Party Dozen, a saxophone-and-drums duo from Sydney, specialize in freaked-out, experimental noise-rock, and we gave Album Of The Week honors to their 2022 debut The Real Work. Later this summer, Party Dozen will release their sophomore LP Crime In Australia. It’ll include “Wake In Might,” the single that the band released last year, as well as their new single “The Big Man Upstairs,” which sounds nothing like the band’s previous work.

Party Dozen wrote, produced, and mixed Crime In Australia themselves, and it’s split into two sides, with one representing order and the other disorder. Their new song “The Big Man Upstairs” isn’t a freakout. Instead, it’s a surging, anthemic post-punk jam with actual lyrics. Here, Kirsty Tickle sax sounds a bit like the bagpipe guitars on Big Country records. The video tells the story of Joh Bjelke-Petersen, the so-called “hillbilly dictator” politician who ran the Queensland government for many years, banning protests and targeting punks until his own corruption ended his reign.

Here’s what the Party Dozen’s Jonathan Boulet says about “The Big Man Upstairs”:

This is such a crazy story! We had to retell this case study and keep it alive. It feels like it’s only people from QLD (Queensland) who know it. Maybe they’re trying to forget?

It’s a story full of such unbelievable corruption and thirst for power. 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??

We definitely bit off more than we could chew with this idea. The research and collection of enough verified information, footage and photo stills to paint an accurate picture was fascinating but arduous.

I don’t think you can say that the QLD government was the catalyst for punk to evolve, but it certainly helped.

Below, check out the video for “The Big Man Upstairs” and the Crime In Australia tracklist.

TRACKLIST:
01 “Coup De Gronk”
02 “Wake In Might”
03 “Money & The Drugs”
04 “Les Crimes”
05 “The Big Man Upstairs”
06 “Judge Hammer”
07 “Bad News Department”
08 “The Righteous Front”
09 “Piss On Earth”
10 “Jon’s International Marketplace”

Crime In Australia is out 9/6 on Temporary Residence.