Aural Aggravation

There’s a very good reason not to compile ‘best of the year’ lists until after the year is finished. There are always late contenders, and this is a prime candidate by way of a late entry for one of the singles of 2025.

‘Bound’ is the new single and collaboration from the past and the present of the femme, gender queer, punk scene, featuring Pettybone, Shooting Daggers and Petrol Girls. 2 and 1/2 years in the making, this is the first new music from Pettybone since their split in 2012.

Pettybone formed in 2010 after being drawn together through the individual struggles they had encountered in their lives, with the desire to speak up about their experiences. Their debut album From Desperate Times Come Radical Minds followed in 2011 and by 2012 the band split, but their impact and influence is still felt to this day, with both Petrol Girls and Shooting Daggers being inspired by them.

The same year that Pettybone split up, raging feminist, post hardcore band Petrol Girls were formed. Most recently they released their 3rd album Baby in 2022 (Hassle Records). While queercore punk band Shooting Daggers formed in 2019, going on to release their debut album in 2024.

The punk scene is small, in the femme, gender queer scene it is even smaller. All 3 bands know each other – Zel (Pettybone) taught Raquel (Shooting Daggers) to play drums way back in the day, and Zel also filled in on drums for Petrol Girls a couple of times. Raquel from Shooting Daggers comments, “We’re all friends as well as having massive respect for each others bands. So, what better than do a collab that spans the Globe?!”

Pettybone guitarist Ivona first had a guitar riff and sent it to Zel in Aotearoa to get some drum ideas, then sent it onto Lianna (Pettybone) in London for the bass. They met up in London early late 2024 to lay down the instrumental track with Sam Thredder in London (who also recorded the Pettybone’s debut album). The instrumental was sent to in Petrol Girls vocalist Ren in Austria to come up with some lyric ideas. At the time she replied: “I have something brewing! Something against white liberal feminism and liberation for everyone. It’s about discomfort not being the same as unsafe.”

Shooting Daggers vocalist Sal worked on melody and there was some back and forth on the lyrics and vocal lines with Petrol Girls’ Ren and Pettybone’s Ivona.

Unfortunately, Pettybone singer Amy was unavailable to take part in the project, and Ren also couldn’t do it from Austria, so Sal from Shooting Daggers stepped in and smashed out the vocal at Holy Mountain studio. The track was then mixed and mastered by Casper Maxwell in Naarm/Melbourne.

Ren (Petrol Girls) comments on the lyrics for the new single,

“’Bound up in our liberation we are bound’ comes from the Lilla Watson quote in the context of the aboriginal liberation movement in Australia, but its so well known because it expresses such a vital idea. I was really touched to be invited to write lyrics for this feminist collaboration and wanted to express faith in liberation and collectivity, which are the core of any meaningful feminism. The lyrics are mostly a response to arguments I was having at the time with people around me where I live in Austria about the genocide in Palestine, but I think they can apply pretty widely. We need feminist solidarity across borders. We need anti-racist feminism, abolition feminism, anti-colonial feminism, anti-fascist feminism. And we need each other.”

‘Bound’ will be self-released by Petttybone via their Bandcamp on the 5th Dec 2025.

AA