I know...I'm a lowly "Guru." That's why I keep making pointless posts.

Like this.

I'd cast a vote for Hoodoo Gurus, Mars Needs Guitars through Magnum Cum Louder. Nice mix of punky/power-poppy stuff

Their later albums are pretty spotty, although they're usually redeemed by one or two cracking tunes.

New Radio Birdman is pretty good too.

I'd also add:

"Lovetown" - Stephen Cummings. Terrific set of songs and as Graham Parker once said, "He's got one of those voices".

"The Black Swan" - Triffids. I prefer it to BSD

"Horsebreaker Star" (the 2 CD set) - Grant McLennan. A solo album with Go Betweens' sensibility.

I'm not sure I can narrow my votes to one in each category. I really love Paul Kelly and the Coloured Girls' Gossip (the original Australian double vinyl album and sequencing), the Hoodoo Gurus' Stoneage Romeos (I saw them live, from five feet away, at the I-Beam in San Fran just after the release of Mars Needs Guitars! and it was thrilling), and You Am I's #4 Record. There are many others, but those seem to have the warmest place in my heart.

quote:

Originally posted by Pulque:
I'd also add:
"The Black Swan" - Triffids. I prefer it to BSD

"Horsebreaker Star" (the 2 CD set) - Grant McLennan. A solo album with Go Betweens' sensibility.

I've not listened to The Black Swan in YEARS. I'm looking forward to that one getting the deluxe reissue treatment.

Horsebreaker Star is a great choice. What a great set of songs.

A few others that come to mind:

The Whitlams: Eternal Nightcap
My Friend The Chocolate Cake: Good Luck
The Someloves: Something or Other

My choices for favorite Australian albums of the last 21 years-

DM3 Road to Rome
The Summer Suns Calpurnia
GT Stringer The Gasser
Breadmakers Night The Moon Forgot To Rise
Chevelles Girl God
Someloves Something or Other
Jack And The Beanstalk And Other Stories

I'd pick Dom Mariani as favorite male artist and Renee Geyer for female artist.

You can't leave out Augie Marche or George

quote:

Originally posted by crazed:

Someloves Something or Other

Have you seen the new 2-disc collection of the Someloves on Half A Cow, crazed? It contains the album restored to its original speed (apparently the master was too slow) with a disc of b-sides.

quote:

Originally posted by philosopherEric:

quote:

Originally posted by crazed:

Someloves Something or Other

Have you seen the new 2-disc collection of the Someloves on Half A Cow, crazed? It contains the album restored to its original speed (apparently the master was too slow) with a disc of b-sides.

I did see it offered at Not Lame & Kool Kat. I didn't know about the slow speed, I was planning to pick this up for the b-sides. Have you bought it? I wonder if the difference between the original cd and this restored one is immediate.

quote:

Originally posted by PrairieFire:
You can't leave out Augie Marche or George

Yeah, Augie March is one of my favourite bands.

Augie March, The Drones and The Avalanches are probably my top three Australian bands of like, the last ten years (although not necessarily in that order).

In the last 21 years the best Australian music has come from Nick Cave, The Go-Betweens, The Dirty Three, the Fauves, Died Pretty and a few others.
Trouble is (and Im gonna get stabbed for this), Aussie music is dreadful for the most part; we have people like George overemoting bland melodies, awful scansion from bands like Augie March and faux-American accents from just about everybody. The level of songcraft is just not as good as Britain or the States, and Im not some self-loathing Aussie either. We are far better at filmmaking than we are at music.

Their are so many bands from Austrailia that I've liked over the years.

Men At Work
SilverChair
The CatEmpire
The Grates
Wolfmother

Love Silverchair. their last one, Diorama, was an impressive step forward in maturity (gotta know the previous ones to notice it).

one Aussi band i discovered a couple years back is Powderfinger. Nothing transcendent but i just really like their Vulture Street. kind of power rock plus the singer's got the right kind of voice for it.

but the one i've really gotten into lately is the John Butler trio. A kind of roots rock. His 3rd album, Sunrise over Sea is really good (check out Treat Yo Mama, What you want(!!!), peaches and cream, zebra(!!!), bound to ramble).
seen 'em three times over the last two years and seeing them again in april. and there's this one song he plays at every concert: Ocean. it's a solo he introduces everytime as an instrumental he used to play when playing in the streets back in Australia. Each time he plays it, he improvises a different version. i go nuts everytime! here's my favorite version: 15mins long! the end is the absolute best part
John Butler Trio - Ocean (Live à la Cigale '05)(scroll down playlist about 3/4th of the way, on the right)

This message has been edited. Last edited by: brainofp,

Missy Higgins.

quote:

i discovered a couple years back is Powderfinger

Their lead singer Bernard Fanning had a great single this past year called "Wish you well". Check it out.

quote:

Originally posted by Besttasteinmusicever:

quote:

i discovered a couple years back is Powderfinger

Their lead singer Bernard Fanning had a great single this past year called "Wish you well". Check it out.

not bad, pop-ier than Powderfinger though.
stream

Aaargghh!! John Butler?? "Treat yo mama"?? I think you need to be Australian to really appreciate how infuriating it is to hear Aussies pretending to be American to get airplay, in the big Yankee market.
Nobody in Australia talks the way Butler writes.
Triple J, the national youth radio, is required by law to play mostly Oz music, and there is this big deal about how great Oz music is, but if you played Butler, Fanning, Silverchair, Alex Lloyd and many others to someone unaware where they originate from (as I have done in an evil experiment), people are gonna say oh, some US music huh?? For yrs, Australian music suffered from an obvious cultural cringe that we were in the shadow of the States and Britain; we still are, but its not publicly spoken about anymore.
Besides that, musically, these guys are just bereft of interesting melodies, harmonies, chord progressions etc. Powderfinger wldn't know an intersting chord change if they fell over it. Im sorry, I know people are still gonna like these acts, but to me, and to friends of mine, they are 2nd rate US wannabees.

quote:

Originally posted by Ishmaelscoffin:
In the last 21 years the best Australian music has come from Nick Cave, The Go-Betweens, The Dirty Three, the Fauves, Died Pretty and a few others.
Trouble is (and Im gonna get stabbed for this), Aussie music is dreadful for the most part; we have people like George overemoting bland melodies, awful scansion from bands like Augie March and faux-American accents from just about everybody. The level of songcraft is just not as good as Britain or the States, and Im not some self-loathing Aussie either. We are far better at filmmaking than we are at music.

The population of the U.S. is 301,200,000, Great Britain is 60,540,000 and Australia is 20,760,000. I think Australia holds up pretty well in relation to those percentages. Many of the Australian bands mentioned so far I don't like, but there are heaps under the surface of the mainstream (Gaslight Radio, Spiderbait, the Drones, The Church, Paul Kelly, Darren Hanlon and classic punk bands like the Saints and Radio Birdman) that are pretty darn awesome.
p.s. I think Augie March are patchy and the lead singer is a whiny little nob onstage, but they've got some great songs.

Yeah Stocky, I was gonna bring in the percentage argument to temper my venom ha ha, so I grudgingly admit that point..maybe.
There are many great Aussie acts, but I think less now than before. That may sound like a typical, "things were better in my day" argument, but its not. I really like the Drones, the avalanches, the Sleepy Jackson are pretty cool, but now and then I will listen to JJJ for a week nonstop, and I come away despairing for Oz music. I hear so little of quality. It doesnt matter one iota what I think to the state of Australian music, but its friggin annoying that as someone who loves live gigs, Im constantly bored by my homelands offerings when they come to town.