The Aints!

The Church Of Simultaneous Existence

The fourth Saints album?

The Saints, from Brisbane, were one of the two greatest punk bands (along with the

Ramones). Raw, angry, with a belligerent singer and an even more belligerent guitarist, Ed Kuepper. Three albums of punk fury and primal rock classicism, unmatched.

The Laughing Clowns, the jazz-infused garage band Kuepper formed after the breakup of the original Saints in ’78, were so great live that even Nick Cave’s Birthday Party couldn’t match them.

The band Kuepper formed in ’91, The Aints (named after an old Saints drum head with the

‘S’ scratched off) were near as dammit as good as both. Not revivalist, merely incendiary.

This new band (note the exclamation mark), formed with a Celibate Rifle, a Sunnyboy and a couple of wired jazz musicians, are pure Clowns. The 12 songs here, compiled from old bits and pieces Ed wrote starting when he began high school in ’69, through the tumultuous heyday of (pre-) punk, could well be the fourth Saints album, which never happened. It blisters. It belts. Man, it’s so damn good.