The title of Ausmuteants' "No Motivation" isn't a figure of speech. The inert narrator says he looks for jobs every day, then admits that he's lying. "I sit at home and my friends get stoned." Note that he's not even the one getting stoned—he's not doing anything at all, really. That void of activity is a common theme in Amusements; the Geelong, Australia band aren't making punk songs that are politically militant or socially conscious. Actually, they belong more in the punk tradition of bands that write lyrics that are dumb. Take the Freeze's 1980 single "I Hate Tourists", a catchily aggressive song about wanting to run sightseers off the road because they "suck." Or Dead Boys' "Caught With the Meat in Your Mouth", or the King Khan & BBQ Show's "Tastebuds". They're delinquents who are all too ready to indulge in low-hanging fruit, writing songs about urine and feces.
But really, a rundown of their most base, lower-self lyrics makes Amusements sound much more puerile and expendable than it truly is. Jake Robertson, Billy Gardener, Shaun Connor, and Marc Dean certainly aren't the most mature band out there, but they're students of Devo, the Screamers, and Chrome. It's 12 tracks of ripping, captivating, fun synth-punk. As they shift from a deep buzzing synth to a trembling high end, Ausmuteants consistently veer far away from anything resembling Computer World. Instead, they invoke the kinetic, trashy attack of the essential Killed By Death punk compilations. "Bad Day" has a persistent synth churn that's bolstered by Gardener's primitive, hi-hat led stomp. Then there's "Daylight Robbery", which features a melody that seems appropriately urgent for a song about breaking a window in order to commit a crime in plain view of the afternoon sun.
As an impressive show of versatility, they kick off the B-side by briefly abandoning synthesizers altogether. The plot presented on "Kicked in the Head By a Horse" is given away by its title: "He acts oh so dull/ a hoof cracked his skull." It's the perfect premise for a pit-ready song. They've done this sort of thing before—making an exciting punk song about a violent observation—with their single "Felix Tried to Kill Himself", for example. These sorts of songs work along the same lines as "Gimme Gimme Shock Treatment", "Chain Saw", and most video games—violence used for "laugh at the macabre" means. So with material like this, it's all about delivery, and since they're adept with hooks, handclaps, and guitar solos, they can often pull it off.
Ultimately, Amusements' juvenile posture makes it an entirely divisive record. Their primitive rhymes and nasal vocals are enough to turn people away out the gate. But then consider the basic ideas of their songs. There's one about stepping in shit and wiping it off; one song is about peeing in two streams. When you consider the song's inspiration, "Fran Drescher's Alien Abduction" is reprehensible. Then comes the album's dramatic apex: "Pissed Myself Twice". A paced, morose track where Robertson details exactly what went down: he was 6, the other kids were laughing at him, the teacher found a fresh pair of shorts in the lost-and-found box, and so on. The gravity given to that track, which makes it sound like the most heavy, awful thing that's ever happened, also makes it really funny. Obviously, they ride a fine line.
If anything, Amusements is a touch formulaic, as nearly every song finishes with a long instrumental stretch. But in those moments, they're playing to their strengths—hooks, grooves, and attack over lyrical prowess and vocal performance. What's undeniable, though, is that Ausmuteants create a specific, slovenly universe with their music, and while they don't move too far past the couch or the toilet, they create an exciting synth barrage from where they sit.
