It’s for the best that Jordan Malane, Alex Wall, and Matt Woods, three guys from the Gold Coast of Australia, decided to write sloppy-sweet garage pop songs in 2010. Who knows what kind of trouble they’d be getting themselves into if they hadn’t formed Bleeding Knees Club?

The band keeps them off the streets and busy tearing up Australia’s music venues with wild abandon. Plus, the trio is really good. They’ve got that gift for writing songs that sound improvised, held together with little more than twine and chewing gum. In reality, tracks like their manifesto “Have Fun” are airtight — engineered to stick in your head for days and clever enough that you won’t mind. The very good “Bad Guys,” off their debut EP Virginity, released October 2011 on IAMSOUND, officially condemns but subtly glorifies the bad guys who make girls cry — a move that places them in a longstanding tradition of rock ‘n’ roll ambivalence. Musically, they jam together the sugar of the Beach Boys, the heady buzz of No Age, and the reckless garage rumble of Black Lips. These two kids know their stuff.

Their songs effortlessly evoke summer heat and the haze of directionless young adulthood through tinny guitar tone and lo-fi production. The woo-oohs and whoa-ohs speak of simpler times, but the lyrics about teenage girls and stolen cigarettes coyly split the difference between innocent fun and not-that-innocent fun.

They’ve been touring the US and the UK and recording their debut album, so we know we’ll be hearing from them real soon. We just hope they don’t grow up too fast.

Photo by Bleeding Knees Club