RFI: 90s alternative rock bands from Australia

Are any of these bands any good?

Sidewinder
Jebediah
Regurgitator
Something for Kate
Magic Dirt
Screamfeeder
Pray TV
Pollyanna
Big Heavy Stuff
Clouds

This band Glide had some really good songs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JS7rCBOzTP8

Clouds are excellent power-pop with an alt rock sheen; Regurgitator (or "the Gurge") are wry acerbic grunge-pop with some killer riffs; Magic Dirt are a very good grunge rock band a little like a more accessible Come, with an amazing front-person Adalita. Jebediah and Something for Kate pissed me off (sub Green Day and whiny vocals respectively), Screamfeeder I wished I spent more time with (kind of soundscape distortion a la Ride or MBV but with something their own). No opinion on the others.

Yeah, I really liked Clouds as a schoolkid. First single (eg. HERE ) suggested a post-16 Lovers Lane vibe or something but I distinctly remember thinking that they'd must have been studying the Pixies by the time of the first longplayer (eg. HERE )

I remember hearing Big Heavy Stuff on sampler CDs which seemed to multiply around that time, but fairly or not, the earlier-band-with-overlapping-members, Up & Downs, are lodged more firmly in my memory. eg. THIS.

I agree wholeheartedly with matttkkkk's gripes lol.

I somehow ended up with a Screamfeeder best-of comp (who knew there was one?) and, well, it's at least fit for a once-a-decade listen despite vocals capable of being almost as grating as Jebediah.

Oh yeah, re: Glide, this is one song that is deeply etched inside my brain whether I want it or not: HERE. (Not actually complaining about this state of affairs, tbc.)

Terrific album ---> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2XqQKWb6Dfo

Saw Clouds a lot in that 1990/1991 period, they hit a real sweet spot btw great hooky pop and a slightly more rockin abrasive sound, def got a lot of Pixies comparisons and woulda been keen students of the UK music scene of the time but really had their own thing.

Lotta fond memories wrapped up in high school, that new-to-social-activity energy etc. Eg this gig was in the holidays after we all finished school, I am in there somewhere near the front.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VP7ZQzuo84Q

Never really got on with any of those other bands, there is an easy-to-adopt assumption here that local music is a pale knock-off of more potent source material from elsewhere, and I was of that mind thru most of the 1990s (now I would say it is somewhat true but not the whole story).

Saw Something For Kate supporting Bowie and they were unbelievably mediocre. I was kinda shocked.

I did like the Paradise Motel, who I would guess have their own thread on here. Not sure how they have aged.

The 1990s was the first time Australia had a countrywide youth radio station, and it really changed the landscape. There is a pretty good podcast called JustAce that covers this era.

Yeah Penny Century i reckon i'd still like.
local music is a pale knock-off of more potent source material from elsewhere we called it cultural cringe or the

d oh... Anxiety of influence in the 70s i think. Wanna talk a bit more about the rest of the story ems?

right on, good info, yall. went kind of down a discogs rabbit hole last night, and was curious about this but kinda scared to start perusing without some kind of baseline

“scared” like scared of being traumatized by bad oasis rip offs or something (im totally fine with good oasis rip offs)

we called it cultural cringe or the Anxiety of influence in the 70s i think. Wanna talk a bit more about the rest of the story ems?

def remember both those terms still floating around - just a deep-seated insecurity/inferiority complex I guess? kinda embodied for me by interviewers always eagerly asking celeb vistors if they like Australia (how stoked we all were when Evan Dando became our indie rock ambassador/advocate sigh)

(Actually that brings up the whole Half A Cow shop/label and bands like Smudge/Godstar/Swirl and maybe in my mind The Welcome Mat are kinda part of that? It always seemed a bit shamble jangle pop for my tastes but it definitely was a scene)

these days i still think a lot of that stuff is a bit bland and derivative! but acknowledge that time has a way of revealing what was unique in the DNA of music? …so even the very indebted stuff probably has some interesting local flavour that makes it a bit interesting

and i definitely am much more passionate about local music generally - both historically and now - but i think a lot of our most interesting mutations have happened outside of the spotlight of mainstream attention - when JJJ went national it created a strictly local market for modest indie rock success, and i feel the mediocrity of a lot of 1990s aus indie is a result of (consciously or unconsciously) serving that audience

brimstead this is not a recommendation necessarily but You Am I are probably a name that you would expect to see on that list, I would say first two albums pretty good if patchy and third LP ok pastichey guitar pop but less interesting/unique

Lol & otm re ED / half a cow!

(I like half a cow and shambly stuff ftr)

...and its a shame about ray is a Newtown record right?

ISRR there is a lyrical a reference to King St somewhere?

Btw in previous post “these days a lot of that stuff” referring to 90s aus indie generally not HAC specifically, was unclear

But yeah while Half A Cow wasn’t my thing I always loved that it was there - like, the fact that there was a cool bookshop/record store/zine stockist in Glebe and it was probably not even in the top 10 best Sydney music shopping destinations - but still was home to a flourishing little subculture- really speaks to me of what a fertile time that was, and the value of physical stores/destinations to embody an alternative cultural POV - Repressed Records in Newtown still providing this vibe, absolute MVPs

oh I just remembered a long-dormant opinion that the Coprolalia EP was the best You Am I release, no idea how the last 32 years might have changed that view!

well it doesn’t seem to be on streaming anywhere so no way of knowing (until i unpack one of the 5 massive tubs of CDs under the house)

Definitely remember reading about You and I in 90s issues of The Big Takeover, I got the impression they were kind of the same wavelength as Sloan or something?

I have a soft spot for the Clouds - they played in Hobart a few times during their ascendance and were fantastic live. Interviewed them with a friend once as well, really nice folks.
HAC talk reminds me how much I loved Godstar and The Hummingbirds too. You Am I are hit or miss for me, but “Hourly, Daily” is transcendent Kinks homage and power pop heaven.

Aw I like The Hummingbirds too. The last time I was in Sydney I was fortunate enough to see this remembrance show for Simon Holmes. I felt like I crashed someone's high school reunion

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNzsZc-LOTY

Last time I saw Dando was in the front bar of a SoKi pub, not designed for music, with corner windows behind the impermanent stage. A cheer went up at “as the cars fly up King St,” for we were literally watching the cars go by behind the performers. It was enough to startle Evan.

Last time I saw Dando was in the front bar of a SoKi pub, not designed for music, with corner windows behind the impermanent stage. A cheer went up at “as the cars fly up King St,” for we were literally watching the cars go by behind the performers. It was enough to startle Evan.

also rate the Hummingbirds - feel like in my mental chronology of this stuff (prob v.inaccurate!!) they spiritually belong to a slightly earlier clutch of bands, like post-REM late 80s guitar revival vibes? Falling Joys also in this basket for me

thing i like about the early YAI stuff is that it feels authentically like a kid in Castle Hill or wherever pushing his rock dreams thru a then-current mix of post-Goo/MBV guitar vibes, and writing songs about his life

Hourly, Daily was where I got off the bus, cheerful songs about the milkman not really cutting it relative to Berlin Chair IMO - I get the appeal! but not for me

First YAI produced by Lee Ranaldo iirc

also title track of Hourly, Daily is an all time top 10 Aus song for me