Throughout the eighties and even much of the nineties, Perth, Australia was a fertile breeding ground for innovative post-punk and garage bands. As the liner notes to Bad Timing wisely observes: A balanced, comprehensive and definitive retrospective of the music on offer in Perth in the 1980s is the province of a ten-volume, introductory box set...So how was this compilation pared down to a mere eleven tracks? Bad Timing was designed to be a brief snapshot - concise and varied, but by no means the final word.
Many a garage or basement was hoppin' back in the day on the southwest coast of Oz, with purist purveyors like The Graverobbers, The Kryptonics and The Marigolds standing out as the most archetypal examples. Others like The Neptunes and the positively legendary Stems took that rootsy vibe and melded it to something a little more contemporary. The Stems are definitely worth further exploration if you're at all moved by "Under Your Mushroom." The Triffids were arguably the breakout band spawned from the Perth pop movement, and their "Convent Walls" is as fine an introduction as any. The little spoken of Palisades brought the C86 jangle in very sweet way (check out their A Month Too Soon album here). The like-minded Ricken-poppers The Never Never rule the roost on this disk, with the chiming "The Girl's in My System." Would love to hear more from them. Should you ever happen upon a copy of Bad Timing, I'll warn you that the track listing on the tray card is atrociously mixed up (so much so that I didn't scan it in).
Speaking of jangle, one Perth area outfit conspicuously missing from this album is The Spliffs. Their lone album, House of Seven, and a clutch of singles go for a sickening amount of money on Ebay, but you can experience them gratis here and here. Enjoy.
01-The Stems - Under Your Mushroom
02-The Graverobbers - My Baby's a Tramp
03-The Jackals - Sister in the Graveyard
04-The Neptunes - Heartbreak Beach
05-Chad's Tree - Crush Lily
06-The Triffids - Convent Walls
07-Diddywah Hoodaddys - Linkola
08-The Never Never - The Girls in my System
09-The Marigolds - Lying Again
10-The Palisades - Alternatively Wednesdays
11-The Kryptonics - The Land that Time Forgot
2 comments:
Greetings I've been meaning to post a comment but I didn't know how to get a Google account till now. I like reading your posts about usually bands I never heard of. I had no idea in the USA there is this alternative legacy. My fav discovery here was The Spinning Jennies. I was also surprised you knew of Glide as I have a couple of their EPs too. Fav song by them is Waterfall off Shuffle Off To Buffalo (Naff title hey lol).
Regarding the Spliffs, they were from Townsville originally and thats in Queensland. A bit of trivia, they're keyboard player is now the manager of Silverchair.
Keep up the good work!!
Throughout the eighties and even much of the nineties, Perth, Australia was a fertile breeding ground for innovative post-punk and garage bands. As the liner notes to Bad Timing wisely observe
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