The Aussie Rock thread
 

I've been listening to a lot of this stuff over the last few days, i.e stuff from the 70s/80s rock scene like the Saints, Celibate Rifles, Died Pretty and Radio Birdman. Any other fans out there who could point me in the direction of some good albums perhaps?

Ever listened to the Church? They're one of my favorite Aussie bands.

Never heard of them to be honest, but I'll definitely check them out. Cheers for the pointer.

You might know the song "Under the Milky Way" by them, it's fairly well known.

I think I've heard that somewhere before. Great song though. Which album's it off?

Some other bands you might want to check out

Models
Metronomes
The Triffids
Lime Spiders

Starfish (1988)

Another song off the album. "Reptile"

It's on Starfish which has some great songs on it but is a little hit-or-miss overall. They have a ton of albums, but if I were to recommend one as a good place to start, I'd probably say Priest=Aura.

^Another one of my favorites off that album! "Antenna" is yet another great song on that album:

My super-fail thread about the Vines is currently decomposing somewhere so instead I recommend my favourite psychedelic pop/indie-rock band of 2008, the Silents :D Really brimming with paranoia and bad-acid-trip despair, love em

Infact the entire Ivy League Records roster seems worth a gander, or so a half-assed myspaz excursion tells me :hphones:

I do like Radio Birdman but my knowledge ends there I'm afraid.

I feel like this thread isn't complete without tossing The Birthday Party's name into the ring.

oh yeah... i guess the last words i associated with them were 'Aussie Rock'. They took a pretty anti-rockist stance on music (and just about everything else)

Whether they took an anti-rockist stance or not doesn't change the fact that they played music that definitely falls under the wide umbrella of rock.

Cheers for the suggestions folks. I'll get investigating sharpish.

For anyone who hasn't heard them before, I'd highly recommend 'Spaceman In a Satin Suit' and 'Sideroxylon' by the Celibate Rifles. Both terrific albums

The Celibate Rifles are still doing the rounds. Played last weekend in Brisbane at a fundraiser for a local community radio station. I missed seeing them but did catch them on their previous jaunt through Bris last year.

The original The Saints played a one off at a festival called Pig City last year in celebration of 25 years of Brisbane music. Great gig! It looks like Chris and Ed got on OK and eventually Chris sang on a track from Ed's last album so all was rosy.
Though not punk one of the highlights of the day was The Riptides, a surf pop band from the late 70's. Some of you may like them if you can find them


The really big rumour is that now The Saints and Ed's wonderful The Laughing Clowns are reforming for a couple of gigs in January. That would be the same Bailey/Kuepper original The Saints mentioned above. I will be there.:beer:

I guess this would be the time to mention Men At Work. Haha, oh yeah.

Australia makes the best grindcore :yeah:

The Splatterheads
The Visitors
The New Christs
Hoodoo Gurus
Scientists
The Hitmen
Midnight Oil (late 70s/early 80s stuff)
Beasts Of Bourbon
Massappeal
The Hard-ons
The Exploding White Mice
The Celibate Rifles
The Cosmic Psycos
Hoss
God
Radio Birdman
The Lime Spiders
The psychotic Turnbuckles
The Meanies


all great punk inspired Aussie Rock bands from 70s/80s/early 90s

I still want The Hard On's album 'Dickcheese'. Great album.

How can you leave The Saints off that list?:eek::)

There are sure a few names from my past there. God. Love that tune My Pal. "Your my only friend and even you don't like me". Top song.

I caught The Cosmic Psychos last year. Good as ever but so odd to watch these blokes turn into grey beards. My mate reckoned they nowadays looked like Public Servants on night out.

Yes it is great, probably their best.

Yeah they should be there for sure. I knew they were mentioned in previous posts so I didn't bother posting them again. They are the band most non-aussies think of when someone mentions aussie punk rock.


I haven't seen them for at least 10 years. I used to see them a lot in the early 90's. I had heard they were pretty grey these days.

Another band I left off was the sunnyboys, their self titled album is a classic. Great Aussie Surf Guitar Pop.

