The Welcome Mat - Gram (1993, Festival)

An Australian indie rock act worth their collective weight in gold who opened shop in 1990, and I just found caught wind of them...last week?  Then again, I live in North America, so maybe I shouldn't be too hard on myself.  Somewhere in blogtopia I heard "All or Nothing (More)" and was flabbergasted with The Welcome Mat's ability to fuse the melodic prowess of Geffen-era Teenage Fanclub and Posies with the frenetic axe squalls of Dinosaur Jr.  Talk about a corker.  Per Ian McFarlane's Encyclopedia of Australian Rock and Pop:

Sydney band The Welcome Mat started out as a chirpy, jangly guitar outfit before heading in a tougher, though still melodic and harmony-laced power pop direction...

I hear more of the latter on Gram, their debut album which was preceded by a number of singles/eps, but I gather this was still something of a transitional record for the quartet.   I use the comparison almost to the point of abuse on here, but I'm honing in a lot of parallels to some of the Doughboys later platters, specifically their Crush album, which I believe was also a '93 release.  Certain planets must have been in alignment that year, but I digress.  You can peruse The Welcome Mats full discography on this graying fanpage.  BTW, WM co-founder Wayne Connolly went on to form the equally gratifying Knievel.

01. Flying End
02. Everyone's Gone
03. Hell Hoping
04. Arrive in Time
05. Play Me
06. Leap of Faith
07. All or Nothing
08. Deathbag
09. People Changing
10. Gram
11. Junkmail
12. Blew

Hear