The Thought Criminals Hilton Bomber EP reissue
One of the most clearly UK-indebted acts of Australia’s early punk wave, Sydney’s THOUGHT CRIMINALS took the DESPERATE BICYCLES’ “it was easy, it was cheap, go and do it” rallying cry to heart, starting the Doublethink label to self-release their own ramshackle, slightly art-leaning proto-Bloodstains/Messthetics racket (and eventually that of OZ DIY peers like TACTICS and SEEMS TWICE), with the Hilton Bomber EP serving as the introduction to both ventures. I would wager that the BUZZCOCKS’ Spiral Scratch EP was also a foundational THOUGHT CRIMINALS text—Howard Devoto gets a shout-out in the original insert for this single, a few lines down from the aforementioned DESPERATE BICYCLES—which is most evident in the revved-up and hooky “Fun,” not to mention its snarky, tongue-in-cheek lyrics that were already mocking punk clichés in 1978 (“I want to go out in a garbage bag / I want to come home all covered in rags”). “Hilton Bomber” careens with the frantic efficiency of WIRE circa Pink Flag (wait for that abrupt, punctuated ending shout!), albeit with an added layer of blaring, Nuggets-damaged organ, and “O Bleak TV” and the Virgin Records-dissing “I Won’t Pay” (“…for punk records”) are more classically snotty stompers for the KBD fiends of the future. If you pay for punk records, this one’s worth forking over some cash.