Earlier this year Melbourne’s great squalid Rhythm and Blues act, Shutdown 66, signed a $60,000 publishing deal with Mushroom Publishing. To celebrate such a score, Shutdown 66 decided to record a 7” single, She Gave Me 60,000 Reasons To Smile, and now they’ve re-issue their 1998 album, Welcome To Dumpsville, on Pittsburgh label, Get Hip Recordings.The sound of Shutdown 66 is obviously firmly embedded in the pleasing tones of Brian Jones, The Remains, The Ides Of March and The Pretty Things, but one has to ask, just how many Rhythm and Blues songs does one band want to write, or re-write?, and the answer Shutdown 66 constantly give is … HEAPS! These guys play Garage-Beat tunes with a well-built style that would get most impostors and riffing saplings in a flap and tie.Listening to this record it’s easy to see that there’s not much to disguise here, Scotty 66 thumps his Ludwig tubs like he’s poking out at a deathly petition, his cohort, Jamie flicks the strings of his Harmony bass so much that you think that if he clicked his fingers flames would appear, Camby snakes his keyboards in a speedy and static way, Bad Micky blasts his bustling guitar as if it’s full of beans and Nicky squawks, stutters, yaps, quacks, sweats and drools the lovelorn lyrics more insanely and unsanitary than a squadron of Sky Saxons.This album’s great from the get-go. It’s thirteen Stompy Wompies of haphazard Beat Rock and Roll and it’s ideal for either dancing out or staying in. It may’ve taken five years, but now people can listen to an unmovable Rhythm and Blues release from one of Melbourne’s more raucous outfits. The time is perfect for Shutdown 66, but if they end up blowing it, it’s probably still not their fault. They have it, so Shutdown 66 has given you, 60,000 reasons to smile.