Amyl and the Sniffers – "Shake Ya" (2019)

There’s the park where we first made it

A memory that is worth saving

Amyl and the Sniffers was formed in 2016 by four Australian housemates.  Their first release was a four-song EP that they say was written and recorded in 12 hours. 

2 or 3 lines featured the group’s “Guided by Angels” on Groundhog Day of this year.  It is such a great record that I decided to check out some other Amyl and the Sniffers music.

“Shake Ya” sounds a lot like “Guided by Angels,” and the same is true of the other Amyl and the Sniffers tracks that I checked out.  I don’t have a problem with that.  (Do you have a problem with that?)

Amy Taylor

Something else I don’t have a problem with is the group’s lead singer, Amy Taylor, who once explained why the group named itself for the recreational drug amyl nitrite thusly:  “[Y]ou sniff [amyl nitrite], it lasts for 30 seconds and then you have a headache – and that's what we're like!”

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Click here to listen to “Shake Ya,” which was released in 2019 on the group’s eponymous debut album, which won the ARIA award for Best Rock Album that year.  (An ARIA award is like a Grammy, only it’s Australian.) 

Click here to buy “Shake Ya” from Amazon.

Amyl and the Sniffers – "Guided by Angels" (2021)

Guided by angels

But they’re not heavenly

Amy Taylor is the lead singer of Amyl and the Sniffers, an Australian punk rock band.  She may not be an angel, but she’s certainly heavenly. 

I heard “Guided by Angels” recently on Drew Carey’s Sirius/XM “Friday Night Freakout” – which I think is by far the most interesting three hours of radio anywhere. 

Amy Taylor of Amyl and the Sniffers

“Guided by Angels” is like nothing I’ve ever heard.  I’m tempted to feature it in every one of this year’s “29 Posts in 29 Days,” our annual every-fourth-February blogging extravaganza.  (In non-leap year Februarys, of course, it’s “28 Posts in 28 Days.”)

Mae West once said that “Too much of a good thing can be wonderful.”  But most of you would probably think that twelve consecutive posts about “Guided by Angels” wasn’t so wonderful.

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“Wait just one cotton-pickin’ minute,” I hear you say.  “What’s this about twelve posts?  I thought you were doing 29 posts in February – not twelve.”  

As loyal readers of 2 or 3 lines know, I do twelve posts in February.  “29 Posts in 29 Days” is just the title I give to those posts – it’s not intended to imply that you’re going to get 29 posts this month.  (I am far too busy to generate 29 posts in a mere 29 days!)

I’d frankly prefer not to get into where Amyl and the Sniffers got their name.  But if you insist on knowing, you can click here to read all about it.

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Click here to watch the official music video for “Guided by Angels.”