Australia's
Marnies didn't leave much of a discography, or moreover a footprint. That's a shame, because back in the late '80s, while most of their home-country contemporaries had one foot in the garage, this quartet were taking cues from one of Oz's grandest anomalies of the era, The Church. "Electric Wires" bristles with robust reverb, clangy fretwork, and a driving hook, wasting not one of it's precious 150 seconds. Platinum grade indie pop if there ever was such a thing. The flip, "Watch the Clock" features a different vocalist, slotting well within the ballad realm. No info on the group is to be had save for the record label itself, listing the Marnies roster, recording details, and a
North Fitzroy correspondence address. The lineup includes
Patrick McArdle on guitar and vocals,
Terrance Vella also on guitar,
Anthony Camm singing and plucking the fat strings, and
Damien Tesoriero gently applying repeated blows to the percussion. Should any of you care to unravel this mysterious outfit, comment as you see fit.
A. Electric Wires
B. Watch the Clock
Hear
7 comments:
Hi--any chance of a reup on the Marnies? thanks!
Just fixed the link.
Thanks very much!
They formed around 1987; name was taken from the 1964 Hitchcock film.
McArdle had been part of the Vacuum Safari Suits, Camm and Vella had been playing and writing together since high school. They met up at LaTrobe Uni.
Did quite a bit of inner-suburban gigging at the time - Punters Club, Evelyn Hotel, Empress Of India, Royal Artillery, Limbo Club, etc. Supported local outfits such as the Rhythm Pigs, Tyrnaround, and were support for Falling Joys at The Tote one night.
Repertoire was original songs (although they used to finish gigs with a nice cover of "Yesterday's Hero"), written by McArdle (lead vocal on "Watch The Clock"), Camm (lead vocal on "Electric Wires"), and Vella.
The single was pressed on purple vinyl (at least, that was the intention - the pressing plant spat out various hues of blue and red before the purple ones!), copies given away at the launch gig were standard black vinyl. Still got one of the blue ones somewhere...
Tesoreiro left in 1989, and was replaced by Maurice Toneatto (not sure of the spelling) before later rejoining. They disbanded around late 1990 / early 1991.
Update: McArdle and Tesoriero are currently operating as Power Chime:
https://www.triplejunearthed.com/artist/power-chime
Thank Keats and Yates for the history of the band and for being our greatest supporter. We love you dearly. We still have regular reunions and continue to write songs although not often together but record them. I'm the only one who puts stuff online on sound cloud www.soundcloud.com/patrickmcardle but I'm encouraging the other guys to do the same as they are writing incredible songs. Love Pat
Can you please re-upload this?
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