Cosmic Psychos

One of the most notorious Australian pub rock bands, Cosmic Psychos play beer-fueled, garage-accented, heavy-hitting punk rock with no frills and no pretensions. Officially beginning their journey together in 1985, the Psychos gained a reputation for not caring about money so much as the free beer, laughs, and occasional overseas traveling involved with being in a rock band. Despite their lack of careerism, over the course of a career that's spanned four decades, the group released over a dozen albums, sang with Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder, befriended Mudhoney, and supplied beer to the then-underage Silverchair at Australia's Big Day Out festival.

For 30 years, the Cosmic Psychos have blazed a trail of empty beer cans and busted ear drums around the globe with their quintessential Australian drawl and pounding punk rock songs. With the founding member Ross Knight finding inspiration from the Bulldozer he drove on the family farm in country Victoria, the band forged a unique sound and image that resonated with punk rock fans everywhere…..

The history of punk rock is rife with underground aggressors who enjoy a surprise brush with mainstream notoriety thanks to an atypically sunny song that teeters precariously close to novelty-tune status. So the crossover success of the Chats is all the more remarkable given that it came through their surliest song. With the 2017 single “Smoko,” the Australian trio not only scored an anti-social anthem that’s since been covered by the likes of YUNGBLUD and Wet Leg, they also transformed regional vernacular—in this case, Aussie slang for “smoke break”—into an international catchphrase. Vividly channeling the boiled-blood irritation of a service-industry worker who’d sooner gut you than waste a precious second of their five-minute puff session making idle conversation, “Smoko” nonetheless possessed the sort of Seinfeldian relatability that landed the then-teenaged band on morning shows and the 6 o’clock news back home. But since then, the Chats have hardly gone out of their way to make themselves more respectable for the masses. The best songs on their 2020 debut High Risk Behaviour concerned venereal disease, getting caught wanking on webcam, and gorging yourself on rump steak. Now their second album comes bearing a title that’s practically begging to get them disinvited from the late-night talk show circuit.