Private FunctionWhose Line Is It Anyway?

Unconventional, unironic, uncompromising–Private Function are doing everything a punk band should in their sophomore album, Whose Line Is It Anyway?

MORE: IN HEARTS WAKE: The Age Of Kaliyuga // DEFTONES: 20 Years Of White Pony // NORTHLANE: Live At The Roundhouse REVIEWS: BLUES PILLS: Holy Moly // NOFX/FRANK TURNER: West Coast Vs. Wessex // EMMURE: Hindsight // FANGZ: But No Thanks // IN HEARTS WAKE: Kaliyuga // PILLAGER: Forsaken Nation // SEETHER: Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum

They’re staying true to the foundations of what it means to be punk–sonically and socially–and yet because of their wild and attacking style of playing, they’re bound to appeal to more than just your standard middle finger wavers. Private Function have made punk appealing to everyone.

There’s a lot of tongue-in-cheek play at work here, a theatricality that you’ll appreciate for its almost accidental nature. Speed Bumps serves as a double entendre for all things typically rock ‘n’ roll, a certain charisma seeping through as its stripped back nature demonstrates Private Function’s sometimes hidden skills.

Private Function are unabashedly loud, delivering satirical stories (that later on you’ll find are mostly true) with a gritty vocal melody supported by mad and embellished guitar solos.

Private Function are regularly tumultuous, roaring through tracks like Albury Wodonga with a devil-may-care attitude and a certain freedom only found in the most classic of punk offerings. Likewise Sleep Paralysis plays host to a roaring choral melody, oozing frustration and confusion. It introduces a sonic element that resembles psychedelia which perfectly upholds the track’s thematic interests. Private Function are clever with their arrangements, each lyrical nuance complimenting the textures they work with, even when that’s not immediately apparent.

Private Function are unabashedly loud, delivering satirical stories (that later on you’ll find are mostly true) with a gritty vocal melody supported by mad and embellished guitar solos. The rampant drive of drums serves as the permission slip for recklessness and when blended together with the rest of the band in raucous harmony, demonstrates a certain humour that only goes to serve the very obvious grounded nature of the group. But don’t be fooled, the band takes what they’re doing seriously – if being serious means Private Function are enjoying their own looseness enough to release an album.

This Melbourne outfit spare no sense of irony in larking about, poking fun at themselves and the world around them. They don’t take themselves seriously, they don’t take you seriously, but despite their sometimes seemingly-nonchalant efforts, this is a band who are ostensibly down to earth and let that care-free mantra bubble up and explode through their music.

STANDOUT TRACKS: Albury Wodonga, Speed Bumps, Evie (Part 4)
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