When Hot Tubs Time Machine appeared out of nowhere at the end of 2020, they were quick to mark themselves as one of Melbourne’s most unique outfits, a band that nobody realised they wanted (nay, needed) until they were right in front of our faces. Their self-titled debut album immediately wrangled together everything to love about the two-piece - vocalist Marcus Rechsteiner’s unstoppable charisma and Daniel ‘Tubs’ Twomey’s knack for building minimal bedroom-pop instrumentals that could somehow perfectly elevate the scrappy and endless charm of Marcus’ left-of-centre storytelling.

Once again, we didn’t know we needed it until it was at our doorstep, but Double Tubble, the group’s sophomore album, is on its way. The first taster is ‘Street Fighter Man’, a whirlwind of volatile synth buzzes, a reckless backbeat and Marcus’ flowing lyrics, this time breaking down his experiences as a younger man holidaying in Mornington, simultaneously hilariously absurd yet familiar. Somehow ‘Street Fighter Man’ catches Hot Tubs sounding more assured than ever without losing any of the unpredictability, a balancing act that’s nailed by Tubs and Simon Fazio on their zany and colourful new clip.

Speaking about the track, Marcus shares “‘Street Fighter Man’ is about my experiences on the Mornington Peninsula. The feeling of being annoyed because everyone else wants to be at the beach and are ruining your experience. The struggle between tourists and locals. It's also about the first conflict I ever had. It was at the Dromana caravan park arcade. I fought another kid over wanting to play Street Fighter. The summer just been I saw a teenager hooning on an electric scooter on Rosebud Pier. Teenagers stay the same, the vehicles change slightly.”