Released in late 2003 and followed by a smash Melbourne tour, "Do The Turtle" was the last recorded release by Rentboy as a band.
____

"Shane Moritz rolls out the red carpet for a mighty Tasmanian export...

First there’s infinite space. Then there’s the solar system, some fiery stars, a good sun, a bad moon and nine planets, of which Earth faithfully aligns. On Planet Earth, there’s air, water, land and many fine punk bands. Way down under, on the edge of the world, in a sleepy isle called Tasmania, there is Hobart. This is where the seafood’s tasty, the guys are pasty and the nights are long. Hobart’s also responsible for rearing one of the most extraordinary bands known to man, woman and a certain slow-footed, hard-shelled reptile: RENTBOY!

This is a band pure in form and execution. Three scruffy chaps who assume unassuming positions: Dan Cross, vocals and guitar; Patrick Cross, basslines to thump your stepmother; Ben Crothers, drums to wallop Dan’s brother. They put the grooves just a little askew and sometimes take the sausage and wrap it in a hot, spicy roll (use your imagination). A smoking new EP, Do The Turtle, marks Rentboy’s inaugural visit to the Big Smoke. In seven years, Rentboy never left Hobart, never even saw Launceston, that dour-faced, little sister.

On a clear day, if you’re lucky, you might find Dan Cross out cutting grass. Dan says lawn mowing is his favourite outdoor activity, only the lawn hasn’t been mowed in 12 months. Dan actually has ‘indoor type’ written all over him. “It seems traditional to go out sometimes, but I could easily spend 3-4 days, I reckon, without really going anywhere,” says Dan. On record, Dan sings like he hasn’t completely woken up. He likes coffee and admits to drinking up to five cups a day. Once the coffee loses heat, Dan has no choice but to call in his favourite appliance. “I use the microwave a lot. I reheat coffee. I make a big pot of percolated coffee and then reheat”.

'Sometimes I pay the rent, sometimes it gets spent', sings Dan on the gigantic opener, I like to dream, which imagines Roxy Music in a showdown with The Cars. A powerful moment on virtually every Rentboy song finds Dan shooting sky-piercing riffs from his fancy guitar. Like The Frustrations’ Julian Teakle, Dan uses creative distortion to create a magic carpet to ride right out of town.

Rentboy began as just Dan, doing his ‘I’m clean, but my bed sheets aren’t’ type of pop music. Boundless melodies soaring out of a battered 4-tracker. Songs of relationships, revulsion, ineptitude, pipe dreams and grey days, says Dan. Dan met Ben Crothers over coffee one day. Dan didn’t meet Patrick over coffee, but he probably would have had they not had the same mother. In 2000, Rentboy released, to these ears, a wild and magnificent rock CD called Clocktower, full of perfectly mangled guitars, mysterious melodies and repetitive rhythms. Dead serious, hilarious, drunken and totally isolated. In other words, a masterpiece.

Rentboy likes the Beach Boys, Joy Division, Elvis, Television, Johnny Cash, Slint, Velvet Underground, Elvis and Guns and Roses. Hardly a boy band, let alone a serviceable lad, Rentboy is punk rock not to be missed."

Shane Moritz, Beat Magazine, November 2003
____

“Rentboy is a terrible name for a band, particularly a Hobart band ...But it kind of fits their rough and sketchy songs, full of off-the cuff, hazy meanderings and diversions into weird shadowy experimentation.“

David Nichols, Beat Magazine
_____