Win a copy of You Am I's latest release 'Convicts'

If you ever danced your socks off at a “Rumble”, hit the pillow accompanied by “Heavy Heart”, played air guitar to “Who Put The Devil In You”, or got joyfully smashed while singing “waited all summer just to piss on your lawn”, then “Convicts” is a cert for your bar, boudoir or barbecue. No dreaded ‘comeback’ soft-soap here, this is the tightest AND loosest You Am I have ever sounded. It’s (yet) another Rogers-penned tour de force of rock’n’soul’garage’n’punk’n’beat’n’folk’n’country’n’Junk.

What makes “Convicts” all the more amazing is that its producer - veteran YAI mucker and “all-round good guy” Greg Wales - wrested this absolute rip-snorting monster of a rekkid from the tough’n’tender hooligans in a total of only 16 days in five different studios, spread haphazardly over the course of as many months. Rumour has it that they’ve even got enough material in the can for another album - whatta work ethic! Jeez, at this point in most band’s careers, they’re barely communicating, let alone working out their kinks (pun intended) on record, as You Am I do with “Convicts”’ supersonic second track, “It Ain’t Funny How We Don’t Talk Anymore”.

Yeah, bub, it seems like the whole darn world’s been starved of You Am I-style suss’n’strut for too frickin’ long. But nobody could accuse Tim, Rusty, Andy or Davey of resting on their laurels during You Am I’s hiatus, as each of ‘em managed to shoehorn another career into the available space: Tim toured all over the globe, acted on TV, and made a mighty fine, soul-scouring double album with The Temperance Union. Rusty started a record distribution business/label, Reverberation, and joined Radio Birdman, with whom he’s toured and made a new album. The inscrutable Andy Kent became a manager (and not just of You Am I, themselves), worked on boutique tours/records with Love Police and played bass on the latest Vines set. And for his part, dear Master Lane painted his own, full-length masterpiece with The Pictures, played with The Wrights and toured with Jimmy Barnes.

So, to sum up (and stop the waffling), “Convicts” is the new You Am I record, and it’s a cracker. Play it loud, right now, preferably at someone’s sister (or brother) …

Righty-ho, I’m off, and I guess I’ll see you at the bar? As Mr Rogers once suggested, during a lazy night in a smoky London boozer, “Let’s split this round – you do the poms, and I’ll get the convicts.”

I’ll raise a glass to that idea.

“God bless the fucking lot of us!”

For your chance to win, just put your email address is the field below and hit submit. Too easy!