There have been some great bands exported from Australisia over the decades.  Crowded House have blessed us with near-perfect and often very thoughtful pop; Cold Chisel raised the bar for no-nonsense rock ‘n’ roll; Peter Garrett and Midnight Oil proved – perhaps more than any of their American counterparts – that hard rock and politics [...]

On The Faults’ debut EP (a self-titled release from 2011) the band’s two members, Oli (gtr/vox) and Tom (drums) hammered their way through four reverb-drenched songs, sticking rigidly to the confines of the two-man setup.  While their work didn’t actually bring anything of a new slant to the garage rock genre, the tunes were played [...]

Mixing elements of alternative rock, indie jangle and a just a touch of dream pop, Australian rock band Evoletah create sounds for people who like their rock music with a nineties vibe.  One of the first things notable about ‘Sleepwalker’ – the band’s third full length – is that the album’s live in the studio [...]

Australian four-piece band Lowlakes were born from the ashes of a band called The Moxie.  Relocating from Alice Springs to Melbourne, vocalist Thomas Snowdon, bassist Bill Guerin and drummer Jack Talbot decided a fresh start was necessary.  Under their new moniker of Lowlakes, these three musicians teamed up with guitarist Brent Monaghan and decided to [...]

As with so many of their peers, Regurgitator haven’t made much of an impact outside their native Australia.  However, after years of hard work, half a dozen full album releases and a bunch of singles, they’ve become cult heroes among the alternative community.  They’ve even secured support slots with Beck, Red Hot Chili Peppers and [...]

Their name may sound like a community choir, but Australian band The John Steel Singers aren’t named after a man. John Steel, in this case, refers to a small toy horse named by frontman Tim Morrissey.  Since their choice of name leans towards the surreal, you would perhaps expect their debut full-length release to be [...]

After the release of ‘Kick’ in 1987, I became a massive INXS fan. It was soon obvious I had to hear the rest of their albums. ‘Kick’s immediate predecessor ‘Listen Like Thieves’ offered me more of the same, but their earlier albums took a little more time to get into; although they still contained lots [...]

If you live in Australia and happen to be reading this, chances are you own a Cold Chisel album already. Their brand of music, largely stemming from no-nonsense pub rock, made them megastars in their home country; for the rest of the world, however, Cold Chisel’s work is far less known, although they retain a [...]

In Europe and the US, Grinspoon have never achieved any more than cult status, and yet, in their native Australia, they’ve been hugely successful. Although Grinspoon’s debut full-length release was released in Australia in 1998, I first heard it when it received an international release the following year. I was instantly taken with their brand [...]

It’s hard not to compare the predominantly Aussie band Godstar’s full length CD ‘Sleeper’ to the mighty Lemonheads.  There are too many connections for those comparisons to be avoided.  Godstar are led by Smudge founders Tom Morgan (co-writer of some of ‘Come On Feel The Lemonheads) and Nic Dalton (sometime Lemonheads bassist).  Those Lemonheads connections [...]