The Stems are a garage punk band formed in Perth, Western Australia in late 1983. They were founded by Richard Lane and Dom Mariani in late 1983. The Stems are heavily influenced by 1960s garage rock and 1970s power pop. The band initially broke up in August 1987 and reformed in 2003 releasing a new album in 2007. Although the group disbanded in October 2009, as of 2013 The Stems are an ongoing live concern.
Head Injuries is the second studio album by Australian pub rockers Midnight Oil, which was released in October 1979 on their own Powderworks label and distributed by Columbia Records. The album was produced by Leszek J. Karski, recorded at 'Trafalgar Studios' in Sydney. It was the last Midnight Oil album to feature founding bass guitarist Andrew James, who quit the band due to illness. It peaked at No. 36 on the Australian Kent Music Report and by mid-1980 had achieved gold status.
Radio Birdman was one of the first Australian independent bands to carry the punk label, along with the Saints. They were formed by Deniz Tek and Rob Younger in Sydney in 1974. The group influenced the work of many successful, mainstream bands, and are now considered instrumental in Australia's musical growth.
Australian indie rock is part of the overall flow of Australian rock history but has a distinct history somewhat separate from mainstream rock in Australia, largely from the end of the punk rock era onwards.
Died Pretty, sometimes The Died Pretty, was an Australian alternative rock band founded by mainstays Ron Peno and Brett Myers in Sydney in 1983. The band was briefly called Final Solution. Their music started from a base of early electric Bob Dylan with psychedelic influences, including The Velvet Underground and Television. They were managed by John Needham, who is the owner of Citadel Records, their main label.
Rob Younger is an Australian rock musician, vocalist, songwriter and producer. He is a founding mainstay of the punk rock group, Radio Birdman, and a pioneer of the local independent music scene. Radio Birdman, formed with Deniz Tek on guitar in November 1974, was one of the first punk rock bands ever formed in Australia, and is considered one of the most influential and crucial bands in Australian music history. Younger formed a short-term super-group, New Race, in 1981. He also formed New Christs in that year, who is still active today.
The New Christs are an Australian garage rock band formed in 1980 by founding mainstay, Rob Younger, on lead vocals. Younger was the lead singer for punk rockers, Radio Birdman, and in other hard rock groups, New Race, Bad Music, the Other Side, Nanker Phelge, and Deep Reduction. The New Christs line-up since 2011 is Younger with Jim Dickson on bass guitar, Dave Kettley on guitar, Paul Larsen on drums and Brent Williams on guitar and keyboards. Over their career the group have issued five studio albums, Distemper (1989), Lower Yourself (1997), We Got This! (2002), Gloria (2009) and Incantations (2014). Three former members have died: Stevie Plunder in January 1996, Mark Wilkinson in December 2012 and Christian Houllemare in June 2014.
Toys Went Berserk were an Australian post-punk outfit that formed in late 1985. They released two studio albums, The Smiler with a Knife (1989) and Sensory (1990), before disbanding in early 1992. They subsequently reformed in 1998, 2005 and 2016.
The Screaming Tribesmen were an Australian rock band formed in Brisbane, Queensland in 1981 by mainstay Mick Medew on lead vocals and lead guitar. With various line-ups they released three studio albums, Bones and Flowers, Blood Lust (1990) and Formaldehyde (1993), before disbanding in 1998. They reformed in 2011 for performances until June 2012. Australian musicologist, Ian McFarlane, described how they, "fashioned a memorable brand of 1960s-inspired pop rock that combined equal parts existential lyric angst, melodic inventiveness and strident guitar riffs."
Deniz Tek is an American singer, guitarist and songwriter and a founding member of Australian rock group Radio Birdman. He has played in many of the underground rock bands of the 1970s including Australian bands The Visitors, and New Race but is most known for exerting his burning Detroit style guitar influence over the punk rock genre in Australia.
Charles Fisher is an Australian record producer, often referred to as "The Song Doctor." He is widely known as the producer of Savage Garden's eponymous album which yielded 10 ARIAs in 1997. "I Want You", a single from the aforementioned album also won a Channel V award in India. He has also worked with Radio Birdman, Air Supply, Hoodoo Gurus, Olivia Newton-John, Gyan, Moving Pictures, 1927, Electric Pandas, Detective Red, Soul Decision, The Radiators, The Seekers, Deep Blue Something and Ace of Base.
