Feedtime
| feedtime | |
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| Origin | Sydney, New South Wales, Australia |
| Genres | Punk rock, noise rock |
| Years active | 1979–1989, 1995–1997, 2011–present |
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feedtime is an Australian noise rock band from Sydney, New South Wales, that was initially formed as a duo in 1979 by Rick Johnson on guitar and vocals and Allen Larkin on bass guitar and vocals. They soon became a trio with various drummers until 1982, when they were joined by Tom Sturm. This line-up issued four albums, feedtime (late 1985), Shovel (February 1987), Cooper-S (May 1988) and Suction (early 1989), before disbanding in February 1989. They reunited in 1995 with Johnson and Larkin joined by the latter's younger brother, John Larkin, on drums for another album, Billy (April 1996), before disbanding again in 1997. The Rick-Al-Tom line up reunited again, in 2011.
Rick Johnson and Allen Larkin had met at a Parramatta secondary school in the early 1970s. They formed feedtime, in December 1979, as a duo with Johnson on guitar and lead vocals and Larkin on bass guitar and vocals. The band's name is stylised with a lowercase 'f'. They were soon joined on drums by Dave Carter who was replaced, in turn, by Nella Mobbs and, in 1982, by Tom Sturm.
The group's debut album, feedtime, was independently released late in 1985. Australian musicologisit, Ian McFarlane, felt their "music mixed grinding guitars and driving beats with an unsettling ambience." John L. Murphy of PopMatters opined that they "approached maximum if not R&B than blues-punk. Certainly raw, they reissued sound oddly spacious within unsettling digital clarity. Allen's frazzled bass, Rick's churning 'electric slide guitar', and Tom's primal drums thud like their names: no nonsense, no added frills." Ned Raggett of AllMusic described the album, "From the opening hoarse crawl and gargle of 'Ha Ha,' feedtime on its debut sounds like its members were out to not merely perforate eardrums, but flat out bludgeon skulls."
Their debut single, "Fractured", was issued in September 1986 via Sydney-based label, Aberrant Records. It presaged their second album, Shovel (February 1987), which, along with the subsequent Aberrant albums, was also released in the United States via Rough Trade Records. AllMusic's John Dougan felt it was "perhaps their best album, but it's definitely not for the faint of heart. Simplistic, crudely played, thuddingly repetitive rock muck punctuated by harsh vocals... [with] some of the most extreme music to be considered rock & roll ever conceived."Robert Christgau opined that they were a "little slower and more old-fashioned than the IRT the Ramones/Dolls came in on, which definitely doesn't mean they're slow or old-fashioned. Just an art band cum power trio that's spent nine years perfecting its sonic wisdom."
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