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.
Lime Spiders were an Australian punk rock band which formed in 1979 with Mick Blood on lead vocals. He was later joined by Tony Bambach on bass guitar, Gerard Corben on guitar, Richard Lawson on drums, and David Sparks on guitar. Their debut studio album, The Cave Comes Alive! was released in June 1987 and reached the top 60 on the Kent Music Report Albums Chart. Their most successful single, "Weirdo Libido", was released in January that year and reached the top 50 on the related Kent Music Report Singles Chart. In April its music video was the first ever shown on Australian Broadcasting Corporation TV music series rage. The track was used on the 1988 feature film Young Einstein's soundtrack. The group disbanded in 1990 and in 1999 Australian musicologist, Ian McFarlane, noted they had provided "raucous sound mixed screaming vocals and wild, fuzz-tone guitar riffs to arrive at a mutant strain of acid punk that bordered on heavy metal".
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 Shamen were a Scottish electronic dance music band, formed in 1985 in Aberdeen. The founding members were Colin Angus, Derek McKenzie and Keith McKenzie. Peter Stephenson joined shortly after to take over on keyboards from Angus. Several other people were later in the band. Angus then teamed up with Will Sinnott, and together they found credibility as pioneers of rock/dance crossover. When Mr. C joined, the band moved on to international commercial success with "Ebeneezer Goode" and their 1992 Boss Drum album.
The Pandoras was an all-female garage punk band from Los Angeles, California who were active from 1982 to 1991. The band is among the first handful of all-female rock bands to ever be signed. From the beginning, the band found a strong following in the Hollywood garage rock and Paisley Underground scene. The Pandoras enjoyed strong radio support from DJ Rodney Bingenheimer. The band graduated from the garage rock sound to a more contemporary, hard rock style in later years, spawning the off-shoot band The Muffs. The Pandoras founder/singer/songwriter, Paula Pierce, died on August 10, 1991, of a brain aneurysm at the age of 31. The Muffs front-woman/founder Kim Shattuck who played bass in the Pandoras from 1985 to 1990 passed in October 2nd, 2019 from ALS. Shattuck had appeared as lead singer/lead guitarist of the reunited Pandoras in recent years, until her passing.
U.K. Subs are an English punk rock band, among the earliest in the first wave of British punk. Formed in 1976, the mainstay of the band has been vocalist Charlie Harper, originally a singer in Britain's R&B scene. They were also one of the first hardcore punk bands.
The Bo-Weevils are a psychedelic rock band blending psychedelic music, pop music, garage rock and rock music which formed in early 1985. Their early garage incarnation was a lot easier to classify and won fans easily, but the band evolved away from these roots from the late 1980s into more cerebral and accomplished directions. They released four studio albums, Where Particular People Congregate (1988), Destroyer of Worlds (1990), Reap (1992), and Burn (1994) before they semi-retired in 1999. Australian musicologist, Ian McFarlane described the group as "one of the first Australian bands of the 1980s to play wild, 1960s-inspired garage-punk".
The Slickee Boys were a Washington, D.C. area punk-psychedelic-garage rock band whose most-remembered lineup consisted of guitarist Marshall Keith, guitarist Kim Kane, singer Mark Noone and drummer Dan Palenski. The group was named after a GI slang term for the rockabilly-inspired Korean street toughs who sold black market goods to American soldiers.
The Leather Nun are a Swedish rock group. Careening from garage rock to goth and pop-rock, Leather Nun became cult heroes in their native land and wide abroad.
The Effigies were an American punk band from Chicago, Illinois, United States. The band played its first show in 1980 and was active initially for approximately a decade, undergoing multiple personnel changes with frontman John Kezdy the only constant, before disbanding in 1990. The band released 5 albums and several EPs, most on the record label they founded in 1981, Ruthless Records, which was distributed by Enigma. Later albums were on the Fever Records and Roadkill Records labels. They toured the U.S. and Canada and played notable venues, including CBGB, Maxwell's, First Avenue (nightclub), Mabuhay Gardens, Paycheck's (Detroit), Exit (Chicago) and The Rathskeller, among others. They also received a significant amount of national airplay on college radio at a time when it was the only medium for alternative music.
