The Love Junkies

“Hands down my favourite song at the moment. 5/5” – Gemma Pike, triple j - triple j

The launch of an EP is always a watershed moment for any young band. With a batch of their best material committed into a definite historical document, it's not uncommon to witness a mood of confident, or even triumphant, closure. Drinking it in, The Love Junkies captured the moment by snapping polaroids of the cramped throng squeezed into a sold out Mojo's. Awesome, feral and pungent, their combined instruments locked together with war machine synchronicity and power, as the eager crowd sang back the choruses with minimal prompting and no instruction as to the lyrical content. Resourceful tunesmiths, their set was consistently fresh and surprising throughout until a psychotic Blowing On The Devil's Strumpet came close to literally bringing the house down. As drummer Lewis Walsh performed a final victory surf and belly-roll over the upheld alms of the devoted front row fans, many took a moment breathe and ponder the carnage. Who knows, maybe in ten years time we'll look back and say the future of west coast punk'n'roll crystallised here.

Christopher H James - The Music

The Love Junkies are a WA act that continue to rise with the help of steady radio play for the likes of single Chemical Motivation, and the EP that track finds itself on is an equally strong release. It's raw and it's dirty, but it's powerful and honest-to-god rawk'n'roll. Their quiet-loud aesthetic gets a rest on the cruisy Storm Troopers, while Gloria To My Dysphoria reminds of The Mess Hall, and I fucking love The Mess Hall. - Pilerats

After the vibe from Mezzanine had slowly left the room, THE LOVE JUNKIES came storming onto the stage. They had the hard job of warming up a steadily tipsier crowd, but the minute they thrashed into their set it had people’s heads turning. The highlight was definitely the grungey bass and guitar breakdown that stormed through with ’Louise’ as they treated the small stage like their mum’s garage, strutting around with head banging ferocity.

Cranking out the teenage angst in waves front-man, Mitch McDonald powered through with breakneck speed and his band-mates kept pace with some lightning fast finger work and pounding drums. With the crowd now eating out of the palm of their hand, it was easy to forget the Junkies were a support band with their stellar chops, but we were reminded after track ‘Burn Like The Sun’ that we were in fact there for British India. - Spaceship News

Admittedly The Love Junkies, who sound much more like Nirvana than Radiohead, seemed like an odd choice for the gig. For the most part they dealt with it by playing plenty of originals and sticking with louder cover choices (namely 2+2 = 5 and Myxomatosis). However, they had a nice little surprise up their sleeve in the form of Reckoner – one of the more delicate, mellow tracks on 2007's In Rainbows. They aced it despite it being such a big departure in style, and lead singer Mitch McDonald was able to show an impressive side of his voice that is rarely heard. With that one song the band suddenly didn’t seem so out of place and their set was elevated to something quite special. - A Hole In The Head

Dialling the fuzz way back, THE LOVE JUNKIES’ new single ‘Louise’ is as good a mid-tempo rocker as you’re going to hear all summer. Vocalist/guitarist Mitch McDonald’s voice sits perfectly above a grinding rhythm section, before he slides into an impressive falsetto in the hook. “If it’s so easy…why aren’t we all in love?” he asks. In other hands, this could come off as just another searching lyric, but his voice – which possesses the same smooth, everyman quality of a Josh Homme or a Noel Gallagher, makes it sound like one of those important questions that maybe you’d better get around to answering one of these days.

In short, with songs as good as ‘Louise’, The Love Junkies are right up there with both of the other great Australian guitar bands at the moment, Papa vs. Pretty and The Vasco Era. If they continue to produce tunes as good as this (and if Triple J isn’t too blind to notice them), the sky, as they say, is the limit. - Spaceship News

Fresh off my late night Netflix viewing of the fantastic 1996 Rockumentary HYPE!, a Doug Pray film about the popularity of grunge rock in the early to mid-1990s in Seattle, I had the urge to cop an EP that was on my wish list since last month from an emerging Western Australian grunge band known as The Love Junkies.

