ALT FICTION ‘CAN’T GET IT RIGHT’
Amping up the tempo and the attitude without sacrificing any of the band’s sun-splattered tone, with the help of producer Chris Collins, ‘Can’t Get It Right’ is a brash, bratty dedication to messing up and starting again. What first appears to be an honest-to-goodness three chord number gives way to a sublimely jangly verse riff that’s more Johnny Marr than Billie Joe.
Here is a band that doesn’t wear these influences on their sleeve insomuch as use them to sew a new shirt, one that looks as good shouting choruses and as it does crooning dazed lower-octave melodies. Details-wise, it’s a track flanked by a bass line that doesn’t so much walk as glide and drums that seem programmed to shoot to the moon. Tight and crisp without a wrinkle to be seen, it’s the Alt Fiction fit you love in a brand-new style.
Launching their debut single ‘All My Friends’ into the world via triple j unearthed, their follow up track ‘People You Know’ would see the evolution of this offensively charged trio. While Alt Fiction’s analog aesthetic might evoke spirits of certain mid-west guitar bands, ‘People You Know’ proved there’s more humming beneath the hood. The 90’s inspired, self-created video landed Rage’s Wild One and the song charged them straight to triple J unearthed feature artist.
Writing songs together from the age of twelve, the members of Alt Fiction spent their teen years sharpening their craft whilst navigating the inevitable hurdles of adolescence. Cultivated in an insular rural town in South-East QLD, the band managed to breed their idiosyncratic style in their backyard shed. The band covered punk songs at local gigs whilst self-recording demos with several band names and iterations. They finally landed on Alt Fiction, their music giving you an insight in to their past whilst firmly embracing the future with their aural athleticism, proto-Strokes guitars cresting to meet quotable lyrics about disaffection in the Internet era.
Alt Fiction are three players locked in relative unison, recalling the heyday of groups like Phoenix. With every glimmering chorus and offbeat ad-libs, the three brothers - Will, Matt and Mitch, give a dynamic performance pushing the jams towards their peak. There’s much more to come, but already more than enough to love.