The Chesterfield Kings were a rock band from Rochester, New York, who began as a retro-1960s garage band, and who have heavily mined 1960s music, including some borrowing from the 1960s recordings of The Rolling Stones. Core members were former Distorted Level singer, underground music journalist and avid record collector Greg Prevost, and Andy Babiuk ; others have come and gone. The band, named after a defunct brand of unfiltered cigarette, was instrumental in sparking the 1980s garage band revival that launched such groups as the Unclaimed, Marshmallow Overcoat, The Fuzztones, The Pandoras, The Malarians, Mystic Eyes, The Cynics, The Optic Nerve, the Secret Service, and the Stomachmouths.
The Mummies are an American garage punk band formed in San Bruno, California, in 1988. Exhibiting a defiantly raw and lo-fi sound, dubbed "budget rock", the Mummies' rebellious attitude and distinctive performance costumes exerted a major influence on garage punk and garage rock revival acts later in the decade, as well as in the 1990s. Their recorded output was intentionally completed with poor, cheap equipment, including their first and only studio album Never Been Caught, which was released after the group's initial break-up. Since then, the Mummies have engaged in several positively-received reunion concerts and tours, including appearances in Europe and the US sporadically through to recent years. The band is currently working on a movie and will reconvene for live appearances again in 2020.
The Last Drive is a Greek punk garage rock group which was formed in 1983, broke up in 1995, and reunited in January 2007.
Laughing Hyenas was an American garage rock band that existed from 1985 to 1995. According to AllMusic, "At first, the band specialized in dirges overlaid with the tortuous, throat-shredding vocals of frontman John Brannon. As time passed, their blues connections became more and more explicit".
The Stomachmouths were a Swedish garage punk band from Stockholm, Sweden, active in the 1980s. Formed in 1984, they were one of the earliest 'pure' garage bands in the European garage revival of the 1980s. Along with local colleagues the Crimson Shadows they pioneered the notion of a garage punk band that strove for authenticity in replicating the sound and the look of the original '60s inspirators, primarily from the US. The Stomachmouths received immediate international attention with their self-released debut 45, which raised interest on the independent music scenes in England and the US. The band toured extensively in Europe, appearing on German television and receiving major newspaper coverage in Italy.
Originally from Perth, Western Australia, Kryptonics were a melodic pop punk band that were active between 1985 and 1992. Kryptonics were contemporaries of notable Perth bands The Stems, The Triffids & The Bamboos, and released a series of 7" singles and 12" vinyl EPs on a number of Australian independent record labels.
Stellan Wahlström Drift Band is a rock band from Stockholm, Sweden. The singer and songwriter Stellan Wahlström previously played with The Wylde Mammoths who released records on the American label Crypt Records and toured in Europe and in the USA. During the late 1990s the first album Time Leaves You Behind was recorded in New York by Patrick Derivaz followed by live shows at clubs like CBGB's, Sidewalk and Continental. The song "Watching TV" was featured in the independent film Rhimes and Reason. Wahlström has also played in England and toured in India. Back in Stockholm the band has made three more albums released by Belpid Records.
T.T. Quick was an American heavy metal band from Osbornsville, New Jersey that formed in 1979. They are best known for their 1986 album Metal Of Honor and vocalist Mark Tornillo who has been the frontman for German heavy metal band Accept since 2009.
The Angry Samoans is an American punk rock band from the first wave of American punk, formed in August 1978 in Los Angeles, California, by early 1970s rock writer "Metal" Mike Saunders, his sibling lead guitarist Bonze Blayk and Gregg Turner, along with original recruits Todd Homer (bass) and Bill Vockeroth (drums).
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.
