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5 Seconds of Summer: Roundhouse, London

Caroline Sullivan, The Guardian, 5 September 2014

THE SYDNEY FOURSOME 5 Seconds of Summer aren't just a boyband, they want us to know. Check the cover of their globally successful debut album: a punk-style red X has been sprayed across their bodies, and their credo — "Derping since 2011" – is emblazoned on the inner sleeve. Derping sounds like the kind of thing parents would rather not know about, but it's just teen shorthand for a self-deprecating, outsiderish attitude inherited from skate-punk. The sleeve photos, showing the band pulling faces and refusing to look pretty, position them closer to a hosed-down Blink 182 than to One Direction.

Total word count of piece: 406

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