If someone from overseas asked you to put forward your opinion of the five best Australian bands going around at the moment, who woud you suggest?
Well that’s exactly what British paper The Guardian did, and took to twitter to ask folk in compiling their own list, calling out to followers to submit their suggestions using the hashtag #ExcellentAustralianBands.
After embarking on a quick twitter search of the afforementioned hashtag, it’s worth noting outfits such as Dick Diver, Twerps, Eddy Current Supression Ring, Boomgates, and OTOUTO were suggested, but now The Guardian have compiled the list in an article entitled ‘The Best Australian Bands You’ve Never Heard Of.’
Agreeing that the Australian music scene has more to offer than C-grade Idol exports and vegemite sandwiches, the Brits seem delightfully impressed by the current output of Aussie talent, acknowledging our ability to export high-quality musical talents including Nick Cave, Tame Impala, and DZ Deathrays. It’s nice to see the rest of the world is finally picking up on our ablity to release really great music.
The feature article puts forward five local and “under-the-radar” acts who The Guardian deem as worth a look in. Making the list are the Melbourne-based garage rock outfit Valentiine, slacker-pop ‘supergroup’ Lower Plenty, Perth based act Kucka, Sydney’s Palms, and (the perhaps more well-known) electronic duo Collarbones.
Agreeing that the Australian music scene has more to offer than C-grade Idol exports and vegemite sandwiches, the Brits seem delightfully impressed by the current output of Aussie talent…Despite not attracting too much attention outside of their native Melbourne, the locally lesser known Valentiine have played supporting roles for acts including Adalita and Jebediah, and have only just finished up a successfull 22-date European tour.
Lo-fidelity rockers Lower Plenty – comprised of members from other local bands like UV Race, Dick Diver, Deaf Wish, The Focus and Ice Claw – released their sophomore album Hard Rubbish last year to some serious critical acclaim. Electronic producer and vocalist Kucka has been creating glitchy and ambient sounds out of a Perth bedroom studio and released a debut self-titled EP in August of last year.
Sydney based indie-rockers Palms features former members of Red Riders and have released a couple of well recieved singles and now due to release their debut LP sometime this year. Part-Sydney, part-Adelaide duo Collarbones released their well recieved, RnB inspired, elecronic LP Die Young in Spetember of last year, a record our Tone Deaf reviewer said was “definitely one you should treat your ears and hips to.”
The duo have since been touring extensively around the country with the likes of Clubfeet and joining PVT on their national tour, kick-starting next week, and landed in the top 10 of Triple J Unearthed’s most listened to artists of 2012.
It’s not the first time that The Guardian has picked up on some of our local acts; the ‘New Band of the Day‘ feature that also runs on the newspapers website has also seen a host of local acts appear on their list including the likes of Jagwar Ma, Flume, and San Cisco.
It seems that in recent times the wider global music media has begun to actively take notice over a larger range of Aussie output; including positive ambassadors of Australian music such as the storming international success of the Grammy Award-winning Gotye. Tame Impala also took the cake with almost every ‘top albums of 2012’ list with Lonerism, stormed US Late Night Television, their track ‘Elephant’ featuring on a huge ad campaign for the latest Blackberry smartphone, on top of Lonerism already cracking the US Top 40 off the back of their tour of the country last year.
Even the Washington Post jumped on the Australian indie bandwagon last year with its list of “Top 10 Australian indie rock songs of 2012.” It was exciting to see the list feature the likes of Scott & Charlene’s Wedding, Total Control and Woollen Kits; acts that not even your average Aussie would be able to recognise.
We know that our music scene has long been one of the best in the world, now it’s time for the rest of the globe to finally catch up.
