Melbourne’s newest four-piece, COMEDY, have arrived with a punchy debut that manages to sound both intimately familiar and instantly distinctive. Their first official track, ‘L.A. Perfume’, is an exhilarating listen—a blast of pure, swaggering rock and roll that feels perfectly calibrated for the modern underground.
While so many bands in today’s landscape are careful to stick to one lane, COMEDY show their cards immediately, adopting a bold, decade-spanning approach that synthesises the best elements of the last sixty years, from the urgent grit of garage rock and the strut of glam to the sharp angles of new wave and punk. It’s an effortless attitude, proving that these veterans of the Australian independent scene are here to make something substantial.
The track’s undeniable confidence is entirely deliberate. Guitarist Andy Campbell, known previously for his work with AM Reruns and Nat Vazer, explains the motivation behind the sound, "I wanted to create something strident, confident, large and a bit dangerous," he says. This isn't just self-expression; it's an active transformation. Campbell adds, "Sometimes you make music to express a feeling you have within, but sometimes you make music that enables you to be someone else and feel things you don’t get to feel everyday. L.A. Perfume is the latter." ThThe desire for escape and reinvention drives the single, which is manifested through the tight, propulsive rhythms created by drummer Nick McGregor and bassist/Fender VI player Citizen Zane (Signal Chain, GRUPS).
Singer Francis Glass (Francis Glass Band) anchors this high-octane sound with a suitably heady narrative. The lyrics are thick with an atmosphere of desperation and dark romance, drawn directly from a transit experience. Glass reveals the inspiration, stating, "I had a stopover in LA coming back from some time abroad. There’s something heavy about the air of that place, and everyone I knew seemed to be feeling kinda heady and sick of living lives filled with desire but structured by almost apocalyptic insecurity. The song’s about lustfully meeting amidst that muck."
As a band formed only in 2024 when Campbell and Glass started swapping songs—an experiment that rapidly evolved into an album's worth of material—COMEDY’s instant cohesion is notable. The final product, recorded and mixed by Rob Muinos at The Rat Shack and mastered by Jordan Power, sounds fantastic, with every razor-sharp guitar line and tight beat given the space to breathe and bite. ‘L.A. Perfume’ is more than a promising start; it’s a fully formed statement of intent. The early 2026 promise of a double A-side 7-inch cannot come soon enough. We're already desperate for another hit of this sonic catalogue.
You can tune in to the debut single above, and for more, join COMEDY today on Instagram and Bandcamp.
