Astral Auguries: Coué Method
Dredging up the musical past for future enjoyment.
As a budding philosopher/music journalist, I’m often struck by how the unconscious mind manifests thoughts from the murky firmament of memory, dredging things up and stitching them together in a stream-of-consciousness that (to outsides appearances) has no real connective tissue apart from vague likeness and casual suggestion.
For example, last week in my Deep Cuts column, I was reminiscing about one of my old jobs at a dingy basement music venue and the international bands I was fortunate enough to see on tour packages. This led me to think, somewhat nostalgically, of another shitty job and another shitty venue, where I happened to witness Avail frontman Tim Barry perform an impromptu acoustic set in an alleyway after a midnight power failure. Then that lead me to think about Avail and other bands of that ilk—i.e., As Friends Rust, Hot Water Music, your gruff, flannel-shirted, org-core adjacent punk rock.
And somehow, amazingly, this chain of suggestions eventually led me to think about a little known and vastly underappreciated Aussie punk rock collective. So let’s talk about Melbourne all-star outfit Coué Method.
If Spotify stats are to be believed, I am one of only 25 (!) listeners in all of Australia currently listening to Coué Method (and one of four in my native state of Queensland, to boot). Now, of course, this does not factor in streaming services such as Bandcamp, Youtube, and more. But you get the idea: not many people are listening to Coué Method right now. And that, I believe, is a crying shame.
For one, the Melbourne five-piece features one of the most prodigious pedigrees in the annals of Australian punk rock. Vocalist and frontman Steve Milligan, alongside guitarists Heath McAnally and Adrian Lombardi, were all part of One Inch Punch, later known as MYC or Mid Youth Crisis, a Victorian melodic punk institution (with Lombardi later becoming a fixture in Melbourne emo purveyors Blueline Medic).
As the band’s Last.fm bio helpfully illustrates:
“Back in ’93, before iPods, Australian Idol, Big Brother and yes, way before the word ‘emo’ became a noun, five blokes put together a band that sent a polite ‘fuck you’ to the Australian music mainstream. The band was One Inch Punch, later known as Mid Youth Crisis (MYC). Their music was fast, muscular and sincere.”
I remember old punkers in Brisbane talking with noticeable fondness about MYC; however, I sadly missed the boat with me being a literal child during their heyday.
So, suffice to say, when Milligan, McAnally and Lombardi got together in early 2008, a full decade after the disbandment of MYC, to form a new band, there was already in-built chemistry there waiting to be catalyzed.
With the addition of bassist Ben Reichman and drummer Sam Johnson, Coué Method released a two-track 7-inch via Missing Link Records, and their debut album, To Mock A Vapid World, was released through Resist Records later that year.
For me, To Mock A Vapid World arrived at a weird time in my musical evolution.
After going down the hardcore/metalcore rabbit hole in the mid-2000s, I wasn’t personally interested in the traditional punk rock side of things. I wanted breakdowns. I wanted heavy shit to mosh to. I wanted the unexpected. Sure, I was still jamming a pop-punk album here and there, but I wasn’t looking for straight-forward punk rock.
However, I received a promo copy of To Mock A Vapid World prior to the album’s release, and the cover alone had me intrigued. The typeset font, the monochromatic sketched image, the placement in some formal art setting or gallery—all these elements combined to describe… what exactly?
Well, for all I knew, this might be some obscure screamo record. I had zero expectations going to the album and—in my experience—that lack of apprehension can often induce an earnest and pleasurable listening experience.
I knew this would be something special from the starting notes of the album opener, “William’s Breach.” An upbeat chord progression, steady drum beats, and Milligan’s effortless “Go!” kick the tune off from the jump. It’s upbeat, easy-going, melodic punk rock that feels right at home.
I was instantly transported back to playing Dave Mirra Pro BMX 2 for hours on end as a teenager, with Millencolin records playing in the background on a seemingly infinite loop. Milligan’s vocals have this distinct raspy quality that’s almost a subgenre staple, accentuated almost to breaking point by the track’s powerful chorus and the soft backing harmonies added in for an extra lift.
Playing out under the three-minute mark, the record quickly pivots into the mid-range bounce of “Kill It Quick,” where Reichman and Johnson lock together tight rhythms as Lombardi and McNally trade angular progressions around Milligan’s heartfelt reflections and internal monologues.
The track’s outro is a veritable masterclass in building tension without sacrificing intensity—at times, it feels like the whole thing might unravel and come undone, but it never does. And that’s all part of Coué Method’s magic.
With a tight tracklist of ten compositions, there’s no room for filler on To Mock A Vapid World. “Dysfunction In The Fashion, Flaws In The Stitch” leans into winding, post-hardcore musings, where Milligan’s political incisiveness matches the group’s propulsive momentum by the track’s end.
However, the record's back end, with the one-two combo of “Guidebook To Manhood” and “Tonight On This Town,” truly showcases the band’s staggering potential. While the latter uses an exceptional lead progression from Lombardi and McNally as a melodic counterpoint to Milligan’s lyrical self-loathing and anger, the former positions the group at their most cathartic and arresting.
Milligan’s opening lines patiently dissect the ills of toxic masculinity; it’s the type of stinging rebuke that comes best served with a catchy-as-hell, ‘three chords and the truth’ barnburner:
“Can't stop singing the same sorry song/
Different words but it's all the same/
And endless plight to consolidate.”
It’s one of the most powerful moments on the whole record, one that lays society’s glaring issues and myopic visions of progress out in the open in poetic (and arguably compelling) language.
According to Wikipedia, Émile Coué (1857–1926) was a French psychologist who popularised psychotherapy and self-improvement based on ideas of optimistic autosuggestion and human willpower.
Autosuggestion is the psychological technique related to the placebo effect, where self-induced suggestion guides individuals in their thoughts, feelings, and behaviours. In short, Coué's methodology made him the first self-help guru in the Western world. I think it’s fitting then to reflect on how I circled back to Coué Method and To Mock a Vapid World.
Fourteen years ago, random autosuggestion led me to their music, helped me through my early twenties, and—I like to think—made me a better, well-rounded and overall more empathetic human being. And similarly, that same chain of unconscious suggestion brought me back to this album all those years later and to me writing these very words for you.