You Am I: Best Aussie Band right now?

You Am I I've never heard, but what I've read about them doesn't exactly leave me drooling to hear more.

The Art of Fighting album (much critically claimed) tends to grow less impressive upon each listen. Still not bad tho'. I like Gersey, because, as one acquaintance never ceases to remind me, they rip off American Analog Set. Spokaine. Hungry Ghosts. Ides of Space have continually improved in the year and a half they've been around.

Worst Aussie band= the Fauves (crimes against music manifold, starting with the vocoder on their last single). Most entertaining Aussie band= Lash (Heavily pro-tooled manufactured girl band for the alterno-set who sound like a third generation Elastica marketed at record executives. Check 'em out).

Good Australian bands - The Avalanches, obviously. The Church are still going strong. I like Gersey but only because I don't listen to a lot of stuff similar to them, so they don't sound as generic as they probably are. Biftek are pretty good. The Paradise Motel were marvellous. Gerling's latest single "Dust Me Selecta" is brassy diva house par excellence but I fear their album would annoy me.

Charles - I had thought Machine Translations were some sort of instrumental post-rock group. I take it I'm mistaken?

I know they are not bands, but they are Austalian!

Last Aussie band I saw live and loved: Splendid (i.e. Angie Hart of Frente & her husband). They were fantastic - but the venue (Revolver) was way too smokey.

Based on that I will say that Splendid are the Best Aussie Band right now.

2. I like Natalie Imbruglia. Oh sure, it's hip to hate her because her first single was a cover and she was on Neighbours. But her first album has some solid songs on it. Oh, if she'd put out "leave me alone" as a single some of you would be falling over yourselves to praise her.

3. Splendid are great. Hearing the girliest voice in pop intone "There might be nothing left between us/But images of cunt and penis" is fantastic. In particular, search: I'm No Better, Charge. Hope they put out another album because the last one didn't do well at all and the band are completely broke according to my sister who interviewed them a while back. She also said they were extremely cool.

4. The last Australian band I saw live and really enjoyed was Even. If you're gonna steal old pop riffs and Beatles/Kinks/Stones/Bowie bits, then you might as well do it right.

And "Leave Me Alone" wasn't that good - not the worst token-Portishead-track to grace a pop album, but certainly not the best either.

I reckon Angie Hart has the best voice EVA!

Tim, what I mean is, I think Natalie Imbruglia is unfairly the victim of "single profiling" - much like racial profiling jumps to conclusions based on ethnicity etc, people tend to form a vision of an artist through their singles which can be good, but can also be very bad. If Natalie Imbruglia hadn't been a soapie actress and HADN'T put out a breezy cover to begin with, she'd be taken far more seriously. "Leave Me Alone" is by no means the best thing she's done, but it would have given her the potential to have far more credibility than she has, which as I understand it, is even less than Kylie.

Er, to clarify once more because I can't write with the same clarity as you do, I'm not talking about getting a mistaken impression of an artist who releases atypical singles. That's a gimme. I mean singles that fundamentally pervert the image of an artist in such a way that their other output becomes inconsequential and conveniently disposed of when talking about that particular artist. Oh, I'm bad at this.

I'm tempted to say that anyone on here who wants my CD of Hourly Daily can have it, but I've no idea where it is and it might well be scratched anyway for all I know.

The new Gerling is just a tad too ironic for me; even they don't sound too convinced this new direction is lasting

Edward, I know what you mean, although I think the maturity bids on Natalie's album were in fact its problem - she's not happy just being a pop star but her "cred" sounds terribly strained. I'm interested in hearing the new single though.

Imbruglia's new single is bad. She's forgotten to have hooks, you see..

The problem is, there's absolutely NOTHING mature about anything she's ever done. I'd argue that they're PERCEIVED as mature just because her singles were all money-grubbing ditties so everything else that doesn't seem like them is perceived as being "strained grabs for maturity" when, at least to me, that doesn't hold at all.

Anyway I still love Rumble - nomatterwhat

they are a going concern again, apparently. new album again later in the year.

The Living End (awesome rockabilly / punk)

WOLFMOTHER !! (Most Rockin' LP I've heard this year)

And if anyone mentions "Jet", "The Vines" or "Russell Crowe", i'll snap.

best non Dirty Three oz band right now : THEREDSUNBAND
their first album ' Peabody' is great - looking foreard to the follow-up

In retrospect Lash were totally presaging the whole Lindsay/Ashlee etc. rocky angst-teen-pop angle. Except they were mostly dud: because of their insistence on their own authenticity, yes, and perhaps also because Australian bands flaunting some sense of indebtedness to British punk is never really appealing (see also The Living End).

how did dave q hear about powderfinger? who would be so cruel as to rep them to him?!

Edward seeing as "Love @ First Sight" may be the best thing Kylie's ever done I don't think that's a controversial statement!

If you really want to see Baaaaarnsey, you should hit the gay clubs in Adelaide on a Saturday night.

And I'm not joking.

Tim Rogers is one of the greatest songwriters Australia has seen.

Now...You Die!

http://www.myspace.com/nowyoudie

i was weirdly into this band for a short time about 10 years ago. they have no US profile at all. some ok songs but nothing memorable.

Yuh Tim Rogers doesn't have much.

he's so meat and potatoes he blocks your colon for weeks