6L GTR

Hey Zoo Freaks, it's the Zoo Crew firing up the decks at THE ZOO with that rowdy Aussie banger "6L GTR" by The Chats off their Get Fucked album—man, doesn't it just make you wanna floor it down some dusty backroad with the windows down? Cracking open those old interviews, frontman Eamon Sandwith spilled to NME how the whole thing sparked from spotting a license plate reading "6L GTR" in a Brisbane airport carpark back in '22. "We thought it was such a hilarious plate number, we just had to write a song about this dude’s car," he cracked up, admitting he can't even drive and has no clue what a real six-litre GTR looks like. It's all tongue-in-cheek piss-take on those rev-head bogans hooning around in their souped-up Nissans, dodging roadworks and grabbing a steak 'n' cheese at Beefy's while chanting that killer chorus like a prayer to petrol fumes.

Over on X, fans are still buzzing about it years later—@SamZawsum blasted it during Bathurst 1000 weekend, calling it the ultimate V8 anthem for the mullet brigade, and @TheLeesterLee dropped it in an alphabet game with the line "Fangin’ down the highway, motor on the burn," racking up likes from fellow punters who live for that squealing tyre vibe. The animated clip by Marco Imov? Pure gold—Eamon told Dork how they wanted it less about the car and more the band's jealous quest to snag one, ending with their beat-up tour van morphing into the beast after a wild crash, pie stop, and goth-chick pile-up. Oh, and in Kerrang!, they confessed the early demo snuck in a cheeky Van Halen "Panama" riff, but wiser heads yanked it to dodge a lawsuit—close call, but it kept the scuzz-punk heart beating true. Fans on Reddit's r/Music thread geeked out over the sarcasm, one bloke saying it nails that "late arvo congestion" rage we all feel, while another hailed it as the soundtrack to every young Aussie's rite-of-passage burnout.

Now, let's spin back to how these Sunshine Coast legends got their start, 'cause it's the kind of yarn that'd make you crack a cold one. Picture three 17-year-old mates—Eamon Sandwith on bass and howls, Josh "Pricey" Price shredding guitar, and Matt Boggis hammering drums—mucking about in high school music class at St. Theresa's in Noosaville, Queensland, back in 2016. It kicked off with a daft assignment to whip up an original tune, birthing their first jam "VB Anthem" about cracking tinnies of Victoria Bitter. From there, they hauled their gear to a mate's bong-filled shed in nearby Verrierdale—pop. 775, total surf-town nowhere—and coined "shed rock" for their raw, ramshackle sound, drawing from Cosmic Psychos and Dune Rats with that gallows Aussie humour. Things exploded when their no-budget clip for "Smoko"—a five-buck sausage roll affair shot on a building site—went viral overnight after a surf shop nicked it for Facebook, racking 17 million views and catapulting these dole-queue dreamers from local gigs to world tours. Pricey bowed out in 2020, handing the axe to Josh Hardy, but the fire? Still raging like a bush inferno.

Keep the Chats' chaos in your feed, freaks—their official pad at thechatslovebeer.com dishes tour dates, merch, and that unfiltered shed wisdom. Hit their Facebook for live clips that'll have you pogoing in your lounge, or scroll Instagram for mullet-fueled memes and behind-the-scenes hoons. On X, tail @thechatsband for quick-fire rants and gig drops that scream pure punk. For the die-hards, the fan wiki at Wikipedia packs deep lore, and triple j Unearthed's page at triplejunearthed is a goldmine of early bootlegs. No massive Facebook groups popping, but dive into the comments on their posts—it's a rowdy rabble of global bogans swapping stories that'll make you feel right at home. Crank it loud, Zoo Freaks; the turntable's just getting warmed up.