STACK #222 April 2023

MUSIC FEATURE

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Private Function photographed by Robert ’Squid’ Collins. L - R: Chris Penney, Aidan McDonald, Milla Holland, Anthony Biancofiore, Lauren Hester.

why it’s $2999 – except for SA,” explains the sunny Penney, ”because they’re really staunch on the gambling stuff – which is probably for the best, actually. But then [the issue] got passed to the Liquor and Gambling Commissioner of SA. His name’s Dini Soulio, and he was like, ’This is ridiculous.’ He did all the paperwork, and waived the fees we would have had to pay! It’s crazy!” It’s a fitting story to accompany what will prove to be one of the year’s stand out projects of whimsy. Firstly, that title is not pronounced in a sarcastically sweary ’leet speak’ manner. ”Nah-nah, I can say it,” Penney attests. ”Three, seven, zero, aitch, ess, ess, vee, zero, seven, seven, three, aitch.” Impressive. ”I’ve just had to say it so many times recently,” he smiles. It’s not the only way his gob’s been getting a work-out lately. Listen to the album’s first single Seize and Destroy , and the incendiary Time for the Urn ; Penney’s shrieks rival some of Bruce Dickinson’s best. ”I listen to lots of different types of music, and I really like genre-jumping around, so it’s kind of fun when you hear, like, an operatic black metal scream,” Penney grins. ”I’ve been practising opera as well, and then I just put a little mustard on it...” He then proceeds to deliver a thundering O Sole Mio -esque phrase, just like Big Luciano himself, rolling an ’R’ for dramatic effect. That fancy R appears on the album, in fact, in the chorus of corker Downright Dangerous . ”I’ve got a huge soft spot for Sex Pistols, and I always loved that [John Lydon] rolls his Rs in a couple of those songs,” Penney explains. ”I was like, ’I gotta have one!’” From the Rs to the screams to an excellent cover of Coldplay’s Yellow (no, really) and the rich chorus harmonies of One Headed Dog , genres may be jumped but the wit is always there – and remains, too, in the album’s visuals...

370HSSV

0773H by Private Function is out now via Still On Top Records.

INTERVIEW

THE MERRY GUMPTION OF PRIVATE FUNCTION Irreverent rapscallions Private Function return with a brilliant new cache of material comprising relatable gags and choice horseplay, all wrapped up in torniquet-tight punk arrangements.We spoke to frontman Chris Penney about 370HSSV 0773H . Words Zoë Radas

I f you aren’t one of those people who still spontaneously bursts into ”I loooove Albury Wodonnn-gah!”

with a bit of argy-bargy in the legal sphere.

If you weren’t alive to big reveal, here’re the crib notes: each copy of 370HSSV

0773H on vinyl features cover art which is essentially a giant

three years after that single dropped, now’s the time to join the Private Function wagon. As smoothly as these crackerjack punk anthems seem to fall from the five-piece’s fingertips – sophomore album 370HSSV 0773H contains 14 tracks, not a lemon among them, and nine of them under two minutes long – its arrival came

I’ve been practising opera [singing]; I just put a little mustard on it

scratchie. Only one copy will reveal three matching Aussie icons under its panels, and if it’s your copy, you get $2999 and your face printed on all Private Function albums for the rest of time. This gimmick is, it turns out, a form of gambling. ”Every state was sweet as long as we kept the prize below $3000 – that’s

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L - R: Thomas Bangalter, Pharrell Williams, Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo, and Nile Rodgers in the Get Lucky clip

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Ten years ago this month, mysterioso French duo Daft Punk (Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem Christo) scored a mega-hit with a li’l help from their friends Pharrell Williams and Nile Rodgers. Get Lucky won two Grammys and introduced many younger pop fans to the work of Rodgers, who said that despite the massive success he’d achieved producing for David Bowie, Madonna, Sister Sledge and his own band Chic, Get Lucky ’s success had left him ”flabbergasted.”

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68 APRIL 2023

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