The Celibate Rifles were an Australian punk rock band which formed in 1979 with a line-up that included mainstays Dave Morris on rhythm guitar and Kent Steedman on lead guitar, within a year they were joined by Damien Lovelock on lead vocals. They released their first album, Sideroxylon, in April 1983 on the Hot Records label. The band has toured both America and Europe extensively, and released their ninth studio album, Beyond Respect on 19 July 2004. In 1985 the group's style was described as post-Radio Birdman sound which is "a combination of fast, guitar-driven, hard rock and power pop". In November 1987 Sounds magazine's Roger Holland described their album, Roman Beach Party as showing the group's "sawn off rock potential all the way down to the bleached white of the bone, the lyrics reveal all the anger, insight and humour that makes [them] one of the most powerful rock bands in the world today". In April 1994 The Celibate Rifles issued Spaceman in a Satin Suit which according to Australian rock music historian, Ian McFarlane "was [their] best studio album since Blind Ear". Lovelock undertook a solo career and issued two albums as well as becoming a TV sports presenter prior to his death in 2019.
The First and Last is a live album released by the "once-only" supergroup band New Race. The First and Last is a collection of recordings from the various shows the band played along the East Coast of Australia in 1981. New Race contained members of the band Radio Birdman: Deniz Tek, Rob Younger, and Warwick Gilbert, along with guitarist from The Stooges- Ron Asheton, and MC5 drummer Dennis Thompson. The First and Last is often hailed as one of the greatest live Punk rock albums of all time, though there is a dispute as to the true genre of the album. Radio Birdman are often regarded as one of the integral influences of Australian punk rock, but their style and sound is often compared to that of the MC5 Detroit sound, and the broad genre of Proto-punk, which includes bands such as The Stooges, The Velvet Underground, and The New York Dolls.
Living Eyes was the second studio album released by Sydney, Australia punk rock band Radio Birdman. It was the last recorded album by the band as they split up shortly after it was recorded in 1978. The album was recorded over a three-week period at the Rockfield Studios in Wales whilst the band was on its first overseas tour, supporting the Flamin' Groovies around Britain and Europe. The original master tapes disappeared before the album was released and as a result the album was mastered from a cassette recording of trial mixes, which impacted on the sound quality. Living Eyes sound was heavily influenced by the lead guitarist and producer Deniz Tek who had lived in Detroit before moving to Australia and been influenced musically by the "Motor City Rock" sound. The music of Birdman has been compared to that of The Stooges and MC5, but their sound is also comparable to that of 60's rock 'n' roll bands such as The Rolling Stones.
Radios Appear is the first full-length studio album by Australian punk rock band Radio Birdman. The album was recorded at Birdman's Trafalgar Studios, Sydney, during 1976 and 1977. Trafalgar initially distributed the album via mail order and by sales from the backs of friend's and band members' station wagons. This laid the groundwork for future DIY punk bands in Australia. Radios Appear was hailed by many as a breakthrough album in Australian rock and a decisive change from the uneventful early mid-seventies scene.
Australian musicians played and recorded some of the earliest punk rock. The Saints released their first single in 1976. Bands playing subgenres or offshoots of punk music, such as local hardcore acts, still have a strong cult following throughout Australia. Fans started to form bands, both punk and dissimilar in sound, beginning a distinct Brisbane punk scene, one of the first in the world. By 1977, other bands were starting to form in Sydney, under the influence of local and overseas punk acts. These bands and other Australian and overseas punk acts were strongly supported by public radio stations. The Young Charlatans had formed in Melbourne out of the ashes of earlier bands. During the late 1970s, former members of Radio Birdman contributed to several new Sydney bands. The Quick and the Dead, who played in Perth during 1979–81, pioneered a sound closely related to Oi!.
Christopher William Masuak is a Canadian-born Australian musician, guitarist, songwriter and record producer. He joined the punk rock group, Radio Birdman, then the hard rockers, the Hitmen, and the Screaming Tribesmen (1984–89). Masuak has also been a member of New Christs (1983–84), the Juke Savages (1992–96), the Raouls (1996–97), and Klondike's North 40 (2002–present). He has released material as Chris Boy King and as Klondike. Radio Birdman were inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame in July 2007.
The Fun Things were an Australian punk rock band that was formed during the heyday period of punk rock. Known for their admiration of Radio Birdman, they also have been documented as being "modeled on almost exclusively on the Radio Birdman/Stooges/Sex Pistols mould". Original band members were Brad Shepherd on guitar and vocals, John Hartley on bass guitar, Graeme Beavis on guitar and Murray Shepherd on drums. Brad Shepherd and Murray Shepherd were brothers in the band, which released one highly acclaimed E.P. and has become "one of the most collectable artifacts from Australia's punk rock era".
The Psychotic Turnbuckles are an Australian garage punk band that originated in Sydney, which was formed in 1984. The group's original members were "Jesse the Intruder"(vocals), "The Grand Wizard" (guitar), "El Sicodelico" (guitar), 'The Creep',, and 'The Spoiler', (drums), who died in 2013.
The Proton Energy Pills were an Australian punk rock band formed in the city of Wollongong, New South Wales in 1986. The band released 2 vinyl singles and a vinyl EP in its time and is considered a very seminal and influential group as its members went on to play in many successful Australian bands over the next 25 years.
