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.
Footscray is an inner-western suburb of Melbourne, Australia, 5 km from Melbourne's Central Business District. Its local government area is the City of Maribyrnong. At the 2016 census, Footscray had a population of 16,345.
Frost were an Australian pop rock band, which formed in 1997 by Benny Bishop on keyboards, Lee "Lemon" Trevena on lead vocals and Tim "Porn" Powne on bass guitar. They have used several drummers including Jerry Speiser from 2002 to 2006.
Ollie Olsen is an Australian multi-instrumentalist, composer and sound designer. He has performed, recorded and produced rock, electronic and experimental music since the mid-1970s. His post punk groups included Whirlywirld (1978–80), Orchestra of Skin and Bone (1984–86) and No (1987–89). Olsen joined with Michael Hutchence to form a short-term band, Max Q, which issued an album in 1989. He co-founded, Psy-Harmonics, with Andrew Till, as an alternative electronic music record label in 1993. In 2014 he formed Taipan Tiger Girls.
The Little Band scene was an experimental post-punk scene which flourished in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia from late 1978 until early 1981. Instigated by groups Primitive Calculators and Whirlywhirld, this scene was concentrated in the inner suburbs of Fitzroy and St Kilda, and involved large numbers of short-lived bands, more concerned with artistic expression than commercial success. Frequently changing names, swapping members and sharing equipment, the bands played in small inner-city venues, often pubs, and their music was recorded live and broadcast by radio announcer Alan Bamford on community station 3RRR. In the scene, the distinctions between performers and audience were blurred; many audience members were either in little bands or ended up forming such.
Rowland Stuart Howard was an Australian rock musician, guitarist and songwriter, best known for his work with the post-punk group The Birthday Party and his subsequent solo career.
Weddings, Parties, Anything. were an Australian folk rock band formed in 1984 in Melbourne and continuing until 1999. Their name came from The Clash song "Revolution Rock". Musicologist Billy Pinnell described their first album as the best Australian rock debut since Skyhooks' Living in the 70's.
Timothy Michael Hemensley was an Australian bass guitarist and singer. He was the front man of Powder Monkeys (1991–2002), a punk, garage and hard rock band. He had been a member of GOD (1986–89), Bored! (1989–91) and the Yes-Men. Hemensley was in his first band at age ten. In 1996 he played bass guitar for Peter Wells. Hemensley died of a heroin overdose on 21 July 2003, aged 31. Hemensley was the son of the poet, Kris Hemensley.
Amanda Gabrielle Brown is an Australian composer, classically trained musician, singer and songwriter known for her role as the violinist of the band The Go-Betweens and more recently a session musician and soundtrack composer.
Ross Andrew Hannaford was an Australian musician, active in numerous local bands. He was often referred to by his nickname "Hanna". Widely regarded as one of the country's finest rock guitarists, he was best known for his long collaboration with singer-songwriter Ross Wilson, which began as teenagers, with The Pink Finks and forming the seminal early '70s Australian rock band Daddy Cool. Hannaford died of cancer after being diagnosed a year earlier.
Nick Larkins is an Australian rock musician who has played with various Australian acts, and solo. Nick was born in London but raised in Hobart, Tasmania. Larkins has been highly nomadic for much of his career. He has usually been based in the city of Melbourne, known as the live music capital of Australia, but has also lived and worked in Europe several times.
The culture of Melbourne, the capital of the Australian state of Victoria, encompasses the city's artistic, culinary, literary, musical, political and social elements. Since its founding as a British settlement in 1835, Melbourne has been culturally influenced by European culture, particularly that of the British Isles. During the 1850s Victorian gold rush and in the decades the immediately followed, immigrants from many other parts of the world, notably China and the Americas, helped shape Melbourne's culture. Over time, Melbourne has become the birthplace of a number of unique cultural traits and institutions, and today it is one of the world's most multicultural cities.
Reggae is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1960s. Australia has several bands and sound systems that play reggae music in a style faithful to its expression in Jamaica. Australia has a relatively small Jamaican community, but reggae penetrated local consciousness via the popularity of reggae among the non-Jamaican population of England in the 1960s and 1970s. Many indigenous musicians have embraced reggae, both for its musical qualities and its ethos of resistance. Examples include Mantaka, No Fixed Address, Zennith and Coloured Stone.
The Galvatrons are a four-piece rock band who formed on 28 August 2007, in Geelong, Australia. Lead singer Johnny Galvatron stated on radio station 101.3 Sea FM on the Central Coast that the band got their name from the 1986 animated film Transformers. The Galvatrons cite their influences as Devo, Stan Bush, Australian Crawl, Van Halen, Lion, Cheap Trick, Kim Wilde, Queen, Stevie Nicks, Pat Benatar, Kenny Loggins, Tears for Fears and Gary Numan. The band have completed their debut album, as announced via their MySpace, which was released 3 July 2009.
Monika Fikerle is an Australian musician and multi-instrumentalist, most noted for her "energetic, quirky" drumming style.
The Rocketsmiths are an indie rock band from Brisbane, Australia and have released three EPs to date. They released their debut EP "Act One. Scene One." in June, 2006 with Sevens Records, and have since released two other EPs, "Meet Horace and Clyde" and "Parts, Pieces".
A Music Victoria study finds Melbourne hosts 62,000 live concerts annually, making it one of the live music capitals of the world. Victoria is host to more than three times the live performance national average, making it the live music capital of the country. Melbourne is host to more music venues per capita than Austin, Texas.
The Crystal Ballroom was a music venue located within the Seaview Hotel on Fitzroy Street in St Kilda, an inner suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It has often been referred to as the centerpiece of Melbourne's post-punk movement, showcasing groups such as The Birthday Party, Dead Can Dance and Crime and the City Solution, as well as being a mainstay of the Little Band scene.
The Smith Street Band are an Australian rock band from Melbourne, Victoria, in which the titular Smith Street can be found. The band have released five extended plays and five studio albums, No One Gets Lost Anymore (2011), Sunshine and Technology (2012), Throw Me in the River (2014), More Scared of You than You Are of Me (2017) and Don't Waste Your Anger (2020).
Kinematic are an Australia-based four-piece indie pop band formed in 2002. Originally an acoustic duo of Gordon Clarke on guitar and vocals and Michael Owen on vocals and guitar formed in 2000; they were joined by Gordon's brother, Michael Clarke, on bass guitar and backing vocals and Mark Olszewski on drums.