The Love Junkies are yet another random Bandcamp find of mine. There debut self titled EP appeared out of nowhere amidst a gaggle of grunge garbage and instantly awoke memories of early 90's Seattle grunge-- Mudhoney, Gas Huffer, The Melvins, Mother Love Bone-- the good shit that used to make a Nirvana fiend chase the tiger even more. The proverbial cherry on top of this new relationship with the Junkies is another familiar and admired sound they incorporate into their flanneled interior: squealing electric chords from White Striped guitars that will have you screaming, "Ecky Thump!" For me, this is a lethal combo of my most esteemed rock gods. Ears exploding never felt so good.

The intro track on the EP is all you need to become a love junkie. Need a Light is the high point of a band full of 19-year old grease ball kids that want to prove they can rock Oceania and beyond. There is no potential to be heard in the record, the band's capacity reveals itself at the minute mark when Mitch McDonald lets loose his axe and larynx, and then the rest falls into place.

Here is the download for Need a Light, as well as the full EP stream/buy link below. - Whiskey Teeth

Catchy, tidy, amped up indie rock from a young Perth three-piece. Crying Rhymes has a swinging rhythm, heavy guitar fuzz and an easy, grunge-style vocal melody, neatly aping the Queens of the Stone Age sound. - Beat Magazine

Perth fans of the rock n’ roll revival will be dancing in the streets. Why? Because local outfit THE LOVE JUNKIES have released a blistering self titled EP. An unrelenting onslaught of fuzzy guitar fury, the five tracks contained within are fast, hard and immediate, with infectious melodies that will linger in your mind long after the record has stopped spinning. The EP also bears superb production by Ampersonic Studios, who have transmuted the young trio’s immense raw energy into a studio gem.

There’s something unmistakably grunge about opener ‘Need A Light’, which begins as a simple, bluesy affair before launching into a smorgasbord of octave-altered licks, complete with snarling vocals and adolescent spite. The track crescendos to some serious low end riffage before it comes to a screeching halt. There’s barely time to breath before ‘Pretty Little Thing’ hurtles down the tracks, an adrenaline drenched number with lightning fast lead breaks – it’s safe to say that vocalist/guitarist Mitch McDonald has some serious chops – and solid rhythm section.

‘Dirty Lover’ is the highlight of the record. It’s dangerously hook-laden with a hypnotic vocal melody. ‘Swallow Your Sorrows’ takes the foot off the accelerator with a slow, stoner groove and singalong refrain, before ‘Burn Like The Sun’ elicits another round of multi-octave blasts before bringing the ride to a slow, satisfying stop.

The Love Junkies EP drives at breakneck speeds. It comes on like a drug and leaves the listener ruffled, ravaged and begging at street corners for more. It’s a rock extravaganza. One can only imagine the dizzying heights of musicianship the band is capable of. This is a truly professional sounding release that is hopefully just a taste of things to come. - Spaceship News

The Love Junkies certainly brought it in with an explosive set on their home turf. From the get-go, the crowd were losing it – it didn’t matter that quite a few of the songs were fresh and previously unheard, the reaction was the same; people were throwing themselves around and crowdsurfing all over the place. Lead single, Television received a roar of approval, but it wasn’t until they were demanded to play an encore by the rowdy audience that they launched into the final track of the new record, Chemical Motivation, which has had plenty of live play and has become a fan favourite.

With both band and audience finishing off the night screaming “She sucked the life right out of me!”, it was the perfect ending to an intense evening and showed that everyone’s favourite locals are showing no signs of slowing down any time soon. - The Music

ALBUM OF THE WEEK Arguably not since The Vasco Era disappeared has there been a band in contemporary Australian rock that has sounded so genuinely dangerous and on the verge of completely losing it the way The Love Junkies do. It’s their howling, punk-tinged brand of garage rock that has allowed them to move from support slots as diverse as You Am I, Calling All Cars and La Dispute this year alone with the utmost of ease. While it’s difficult for bands in this vein to capture the lightning in a bottle that comes with their live performances, they have come quite close on their second studio album. There’s a progression and a maturity within the songwriting, but it’s quickly ensured that this is not a trade-off for intensity and energy – look no further than rip-snorters like opener ‘Mausoleum’ and the sub-minute scorcher ‘When I’m Lookin’ In The Mirror’. Even the slower moments on offer add a darker layer to the proceedings, providing a striking contrast as opposed to a screeching halt to the momentum. If you’re not on board with The Love Junkies by now, Blowing On The Devil’s Strumpet is your chance to rectify this situation. 4/5.

David James Young - The Brag