***”Dumbells are my favourite new band to see live in Sydney since, well, when live music started happening again. They embody a quality apparent in many of my favourite Sydney groups, where pre-existing music scenes blur and new alignments form. Whatever forces brought Sam Wilkinson (Shrapnel, Sachet) , Jen May (Tee Vee Repairmann), Ben Schattner (Shrapnel, VIPP) and Ishka Edmeades (Tee Vee Repairmann, Satanic Togas….) together has unlocked a certain hard-to-describe quality of rock n roll I personally yearn for.

Its hard to quantify this particular quality of rnr without a long list of nerdish reference points, but I think its how non-aligned with any particular sub-genre, or era, or tacked on caricature-ish style they are in their approach to amateur rock music that makes them not just another band in the endless sea of music.

On one hand, a child, or even a Pavement fan could immediately be wooed by the immediacy of the hooks, melodi