Rob’s Album Of The Week: Hockey Dad’s Brain Candy

Australia has been putting out great rock music for decades. Bands such as Men At Work, Midnight Oil, Divinyls, Silverchair, The Vines and Royal Headache come to mind when the topic of bands from down under gets brought up. These days, Windang punk duo Hockey Dad are one of the many acts that have been extending this trend for the past few years. Their third full-length album, Brain Candy, that was released via BMG on July 31 shows guitarist and vocalist Zach Stephenson and drummer Billy Fleming solidifying their sound. It’s a consistently great album that exhibits growth in songwriting and tone.

There’s a great contrast of electric amplification and mellow smoothness within the album. Certain songs bring the energy to high levels while others abide by a surf rock influence to exude a heartfelt ballad. The way the particular track listing goes, the hard-hitting ones start it off while the chill, laid back ones close it out. The way Stephenson and Fleming go from one side of the spectrum to the complete opposite is captivating. This structure exemplifies a distinct evolution that’s a rarity among their contemporaries.

My home state of Rhode Island has seen live music slowly make a return in outdoor settings and the same can be said for other parts of New England. While this is going on, people are voicing their concerns in fear of a…