"Australia - it's a big country with a small population. Large parts of it are uninhabitable. I've never been to Australia, though I have flown over it. Australia gave us Rolf Harris. We tried to give him back. They wouldn't take him..."
Featuring:
The Birthday Party - Cry
The Invisible College - Raining Rooms (excerpt)
The Triffids - In The Pines
Ruck Rover - Prague
Anthony Atkinson - Break in the Weather (Remixed by J. Walker)
Bias B - Aerosol Era
The Go Betweens - The Locust Girls
The Lucksmiths - The World of Professional Golf 1994
Mist and Sea - The Howl and Half Blind
Listen on the file factory player or download here
About the artists featured in this show:
The Birthday Party - Originally known as The Boys Next Door, they were Nick Cave's first band. At the end of their brief, destructive and productive career various members of the group went on to be involved in other excellent bands such as Crime and the City Solution and These Immortal Souls. The last full length Birthday Party album, Junkyard, is one of the landmark records of the punk/ new wave era.
The Invisible College - formed in Melbourne by Ian Russell and Paul Schütze, who were also members of Laughing Hands. Paul has had a long and varied artistic career, more info can be found on his website
The Triffids - from Perth, Western Australia, The Triffids released 5 albums of increasing sophistication, although my opinion is they never bettered the rawness of their early recordings. At only 36, their singer and main songwriter David McComb, died way too young.
Ruck Rover - A melbourne band formed in 1998. Prague comes from a 2006 compilation on Candle records. More about Ruck Rover can be found here
(A ruck rover is also a term describing a positional player in Australian rules football.)
Anthony Atkinson -Anthony Atkinson is a singer/songwriter from Melbourne who in 2003 released his debut solo record Come home for Autumn on the independent label Candle Records. Anthony was formerly lead singer of the occasionally noticed indie pop band The Mabels and they released an E.P and two albums between 1996 and 2001. Now with a new band to back him, hear more from his myspace page
Bias B - Bias B is an acclaimed rapper from Melbourne. He started his career as a graffiti artist and became instrumental in the development of the Australian Hip Hop scene. He has produced 4 albums Beezwax, In Bed with Bias, Been There Done That and his most recent release Aerosol Era in July, 2009.
The Go Betweens - The band that for many years seemed about to make it big, but never did. Blessed with two great songwriters in Robert Forster and the much missed Grant McLennan, they released 6 albums between 1982 and 1988 and then returned to produce a further 3 records from 2000. Spring Hill Fair, Tallulah & Oceans Apart would be my personal recommendations. After that, just go and buy all the others.
The Lucksmiths - The Lucksmiths released 11 albums over a period of 16 years from 1993 to 2009 and toured several times in America and Europe alongside bands such as Belle & Sebastian. Warmer Corners from 2005 is a good starting point for investigating their wonderfully crafted pop songs, although all their albums come highly recommended. Singer and drummer Tali White has also released 3 albums with his other band The Guild League.
Mist and Sea - Jason Sweeney, one of the founder members of Mist and Sea, has produced some great music over a long period of times with bands such as Sweet William, Simpatico and the film score ambience of his Panoptique Electrical project. Unless was the debut Mist and Sea album, released in 2007.
Further Listening:
To investigate the fascinating Australian new wave scene of the late 70s/ early 80s check out the following youtube channel which has a vast archive of material from that era: OzObscurist
