- Angst-ridden, dank, Brisbane rock-swine Sewers have spent the last twelve months really getting their shit together. Sure they faffed around for a couple of years, but perennially downtrodden frontman Shan Corrigan has found his center among some solid bros and the results speak for themselves.

The latest incarnation of the group features Alex Greffen (Cannon), Josh Watson (Greg Boring) and Daniel Desci.They've been playing shows pretty consistently for at least twelve months and have become serious motivation to try and peal one's self off one's couch and saunter out into the night for an aural beat over the head.

It's hard to describe Sewers without inadvertently doing either them a slight injustice. It's a heaving, brooding and confronting slab of yobbo rock'n'roll they make, put through an industrial meat grinder then sprayed in and around your face with this charming menace. Corrigan's junk-yard-dog snarl seems intent to repel yet there's something in his primal and unrelenting delivery that few can successfully pull-off. His heinous demeanour almost distracts from the group's inherent ability to get even the most stubbornly still feet tapping and potato heads bopping.

After self-releasing their own demo cassette this time last year I'm pumped to see Sewers find a good home with Homeless Records. A small Melbourne based, vinyl focused label that have already put out some great records in their brief history- including the sterling debut long-player from punk-rock saviours Bits Of Shit and another killer record by a band I dare not name.

Homeless debut Hoisted is the perfect introduction to a group that has only recently been garnering the interest it deserves, especially for those unfortunate enough not to frolic through Brisbane on a day-to-day basis. Half the tracks off the record were culled from that aforementioned cassette and though not too far removed from their original recorded forms, Brisbane musical stalwart Andrew Mclellan has worked his subtle, supple, magic and lovingly birthed some new life into some old favourites. Though a real studio may lack the acoustics of say, a Kennards Storage facility, the record still retains the rust-ridden edges of its predecessor, the newer cuts not feeling at all out of place here. These previously unreleased tracks are the best Sewers have written to date, Pleasure Receptor, Drive The Nail and title track Hoisted push and evolve the group's core sound. Dare I say it? Corrigan seems to have a slightly jaunty spring in his step, his general disdain for the world seems more focused, his bile sprayed with a purpose.

Hoisted is a perfect example of what spending too many years in Brisbane can do to a bunch of good, honest blokes, and for that, I'm glad none of these lads have found the good sense to abandon my dirty river city. Without such cogs the wheels might fall off, and I don't want to be around when the wheels fall off. I just don't. Sewers, you can grease my chain any dang day of the week.

- Jay Edwards.