h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Aren't Australian rock bands brilliant?

Post here if you've got anything to say about your favourite Australian rock band! I like Midnight Oil, one of the best bands *ever*, Powderfinger, The Whitlams.

I'm trying to find out more about You Am I, Icehouse (not strictly rock, I'll grant you), Spiderbait, Frenzal Rhomb.

I'll be back on the weekend, raving on about the Triffids, Clouds, MGF, and anyone else I think of in the meantime. Blackeyed Susans, TISM, The Go-Betweens...

*wanders off muttering something about w*rk and deadlines*

Frenzal Rhomb are the best thing since sliced bread, and should be made simultaneously the Prime Minister of the UK, President of America, Governor of Texas, Emperor of Japan, and King of Belgium.

And King Of the World.

Discuss.

Oh aye, the Rhomb should doubtless rule the world...

...that is, if you want to live in a world of sex, drugs, rock'n'roll and general unhygenic mayhem...

...if this is the kind of world you want, Jay and the boys would be up there with the best of the candidates

I was just at big day out last sunday, and it was awesome, saw metallica, like 7 meters from the stage...........got really badly crushed, pulled back after like 20 minutes, but it was good.

i also saw an australian band called Karnivool, ive heard some songs before, but they were so awesome in concert, had such a good mosh going, untill i got hit in the jaw by someones shoulder...

I'd love to got to the Big Day Out one year...and as soon as I get over my severe hatred of crowds and heat I just might do it

Reddyfreddy, this is just a glorified bookmark. I'll write something intelligent tomorrow, on at least two bands, but right now my brain's a bit flat and I can't think of any incisive commentary.

In the meantime - which bands do you already know enough about? And are there any Aussie groups you really can't stand?

Ivan.

I think I'm pretty well-informed about Midnight Oil and The Whitlams.

As for not liking any, I haven't found any so far...but, as I say, I'm going to see Frenzal Rhomb next month so that may change!

I don't know about any of the bands named above but I would like to mention some bands that were around when I was there in the early 70s to indicate what a rich heritage Australia has in this genre. Tully had just split up but Billy Thorpe and the Aztecs, and Jeannie Lewis were both at the peak of their success and other bands (Piranha, La De Dah, Madder Lake, Kush, Co.Caine and Sun spring to mind immediately) were producing fine, original music.
A couple of days after I arrived I went to one of the first big rock festivals held at Randwick racecourse featuring Deep Purple, Free and Manfred Mann with Piranha as the local support band. I think the sight of 35,000 hippies suddenly appearing from nowhere on the streets of Sydney probably changed Australian society forever.
Towards the end of my time in Sydney the local council was running a series of free concerts in a park next to Sydney University featuring local bands and at one of these I had the pleasure of seeing what I think was probably the first public performance by AC/DC.
What about a collaborative Guide article on the history of Australian Rock Music?

Chris - an entry on Australian music would be massive... I hesitate to commit to it, but I'll give it some thought.

Reddyfreddy - at last I have some time to think about things. I'll start with The Triffids. Disbanded now, sadly, and unlikely to re-form as the front man, David McComb, died a few years ago. They were originally from Western Australia, an isolated place, and this came across in the songs. Isolation, loneliness, and a strange feeling of spaciousness. They used a wide range of instruments and some interesting orchestration. The lyrics were always meaningful, but I admit some of them were a bit odd. The best album was probably 'Calenture', but I'm quite fond of 'The Black Swan' and 'Born Sandy Devotional' as well. The best-of album, 'Australian Melodrama', gives a fair sample of their work.

Next - the Clouds. They've disbanded too, but more recently. The two vocalists, Jodi Phillis and Trish Young, had an amazing gift for harmony but also managed to produce a vocal clash when it was needed. They also both play guitar. They had another guitarist/bassist and a drummer, and other instruments appeared sometimes. Sometimes they were quite light and delicate ('Cloud Factory'), sometimes loud (most of the 'Thunderhead' album), sometimes perverse ('4pm' - a mellow-sounding somg about a murderous psychopath, told in the first person) and always interesting. They also had a song called 'Hieronymus', which I liked because you just can't get enough pop songs about 16th century Flemish artists of Hell these days. The best album was probably 'Penny Century', the best EP was definitely 'Octopus', and the retrospective is called 'Favourites'.

More witterings later.

I'm hoping someone else can tell you about Icehouse; I've forgotten all I ever knew about them.

Ivan.

It was about 2 easters back now when I visited my mate in Australia and we went to the Byron Bay Blues and Roots festival. And I saw the John Butler Trio who were certainly one of the best live bands I have ever seen to date. Especially when they did a gig here in England with Silverchair anouther great Australian band.

I saw an amazing array of great bands at that concert but it was a bit hard to tell where they were from.

Thats a great festival you have there I must say and I can wait to go again.

Most of the bands at Byron Bay would have been Australian; there's really too many to list. I *must* get to Byron Bay one day...

The name Silverchair I've come across several times...anyone want to enlighten me?

The collaborative topic...I'd love to see it, but as an Englishman commenting on Australian bands, might come in for a bit of stick . Anyway, like most people outside Australia, I first heard of MO through Beds Are Burning...but since then have mostly filled my back catalogue, so I feel in a position of reasonable authority to talk about them.

Silverchair were a band that started in the late 90's byt three teenage boys (I think they were about 15 or so at the time )...

Courtney love had said something to the effect that Daniel Johns (the lead singer) looked like Kurt Cobain and sung like Eddie Vedder (she was being mean when she said it, but I can't remember the rest...

...At the time they had their breakthrough hit with "Tomorrow" off their debut album "Frogstomp", with a whole bunch of other songs I can't remember...

...they pretty much disappeared for a while before releasing an album a few years ago "Freak Show" which brought them back with slicker, rockier kind of stuff...very guitarsy and very angsty...with title lik "Abuse Me" and "Freak"...you get the idea...

...then they put out "Neon Ballroom" about 2 years later...which still had rocky songs but was a bit more "mature" with songs like "Ana's song" (allegedly about the lead singer's battle with anorexia) and "Miss you love", which were a bit more wistful then they used to do...

...the big one was "Diorama" which is their most recent...it won them a stack of Aria's (Aussie Recording Industry Awards), which was a lot more "romantic"...almost dreamy...with songs like "The Greatest View", "Across the Night" and "World Upon your Shoulders"...the boys have really grown up...

...Oh, and Daniel is engaged to Natalie Imbruglia, or was last I heard...that's about all I can tell you...

Any Aussies up and posting yet?

Just found out that Paul Kelly is playing at Shepherd's Bush Empire tomorrow night. Is he worth going to see? (Too late to try and obtain a CD. )

(Notices Ivan is online and bumps to top of convo list)

You may feel the desire to shoot me after you read this, but the truth has be said at some point: the first name that came to my sick mind when I read the title of this thread was...















-you will hate me now-


















-and I will perfectly understand that you do-





















JASON DONOVAN

Ok, I will just shoot myself, for the time being.
Y.

*steps over Yelbakk's recumbent form; wonders if elastoplast would help*

I think Paul Kelly would be worth seeing. It's essentially just him and a guitar, but there are backing singers and other things happening. He's a bit country, a bit folksy, a bit political. Interesting bloke.

Well, I like The Whitlams, so probably up my alley. Currently struggling with the Ticketb&st*rd website.

I'm going to see Paul Kelly tomorrow! Woohoo!