songs for this album, each song felt more and more at home in an old cop tv series soundtrack. The Crime theme quickly became apparent.

The record feels split into two contrasting sides: The first half is ‘order’, being as listenable as Party Dozen has ever been. Each song is law abiding and dignified in its own place. The second half is ‘disorder,’ becoming more unlawful, unhinged, louder and noisier.”

Crime In Australia will be released on vinyl and CD. Pre-orders are available now from Bandcamp, including a highly limited-edition lino-cut hand-painted edition with clear vinyl.

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Crime In Australia – Out Friday 6 September 
Pre-save/pre-order here

Track List

Coup De Gronk
Wake In Might
Money & The Drugs
Les Crimes
The Big Man Upstairs
Judge Hammer
Bad News Department
The Righteous Front
Piss On Earth
Jon’s International Marketplace

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Follow PARTY DOZEN
TIKTOK – INSTAGRAM – FACEBOOK
BANDCAMP – YOUTUBE – SPOTIFY

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‘The Big Man Upstairs’ 
Out now via GRUPO
Listen/buy here

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AMNPLIFY – DB