5 Years of Bedroom Suck Records

Australian indie label Bedroom Suck Records came into being in March of 2009 when Brisbane suburbanites Sam McCabe and Joe Alexander took it upon themselves to mass-produce and distribute copies of a demo tape by one of their projects that had been rejected by other local labels. From these seemingly inauspicious beginnings, the label slowly grew to release some of the country's best and most challenging indie artists, eventually releasing work by everyone from bloodthirsty post-rockers Slug Guts to jangling indie poppers Full Ugly. 5 Years of Bedroom Suck Records celebrates the label's growth with a massive collection of exclusive tracks from 27 of their artists and affiliates. There's a lot of sound to sift through on the comp, ranging from blasts of trashy punk from Marl Karx and Loose Grip to the moody kiwi pop-channeling "China White" from Peak Twins, a shambling acoustic demo-like "1993" from Scott and Charlene's Wedding, and even a few beats and rhymes from Silly Joel & the Candymen. As with any compilation, 5 Years of Bedroom Suck Records is an extremely mixed bag, but when the sounds are good, they're great, as with Full Ugly's beautifully bummed-out contribution "Same Familiar Street" and the far beyond B-side quality shoegaze-goth jam "Eyes" by Love of Diagrams. The collection presents a tireless, multifaceted label at its best and serves as an aural catalog of the greatness Bedroom Suck achieved in their first five years as well as where they had to go from there. ~ Fred Thomas