THE GOLDEN GAYTIMES

Just ahead of the 2025 Australian general election, Maitland NSW band The Golden Gaytimes (featuring members of Muzzy Pep and Faker) released the first single from their forthcoming second album Bung It On.

On ‘Cozzie Livs’, the band whipped up a veritable smorgasbord of super-catchy, freewheeling guitar riffs and melodic hooks, as singer Jane-O railed against the cost of living crisis. The video, created by Luke Bennett, casts a psychedelic and irreverent lens across modern society’s consumerist hellscape.

The Golden Gaytimes’ debut album Hot As Buggery (Half A Cow) was released in 2023, and it was a wild ride, led by its madcap, psychedelic, and infectious singles ‘I’m Tempted’ (400k+ views on YouTube), ‘Hot As Buggery’, and ‘The Golden Gaytimes Theme’.

With a strong reception to the album, the band built a reputation for hugely entertaining live shows at bars, clubs, and pubs across Australia’s eastern states, regaling audiences with their brand of fun and irreverent rock and pop. Like a glitter bomb with a rock ’n’ roll heart of gold, they’re a band driven by the understanding that great music is made with liberal measures of both spook and wonk.

Now the gang of party starters reveal the second single from Bung It On, the sonic nostalgia of ‘Cherries and Cheeses’. It’s a song with low-key, guitar-chug verses that burst into a day-glo, synth-led chorus – like a lost new wave gem from Blondie. Singer Jane-O teases an elusive explanation when quizzed about the song: “A thought bubble, a moment in time. Always changing. As it would, as it should. Reminiscence. Joy, remorse, and confusion. Sharing stuff – the personal is universal. Cherries and cheese – nice with a cracker!”