NEW ALBUM OUT OCTOBER 4 AHEAD OF 40TH ANNIVERSARY TOUR AND SXSW PREMIERE OF FEATURE-LENGTH HARD-ONS DOCUMENTARY THE MOST AUSTRALIAN BAND EVER

“The Hard-Ons were – still are – amazing. Musically, but also for what they were. This multi-cultural band. They were fearless. Ray and Blackie always came to Dirty Three shows in Sydney early on, and I always felt that we were somehow aligned attitude-wise. They were awesome live, with that power that only a trio can have. They also wrote the best singles! Beyond that, they always did whatever they wanted. “
– Warren Ellis (Dirty Three/Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds)

“I f*cken love the Hard-Ons!”  – Eamon (The Chats)

The Hard-Ons have today released “Ride to The Station”, the ripper second single from their forthcoming new albumI Like You A Lot Getting Older.

It’s a catchy number that highlights the band’s way with a powerful pop tune, something which remains undiminished since the heady days of “Girl In the Sweater”, “Just Being With You” and “Where Did She Come From””.

“Oh boy this one… It’s so twee i could feel the guys giggle as i was showing it to ’em…” says Blackie. “Thankfully they let me pester ’em with it cause I do love me bubble gum pop. (I betcha it’s secretly everyone’s fave on the album!!)” 

Check out “Ride to The Station” here
https://cheersquadrecordstapes.bandcamp.com/track/ride-to-the-station-2
https://bfan.link/ride-to-the-station

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The new album I Like You A Lot Getting Older is out October 4, 2024 and available for pre-order now. It will be the third album by the band’s current line-up of Blackie, Murray, Ray and Tim, and follows 2021’s ARIA top 5 debuting I’m Sorry Sir, That Riff’s Been Taken and last year’s the Top 30 debuting Ripper ’23. It will be released on black vinyl and CD and in digital formats, as well as a number of limited coloured vinyl editions – clear vinyl with orange smoke (100 only), clear vinyl with blue smoke (100 only) and clear vinyl with pink smoke (100 only) – and a limited-edition cassette (100 only). An exclusive limited edition green vinyl pressing (250 only, with different color on the cover) will be available via the album’s UK distributor Forte.

The new album’s release will precede the band’s recently announced 40th Anniversary Australian tour (and coincide with their 40th Anniversary European tour), and the premiere of the feature length documentary on the band, The Most Australia Band Ever.

“Ride to The Station” follows the release of the first album’s single and video “Buzz Buzz Buzz”.

Pre-order I Like You A Lot Getting Older via Cheersquad Bandcamp
https://cheersquadrecordstapes.bandcamp.com/album/i-like-you-a-lot-getting-older

Pre-order/Pre-save via digital providers
https://bfan.link/i-like-you-a-lot-getting-older

“(The Hard-Ons) should be in the ARIA Hall of Fame!” – Dave Faulkner (Hoodoo Gurus)

One of Australia’s most loved and influential bands, the Hard-Ons are this year celebrating 40 years of punk rocking in public. In doing so they will embark on 40th anniversary tours of both Australia and Europe, along with the release of a new music I Like You A Lot Getting Older on Cheersquad Records & Tapes.  They are also the subject of a new feature length documentary film, The Most Australian Band Ever, which will premiere October 16 at Sydney’s SXSW festival.

The Most Australian Band Ever is directed by Jonathan J. Sequeira for production companies Living Eyes and Play Vintage – the man and the production house that made the acclaimed 2017 Radio Birdman documentary Descent Into The Maelstrom (and it’s worth mentioning the Hard-Ons just opened for Birdman on the three sold out Sydney shows that closed out their Birdman 5-0 tour). The film is set to premiere October 16 at SXSW in Sydney with a screening and Q&A at the Dendy Newtown. Perfectly timed with the anniversary, The Most Australian Band Ever offers insight into the band’s long existence, with plenty of live footage and interviews and guest appearances from Dave Faulkner (The Victims, Hoodoo Gurus), Ross Knight (Cosmic Psychos), Jerry A (Poison Idea), Steven Hanford aka Thee Slayer Hippy (Poison Idea) and Rob Younger (Radio Birdman). The film has a particular focus on the Hard-Ons‘ early days, the obstacles – some self-inflicted – which they’ve had to overcome, and the legacy they’ve built.

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It’s been a long and punk-rocky road for our heroes, who formed the band while still in highschool in the multicultural South-West Sydney suburb Punchbowl. Reflecting that multiculturalism, the core band (despite members come and gone) comprised three kids of East Asian, South Asian and Eastern European parentage – not your typical punk rockers of that or any other era. Weened on high energy rock’n’roll (Kiss!) and then the early punk and post-punk eras (with a focus on local Australian sounds, in particular the ’76/’77 punk of The Saints, Radio Birdman, Victims, Psycho-Surgeons and News, and the anarchic noise of The Birthday Party), the new group appeared on a Sydney scene that took itself fairly seriously. With one foot in the Ramones/Radio Birdman-influenced garage-punk scene and the other in the spikey-haired punk-inspired scene of the early ’80s, the Hard-Ons found a common denominator of noise and energy and appealed to a young crowd who was open to anything. With their youthful and unforgiving band name, transgressive and hilarious graphics and diverse ethnicity, they also found plenty of resistance.

Following the release of their first EP in 1985, the Hard-Ons quickly began to build a large following. Not content to repeat themselves, new elements entered their sound, including thrash metal and psychedelia, which were previously unheard in Australian punk. Their unruly and un-stylised look, which soon came to involve shorts, thongs and bare torsos, became something of the look de rigueur in punk circles as the decade wore on. The Hard-Ons had become trendsetters and were welcomed with open arms in international punk circles.

In their original incarnation, the Hard-Ons shared bills with the likes of the Ramones and Nirvana and appeared on numerous Big Days Out. They scored a never-bettered 17 consecutive number 1’s on the Australian independent charts and in 1989 were the only Australian band still based in Australia to hit the top 5 in the NME charts (the only Australian artists to have achieved that – Nick Cave and the Go-Betweens – had both been UK-based). Despite a break-up, the formation of another band (Ray & Blackie’s other ongoing band Nunchukka Superfly – that band’s original line-up recently launched the long-lost album Nunchukka Superfly ’95 in August!) and, in Blackie’s case, a solo career, the Hard-Ons regrouped in the new millenium and found a whole new audience – kids who knew of their influence on subsequent groups like the Meanies and Frenzal Rhomb. New recordings ensued, and in 2018, by which time fans of another new generation of bands, including Clowns and Private Function were onboard, they undertook their 19th European tour, when they played the massive metal festival Hellfest, alongside Judas Priest, Iron Maiden and Joan Jett. In 2021, the core pair of Ray and Blackie and “new” drummer Murray found themselves a new front person in the form of longtime fanboy, Tim Rogers of You Am I.

Over the years, the Hard-Ons have won the vocal support of artists like Dave Grohl, AC/DC’s Malcolm Young and Jello Biafra amongst countless others. They’ve influenced not only subsequent generations of punk bands but a wide-ranging groundswell of Australian alternative artists – from You Am I to Spiderbait to Silverchair to Regurgitator to Magic Dirt to Powderfinger to the Dirty Three to The Chats – each of whom have been inspired by the Hard-Ons’ energy, free spirit and uncompromising dedication.

www.facebook.com/hardons
hard-ons1.bandcamp.com