Australian Punk Group Speed Week Announce Second Album, Weak Speed (Oct 17); Share First Song In 5 Years, 'Subdivision'

"Speed Week plays garage punk music like only Melbourne knows how to produce."
– Still in Rock

Speed Week, the Australian punk group featuring members of Split System and The Brakes, are back with their first album since their 2020 debut Hey Hey It’s Speed Week (Legless Records). The new record, titled Weak Speed, comes via ENDLESS RECORDINGS (AU/NZ) and Erste Theke Tonträger (Europe) on Friday, October 17.

Alongside the album announcement comes lead single 'Subdivision', arriving five years sharp from their last release. Guitarist Ryan Webb and singer Elliott Gee were thinking about the fate of their Tasmanian hometown, Legana – once lush with apple orchids, now overrun with identical, soulless Hotondo homes – when writing the track, which begins with a gurgling bass line and erupts into velocious garage punk. The track is a sly riff on the crimes of developers who destroy nature with their ugly, low-quality estate blocks.

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"Straightforward punky pub rock. Unlike their yobbo contemporaries The Chats or Amyl & the Sniffers, who fall somewhere between a little winky and total caricatures, Speed Week just seems like some lads who wanna get together up the pub and bang out some chunes."
— Maximum Rock'N'Roll

Speed Week Weak Speed

Tracklisting:

1. Business As Usual
2. Automate Me
3. Call it a Day
4. Tragic Creature
5. Subdivision
6. White Collar Crime
7. Speed Week

Weak Speed is a ragged, ferocious portrait of post-pandemic Australia, where sycophantic local politicians run riot, housing options are reduced to shoddy, monotonous apartment blocks and technology has steam-rolled over steady employment and innate desires. This is a record of anthemic shout-alongs and hooky, rapid riffs, underpinned by its great tongue-in-cheek humour and propulsive energy.

The album was written and recorded slowly over four years, across Naam/Melbourne and Lutruwita/Tasmania. Despite all the disruptions of the past few years, songs organically emerged from stray bits of lyrics and bursts of guitar sent to one another over Whatsapp. When they could meet up, they would record, with their drummer Andrew Leith Robinson at the helm of production. These recordings took place in a friend’s basement, or in a Tasmanian town hall in the middle of nowhere, rented out during the state’s election day. “That was funny, because people kept on coming in to ask if this was where they could vote, and there’s just blankets everywhere and a guy screaming into a microphone,” recalls bassist Brad McDermott.

“So much has happened in the world, so much change, which is what the record is commenting on. But it’s also for me, about living in Tasmania and having kids, and seeing the world in a different way because of these personal changes,” says singer Elliott Patrick Gee. “We tried to take what's going on around us, and how we are adjusting to it as we’re growing older, and the new challenges that arise from that growth – like housing woes and the cost of living crisis. We're having a bit of a laugh at what's happening to us and around us,” adds bass player Brad Mcdermott.

Weak Speed will be released on Friday, October 17 by ENDLESS RECORDINGS (AU/NZ) an independent record label operated by BAD//DREEMS’ Alex Cameron, whose roster includes renowned Australian acts such as Jack Ladder, Placement, and The Pretty Littles, among others, with German DIY punk label, Erste Theke Tontraeger releasing a limited-edition pressing of the record for Europe.

Keep up to date with Speed Week by following them on Instagram, Facebook and Bandcamp.

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