Delivery: A new wave of Australian garage-punk
Steve Irwin, Victoria Bitter, electric drills, and that video of a bloke being arrested for eating a succulent Chinese meal: the world has a lot to thank Australia for. Within the world of music and art, however, the island has always fostered a particularly vibrant scene. In more recent years, the punk and DIY scene of Melbourne has come into the spotlight thanks to the global success of groups like Amyl and the Sniffers, but there is still a wealth of bands from that very same scene just waiting to be discovered. One of the most exciting groups, as of late, has been Delivery.
Originally, Delivery came together back in the lockdown days of 2020, spearheaded by couple Rebecca Allan and James Lynch. Since then, the group have poached or borrowed musicians from a whole host of prominent local bands in Melbourne, including Blonde Revolver, Guter Girls, and Pinch Points. After releasing their stunning debut album, Forever Giving Handshakes, in 2022, the band bolstered their reputation overseas, and it is incredibly easy to see why.
Delivery have an incredible DIY ethos to them and a kind of spontaneity that is missing from so many budding young garage bands. Although you could certainly argue that the band is still in its infancy, having only released one album, the previous experience of its respective members means that Delivery features an insurmountable quality to its output. The band perfectly toe the line between fuzzy garage punk and polished musical skill, which is certainly not an easy thing to achieve.
If you look back to the earliest origins of garage rock and punk, within 1960s America, most groups populating that scene were creating rough-and-ready rock tunes with a certain pop potential to them. In essence, Delivery creates the same atmosphere. If you look at one of their more recent creations, like the fantastic track ‘Digging The Hole’, it becomes clear that the band are more than capable of creating something with a broad appeal yet is still endearingly abrasive in its approach.
More so than any other DIY group in recent memory, Delivery are capable of creating a sense of controlled chaos within their recordings. Although it is clear throughout that the band are fully in control of proceedings, the music is awash with an adrenaline-fueled anarchy that is utterly infectious.
Ultimately, there are so many groups pursuing a garage-punk sound, particularly within the local scene in Melbourne, that it takes a lot for a group to truly stand out. Throughout their existence, though, the band have always pursued their own unique and original sound, refusing to bow down to trends or commercial viability. As a result, they have become one of the growing number of groups to rise from Melbourne and tour their sound across the globe.
At the moment, these global shows are still being held in pretty moderately sized venues but, given the fact that the band have been able to rise from virtual unknowns playing local shows in Melbourne to a successful band touring the world, with recording deals with Heavenly Records, it is only a matter of time before more people cotton on to the sheer brilliance of their unique brand of garage punk.
When Amyl and the Sniffers first became a success on a global level, countless artists across Australia attempted to emulate their sound. It is only thanks to artists like Delivery, and the various groups its respective members also play with, that the music scene has moved forward, ushering in a new wave of infectious punk and garage rock music.
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