For a band that certainly don’t mind messing around (take their clip for ‘Let’s Do This and Let’s Do That’, or their responses to the following track by track for example), In the Time of the Sabre-Toothed Tiger surprisingly doesn’t mess around. Across the album’s ten tracks, Power Supply serve up some of the best garage-punk to come out of Melbourne this year, loaded with reliable guitar work, relentless grooves and seemingly unlimited charm and wit.

It might come across as a shock to hear the band storming out of the gates with this much assurance on their debut release, but the truth is that beneath the Power Supply name the four-piece have been honing their garage-rock smarts for years under the Ooga Boogas tag. However, if we look past the convoluted story in their Bandcamp bio as to why they had to start a new band, there’s something particularly refreshing about In the Time of the Sabre-Toothed Tiger standing out as a lone piece of the puzzle.

It’s the separation from their previous project that perhaps makes this album so strong, as this time around the band sound looser and more relaxed, playing like they’re having more fun than ever. Every track seems delivered from behind Leon Stackpole’s dependable smirk and the band are more than willing to back him up with equally playful instrumentals - whether that’s on the joyously rambling singles ‘Infinity’ and ‘Let’s Do This and Let’s Do That’, or later on with the frenetic stomp of ‘Conservative Instincts’ or the lively ‘I’ve Got Feelings Too’. Even the album’s weirder moments are anchored by a sense of playfulness - ‘Infinity and 90’ is a shimmering soundscape filled with mystical whisperings from Stackpole, and tracks like ‘The Time of The Sabre-Tooth Tiger’ and ‘Acid Rain’ would almost feel serious if we couldn’t see through the band’s poker-face.

However, as Power Supply seem to reveal in their track by track, the best thing about these songs is how irreverent and endlessly inviting they are, sounding like they’d almost fit better soundtracking an afternoon BBQ than a crowded bandroom. I sort of get the impression that’s probably what the band would prefer anyway.

To help us dig into the album a little deeper, although I’m not sure if it’s really helped, all four members of Power Supply have shared their thoughts on each track that makes up In the Time of the Sabre-Toothed Tiger.

The Land of the Fire

Leon (vocals, guitar): This song is about the joy and the terror associated with making predictions. I first imagined the land of the fire whilst driving across the plains along the Loddon Valley Highway near Serpentine. There's a roadhouse in Serpentine that seems to specialise in hot fried crinkle-cut chips. It's well worth a visit.

Mikey (guitar): Fire is one of my favourite words that come out of Stackee’s mouth so to base a whole song and land around it is undoubtedly a strong idea.

Rich (bass): Leon predicted fire, we had fire. Uncanny.

Per (drums): I have a sneaking suspicion that this song concerns Leon Stackpole’s burning glutes after one of his frequent pilates sessions. Pretty, pretty sure. 

Let’s Do This and Let’s Do That

Leon: A Mikey tune. The first cut had a drum beat from a drum machine built into some old cheap guitar that Mikey owned. I really liked that beat. It sounded like someone crunching cellophane. Per was never ever gonna better it, until I suggested something even better to him. That's what made it on the final track.

Mikey: A goofy tune of mine that’s as old as the hills and never had a home. Thankfully, Power Supply took it in and fed it and turned it into something quite loveable.

Rich: There seems to be no end to the ways in which Leon can weave personal ennui with environmental apocalypse.

Per: A shameful attempt in trying to land a sponsorship with Nike but of course Leon fucked up the lyrics.

Infinity

Leon: I'm glad we were able to find a song with a title that features a number that's actually less than Infinity and 90. This song makes me think of Nick Lowe's Tartan Horde ‘Bay City Rollers’ song - a great party track.

Mikey: Another ancient one. In fact, I think I sent Stackee both of these yonks ago hoping he’d do something with them, but I got silence and thought he despised them. Then years later I finally worked up the courage to resend and he sang on them and my heart was fully mended.

Rich: The maths is a little misleading here. If you divide a nonzero by zero the answer is undefined, which is perhaps similar to infinity on a personal level and in some hypothetical mathematical models, but not generally in maths.

Per: I’m pretty sure the demo as mentioned in this song was kicking around for a while. It was already a middle-aged MP3 by the time the singer dude got it. I love how beautifully archaic an MP3 is. The Gen X of formats. I tried for quite some time to come up with an interesting drumbeat but was sternly put in my place by the dictatorial guitar player.

PS3

Leon: A suspiciously similar sounding track did not make it onto the last record. On that recording I attempted to sing lyrics dedicated to a little pigeon using my limited grasp of Russian acquired during a sojourn in Kyrgyzstan. Per was NOT a fan. He was so against it that the others didn't even get a chance to have a say. It's had many different lyrics - at one point it was about looking and cooking for a new partner. Then it became ‘Attention Seeker’ (You got what you deserve). Now it is a gentle love song, which it should've been from the start you fucks.

