Alien Nosejob

One of the most productive men in Australian rock, Jake Robertson seemingly decided he wasn't busy enough as a member of Ausmuteants, School Damage, Hierophants, Leather Towel, the Frowning Clouds, and many more, so he launched Alien Nose Job as a home recording project to explore some of his many musical ideas. Primarily devoted to manic, lo-fi punk rock (as on 2020's Once Again the Present Becomes the Past), Alien Nose Job is a one-man studio band, with Robertson playing all the instruments, from the over-the-top guitar solos to the breakneck drumming. He also detours into synth-based new wave (2021's Paint It Clear) and lean and mean hard rock (2022's Stained Glass). 2023's The Derivative Sounds Of … Or … A Dog Always Returns to Its Vomit was steeped in punk both past and present, with '60s garage rock and moody pop sharing space with more aggressive sounds.

Hailing from Melbourne, Australia, Jake Robertson's tastes were formed early on by his father, who loved the classic British Invasion sounds of the Who and the Kinks, and his brother, who preferred his rock raw and stripped-down, such as AC/DC and the Sex Pistols. After outgrowing a brief infatuation with Nu Metal, Robertson developed a taste for American punk (particularly the Dead Kennedys, Rancid, and NOFX), and matured into a musical omnivore who enjoyed vintage punk, new wave, and garage rock of all sorts. By 2006, he'd begun writing songs, and in 2008, he released his first album as a member of the Snoozefests, One Way Ticket to Snoresville. In 2011, his retro-psych group the Frowning Clouds made their debut with the single "All Night Long" b/w "Dame a Dozen," and he first made an international impact with the synth-punk combo Ausmuteants, whose self-titled debut album was issued in the United States by Goner Records in 2014.

Despite the fact he often had several bands going at the same time, Robertson still had plenty of musical ideas to work on, and as he recorded songs in his home studio, he created Alien Nose Job as a vehicle to give his homemade music a public hearing. He also intended Alien Nose Job to be an eclectic project, saying he wanted its body of work to suggest a mixtape that could shift styles at any time. Robertson launched Alien Nose Job with a four-song EP, Panel Beat, that he issued himself in 2017. ANJ's first album followed in 2018, Various Fads and Technological Achievements, issued by the Australian indie punk imprint ANTI-FADE. Another four-song EP, Death of the Vinyl Boom, came out the same year, and two more punk 7"s, Buffet of Love and HC45, were released in 2019. The 2020 album Suddenly Everything is Twice as Loud staked out a middle ground between old-school punk and power pop, and Robertson turned up his amps and his hardcore influences on 2020's Once Again the Present Becomes the Past. Another hardcore homage EP, HC45-2, appeared in 2021, but he turned away from punk to focus on the electronic side of classic new wave with 2021's Paint It Clear. The songs on 2022's Stained Glass grew from Robertson's love of '70s hard rock, especially AC/DC, and after taking part in a reunion with the Frowning Clouds, he began looking through the backlog of songs he'd written and set aside over the past 15 years. The result was The Derivative Sounds Of … Or … A Dog Always Returns to Its Vomit, a set informed by garage rock and psychedelic pop that was issued in North America by Goner Records in 2023. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi