Written by: Dave Cantrell
For a land so far away from, well, pretty much everywhere, Australia was a major player in the punk and post-punk years, producing what was ostensibly the world’s first punk single (The Saints’ “I’m Stranded,” released a month before the Damned’s “New Rose”) as well as birthing such influential acts as the Birthday Party, the Go-Betweens, the Triffids, the Church, and, following his departure from the Saints, Ed Kuepper’s groundbreaking post-punk/jazz outfit Laughing Clowns, and this isn’t even to mention Radio Birdmen, Severed Heads, the Celibate Rifles, or the wonderful Whirlywirld. Since then, however, things have been a bit spottier. Even as many of the subsequent bands from Down Under have achieved, in terms of record sales, far greater renown, one is hard-pressed to assign anything close to the same level of gravitas to the likes of Midnight Oil, INXS, Powderfinger, Mental As Anything, or even the big kahuna, AC/DC.
No more.
Lately, in the last five years or so, Australia has enjoyed a remarkable resurgence, an irrepressible, indie (in the truest sense of the word)/DIY spirit occupying not just every inhabitable corner of the vast country but as well nearly every byway and outpost on the current musical spectrum. Psych, garage, post-punk, shoegaze, C86, DIY, noise pop, kiwi-flavored indie, singer-songwriter dark soul, and any number of combinations thereof. Curiously, however, and not a little criminally, the nationwide scene, while looming vibrant and invincible and showing no signs of subsiding, seems to have hardly registered on the rock world’s radar, as only a handful here – Pond, Blank Realm, Native Cats, Eddy Current Suspension Ring, a few others – have gained even a touch of recognition via album releases in the US and Europe. So, in our undying drive to address such injustices where we find them, we here at Stereo Embers have taken upon ourselves to remedy this sorry oversight. Here then is our attempt to shine some light on a fair fraction of those bands and artists we feel deserve greater attention. Before eagerly clicking forward, keep in mind that this is a select list – and just the first half this time, with the second to follow in a couple of weeks – that has as its primary criterion the release of a full-length (with one exception), and that avoids obvious, already well-enough-known choices like Perth-based Tame Impala. Also, you may well notice that, scattered as it is, the ‘scene,’ like that of its cousin Dunedin to the south, is rife with cross-fertilizing, incestuous member-swapping, which, if you ask us, is always a sign of a movement in rude, rambunctious health.
OK, let’s go, the first thirty-three, in alphabetical order:
ABSOLUTE BOYS (Melbourne)
[Their one LP, Heavy Flow, available here]
AUSMUTEANTS (Geelong)
[Latest album Order of Operation available from Goner Records]
BACHELOR PAD (Sydney)
[Get their debut Dooming Out here]
BEACHES (Melbourne)
[Get latest album She Beats available from Chapter Music]
BITCH PREFECT (Melbourne-via-Adelaide)
[Second album Bird Nerds available from Bedroom Suck Records]
BLANK REALM (Brisbane)
[Stereo Embers review of Grassed In here, album available from Fire Records]
BOOMGATES (Melbourne)
[Related to Eddy Current Suspension Ring, Dick Driver, Twerps. Double Natural LP available here]
BRAT FARRAR (Melbourne)
[Limited edition LP and cassette available here]
CAMPERDOWN & OUT (Sydney)
[Their sole album thus far, Couldn’t Be Better, available from Black Wire Records]
CIRCLE PIT (Sydney)
[2010 LP Bruise Constellation available on Siltbreeze]
DAY RAVIES (Sydney)
[Debut album Tussle available from popfrenzy here]
DICK DIVER (Melbourne)
[Related to UV Race; most recent album, Calendar Days, available from Chapter Music]
DRONES (Melbourne-via-Perth)
[Related to five (!) bands not even on this list; latest, sixth album I See Seaweed available from Waterfront]
DRUNK ELK (Hobart)
[Second, 2014 LP Oceanus Procellarum available from Wormwood Grasshopper here]
EAST LINK (Melbourne)
[Related to Lakes, Total Control, UV Race; second, 2014 album Eastlink – following debut East Link – available here]
EDDY CURRENT SUPPRESSION RING (Melbourne)
[Related to Boomgates, Total Control; most recent (fourth) album Rush To Relax available here]
EXHAUSTION (Melbourne)
[Related to Witch Hats, Lower Plenty; debut album (2013) Future Eaters available on Aarght!]
FABULOUS DIAMONDS (Melbourne)
[Third and most recent album Commercial Music available from Chapter Music]
FULL UGLY (Melbourne)
[Related to Milk Teddy and Scott and Charlene’s Wedding; 2014 debut album Spent The Afternoon available from Bedroom Suck]
GOLDEN STAPH (Perth)
[2011 self-titled debut album available from R.I.P. Society]
GOOCH PALMS (Sydney)
[2013 debut Novo’s available from A-Noose Records]
INFINITE VOID (Melbourne)
[2012 self-titled debut available here on Poison City]
KING GIZZARD & the LIZARD WIZARD (Melbourne)
[New album – and second of 2014! – I’m In Your Mind Fuzz out Oct. 31; information on previous record Oddments here]
KIRIN J CALLINAN (Sydney)
[Most recent album Embracism– released last Dec. – available from XL Recordings]
KITCHEN’S FLOOR (Brisbane)
[Third album Look Forward to Nothing available from Siltbreeze]
LACE CURTAIN (Melbourne)
[Related to Eddy Current Suppression Ring, Rat Curtains, Total Control; 2014 EP The 3rd available from Mexican Summer]
LAKES (Melbourne)
[Fourth and most recent album Blood of the Grove available on Avant!]
THE LIVING EYES (Geelong)
[Digital copy of self-titled and below featured 7″ available from Anti Fade Records here]
LOWER PLENTY (Melbourne)
[Recent album Life/Thrills, their third, available from Bedroom Suck]
MARTYR PRIVATES (Brisbane)
[Self-titled debut album available Sept. 22nd on Fire Records]
MILK TEDDY (Melbourne)
[Most recent record Zingers available here from Knock Yr Socks Off Records]
NAKED ON THE VAGUE (Sydney)
[Most recent LP Heaps of Nothing available from Siltbreeze]