I've been listening to 10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1 virtually all day - an immense album

I caught them live in their early days and made the grandiose statement that they would come to nothing. A fine judge I was :rolleyes:

Top album and along with Diesel and Dust essentials in a collection of Australian Rock.

It is great, Head Injuries, Place Without a Post Card, and Red Sails in the Sunset are just as good, I would even dare to say better.

I think of Diesel and Dust as being Midnight Oils version of Metallica's Black album. While it is an okay album, it signals a departure from their old style of music, it was their most financially successful release even though it is not as good as their older albums.

I guess that I enjoyed it's departure from their older rock style. No matter how big a commercial success Dead Heart was I loved that song.

All that being said that when those that like a band debate the merits of individual albums over others then it is a sign of the quality that they produced.

To me midnight oil are the greatest Aussie Rock band ever and live, they were as good as any band that I have seen (and I have seen a lot of bands.)

Come come come, The Saints surely:p:

I have to admit that I am a bit down on rock music of my homeland. We let a lot of inferior music be praised due to a bit of an inferiority complex but I think that the Oils are brilliant. They rocked sure but they also sang lyrics that counted for something.

in no particular order check out some names if you can other than the usual suspects: Venom p stinger, One Inch Punch / MYC, Stems / Dom Mariani, Drones, Kamikaze Trio, Paradise Motel, Undeground Lovers, Hoss / God, Powdermonkeys, Fireballs, Living End, Asteroid B-612, Magic Dirt, Poppin' Mommas, Mark of Cain, Crow...

some labels/online stores/old zines places to start Missing Link, Augogo (gone), Dave Lang / Year Zero fanzine, Off The Hip (garage), Bang! Records (Spanish label re-dist), International Trash (just closed - unfortunately - they were literally throwing a lot of vinyl out for $4)


that's it for now enjoy

I've heard of God, Kamikaze Trio and Paradise Motel (what a great name for a band that is:D) before, but none of the others. I'll definitely be checking them out when I can, as I do really like what I've heard of this particular scene. I'll have a gander at those labels in future as well. Cheers for the heads-up man.

Thread moved to a more suitable forum.

Well i like only two Aussie based bands..
Silverchair in the 90's and AC/DC with bon..and thats it.

POWDERFINGER

I've been known to throw some Powderfinger on, they have served as a decent band to play on a drive somewhere or to chill out to when I need something I can very much enjoy that I don't have to think about too much. Far from imaginitive but decent pop music.


LOVE YOUR WAY (ROVE LIVE)


ON MY MIND


WAITING FOR THE SUN (LIVE BIG DAY OUT 2001)

On the last video the singer looks completely wasted.

I picked up a couple of YOU AM I records as well, which are Snake Tide and Deliverance but I have no idea what the rest of their records sound like. Ive heard a few tracks that I don't really like so maybe not too good. The were good live in 2004 when I saw them though.

You Am I – Drink It Dry – Listen free and discover music at Last.fm
You Am I – New Face – Listen free and discover music at Last.fm

And of course no Aussie rock thread should be without mention of Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds.

Unitopia
 

The hottest new band out of OZ is Unitopia!

Double CD full of great prog and world music!

Unitopia on MySpace Music - Free Streaming MP3s, Pictures & Music Downloads

i know that they're not rock in the zeppelin sense, but The Sleepy Jackson are one of favourite bands of last 5 years. Their first album 'lovers' is amazing

definately check out the vines, but JET is a pretty good one also. and british india...dunno if uve heard of them but they're not bad either

I saw the Vines many moons ago. Good band - their singer signed my train ticket. Long since lost the autograph though.

Some good recommendations here, I'll have to check them out when I can. Cheers for the mentions people.

I wasnt sure whether to PM this but then I remembered about this thread and it seems rather fitting.

I gave that Midnight Oil album a go yesterday. I liked it but I wasnt 100% taken with the vocals so thats gonna get another go. The Hoodoo Guru's album is really good though, its just so damn poppy and sometimes it's good to have something that just sounds so upbeat and positive.

Judging by a few previous comments in this thread, their earlier output has a different sound?

EDIT: My bad, I see my mistake. Well as seen as its the debut Hoodoo Guru's album I'm listening to I may well start to explore their stuff a little more :)