Jason Ling is pissed off. It’s the third weekend in a row that Taxi Violence’s bassist has been alone in the rehearsal room. Guitarist Rian Zietsman and drummer Louis Nel are off playing fucking bass in Inge Beckmann’s dirty garage-rock unit, Beast. Meanwhile, singer George van der Spuy is recording with his own all-star Mother City muso project, Goodnight Wembley. Hell, if he hears another blogger use the words “supergroup” he’s gonna punch somebody. So how come he’s suddenly smiling? Simple. He’s just remembered Keith Richards’ caveat: “Rock is cool, but never forget about the roll.”

He lays down a fistful of blues-y Queens of the Stone Age bass-riffed song blueprints. They’re lean. They’re mean. They rock hard. But they seriously roll. “Rock’n’roll, where have you gone?” grins George on “Love Sick Rock’n’Roll”. Then vomits out lyrics that autopsy the highs and lows of being the bastard sons of S.A. rock for the past decade. Gone are the macho “rock out with your cock out” clichés that cul-de-sacced mainstream radioplay. Gone are the whisky-soaked dick-wavers about poker night and pussy paradise lost. In their place are searching, fearless moral inventories of getting wasted (“Brainmash”), walking the line between fear, one two many beers and self-loathing (“Lost Sock”) and stadium-sized anthems about finding redemption (“Seize the Day”).

He lays down a fistful of blues-y Queens of the Stone Age bass-riffed song blueprints. They’re lean. They’re mean. They rock hard. But they seriously roll. “Rock’n’roll, where have you gone?” grins George on “Love Sick Rock’n’Roll”. Then vomits out lyrics that autopsy the highs and lows of being the bastard sons of S.A. rock for the past decade. Gone are the macho “rock out with your cock out” clichés that cul-de-sacced mainstream radioplay. Gone are the whisky-soaked dick-wavers about poker night and pussy paradise lost. In their place are searching, fearless moral inventories of getting wasted (“Brainmash”), walking the line between fear, one two many beers and self-loathing (“Lost Sock”) and stadium-sized anthems about finding redemption (“Seize the Day”).