Mikey: A tune we rammed to death in various fashions with various instruments in an old band we were in called Ooga Boogas but it never really found the right mellow touch until the Power Supply era.

Rich: A previous version of this had lyrics sung in Kyrgyzstani, but I'm glad we re-recorded this more sincere and tender version.

Per: OH MAN! The vocals for this were originally sung in made up Russian. It was a disaster and had to be shitcanned. As a revenge, Leon presented some new morbid vocals about death and attending graves. Recommendation: listen to Richard’s languid bass playing. Like a prize salmon swimming effortlessly upstream.   

Infinity and 90

Leon: Almost certainly the biggest number there ever was.

Mikey: A last minute wandering jam I made at home that I threw on the table right before the recording. We tried it and like a lot of things with no expectations, it turned out quite beautiful, and then when Stackee did the whispers on it, we all felt so full of joy.

Rich: It just keeps coming round the bend.

Per: I was blissing out on some recently acquired Swedish crispbread by the time I did my overdubs at Mikey’s place. If you close your eyes and peel back the Michael Rother haze you can hear me faintly mumble while eating some straight into the mic. Poor table manners, apologies to my mother.

I’ve Got Feelings Too 🙁

Leon: Greg the Tarantula AKA ’I’ve Got Feelings Too’. In which the narrator plays the victim in his relationship with his long suffering partner. How's that smokin guitar solo eh? That was me.

Mikey: This dates way back. We recorded a more hard-hitting garage turkey version of it back in a simpler time, but it never felt quite right. In a last-ditch attempt to revive it, I think I suggested we tried it in a breezier, window down style ala ‘Legs’ or ‘Hot Legs’ even and by golly, it almost worked!

Rich: Who doesn't?! Tarantulas do, I'm sure of it.

Per: Spider related song. Apparently between 1021 – 1600s there were several cases of a dancing epidemic sweeping throughout Europe resulting in frenzied dancing with an oft fatal outcome. Some reports suggest that this was caused by a bite of a spider. Listen at your own peril.

Swimming in a Bathful of Ghosts

Leon: Based on a recurring nightmare I had as a child, which I now believe probably came about due to claustrophobia suffered from being stuck in the womb. I sure hope this dream never returns.

Mikey: Oh lord this is old too! I made this tune on a synth on a plane to the US so long ago. It was this moody rigid thing that really feels nothing like what it is now. We tried hard for so long to make it feel right. Though I can’t imagine anyone listens to this record and thinks “now there’s a band that tries hard!”

Rich: It's really hard to get out of this riff. I could play it all day. Sometimes it feels like we have.

Per: Recorded in a pub closed for business. That day Billy Gardner from Anti Fade was searching for inner city suburban hitmakers, and as fate had it sniffed out this hot session much like a Lagotto Romagnolo Italian truffle hunting dog. We remained professional, got the job done and the rest is history. 

Conservative Instincts

Leon: How's that smokin guitar solo at the end eh? That was me too.

Mikey: A newish one finally. “One chance at the spotlight” is one of my fave lyrics/ideas on the record. It’s funny, life affirming and not very true at all.

Rich: If only conservatives were into conserving things other than their bank balances. 

Per: Leon’s previous band Ooga Boogas had a song called ‘Neon Sunset’ telling the tale of a young raging man meeting a potential partner and kinda fucking it up. In Richard Linklater’s movie trilogy Before Sunrise, Before Sunset and Before Midnight we follow Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy during different stages of their entangled lives. This song is the Before Sunset in Leon’s treechange saga. Can’t wait to hear the third chapter.  

The Time of the Sabre-Toothed Tiger

Leon: This is probably the only song that survived from the period in which the band stipulated that every song had to be about facts. This song repeats well accepted theories about sabre-toothed tiger behaviour, but it also raises controversial new ideas about their distribution in the space/time continuum that will no doubt be debated by academics for many years to come.

Mikey: Almost the title track!

Rich: Of the dozens of demos Stacky has sent through, this is my favourite.

Per: A twist worthy of a M. Night Shyamalan movie! 

Acid Rain

Leon: Acid rain makes me really cross, and this song is about that.

Mikey: Acid rain doesn’t feel like the hot topic like it once was. I was very happy that Stackee decided to sing about it and bring it back. Though I just mixed a song called ‘Acid Rain’ for someone last week so maybe it IS back? I am typing this during an earthquake in a pandemic though, so maybe people have some bigger issues on their mind right now.

Rich: Actually the demo of this song is pretty great too, it's a garageband techno hit which blends seamlessly into ‘The Land of the Fire’.

Per: Leon as a soothsayer predicting bush fires and natural catastrophes months in advance! How does he do it? The sentiment of Lou Reed’s ‘Waves of Fear’ but with a more environmentally Velvets bent.