List/Discuss 70s and 80s Australian Bands

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by nbakid2000, Mar 19, 2012.

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  1. nbakid2000

    nbakid2000 On Indie's Cutting Edge Thread Starter

    Location:
    Springfield, MO
    The thing that got me on this topic was basically listening to Indian Summer (a mash-up artist). He used "Horror Movie" on one of his songs by the band Skyhooks (1970s) which got me to look up what song it was and what else the band had done.

    So now I'm interested in which albums by Skyhooks to get (Living in the Seventies is apparently awesome, from what I read online) among other Australian acts from this time period (into the 80s). Searching through YouTube has led me to Dragon (80s) which from what I hear, I really like.

    I'm aware of Supernaut (only available on vinyl apparently) and The Sports. Any other great bands that are under rated or don't get any attention? Anyone have the Skyhooks remasters on CD?
     
  2. Linolad

    Linolad Forum Resident

    I have the Skyhooks remaster of 'Living In The Seventies' and it sounds great (imo) , much the same as I remember it when I bought the vinyl back when it came out. Simple strong production and clean vocals.

    I love it
     
  3. John Buchanan

    John Buchanan I'm just a headphone kind of fellow. Stax Sigma

    It's worth investigating Chain's "Towards The Blues" - an Australian supergroup.
    I would also suggest having a listen to Billy Thorpe And The Aztecs "Live At The Melbourne Town Hall" simply for the most amazing vocal performance I've ever heard on "Somebody Left Me Crying". Unbelievable - not a dry eye in the house.
    There was even a prog rock album released during this time span - Mackenzie Theory's "Out Of The Blue".
    Of course, Daddy Cool's "Daddy Who, Daddy Cool" is legendary - try not dancing to "Eagle Rock".
    One of my very favourite bands from that time was earlier Jo Jo Zep And The Falcons - it seems only best ofs are available now - wonderful band.
     
  4. Pavol Stromcek

    Pavol Stromcek Senior Member

    Location:
    SF Bay Area
    One of my favorite bands ever is the Go-Betweens. And no discussion of 70s-80s Australian bands is complete without mentioning the Saints, Laughing Clowns, the Moodists, and the Triffids.

    However, somehow I get the feeling the OP is approaching this subject through the prism of a different genre than these artists I've mentioned.
     
  5. fitzysbuna

    fitzysbuna Senior Member

    Location:
    Australia
    depends on what you like ! for pop there is Sherbet and Skyhooks. for hard rock there is AC/DC and Rose tattoo for a good rock and roll band there is Cold Chisel and Billy thorpe & the Aztecs

    the original Little River Band (not the bunch of Americans who have the name today! )

    Icehouse, Mental As Anything and The Party Boys, Choirboys,black sorrows, Paul Kelly,The Reels, Billy Fields and the hoodoo Gurus are some of the 1980's

    and for skyhooks get the 1994 remasters they sound best
     
  6. dlemaudit

    dlemaudit Forum Resident

    Location:
    France, Paris area
    Lots
    The Saints
    Radio Birdman
    Hoodoo Gurus
    Celibate Rifles
    Died Pretty
    The Stems
    Laughing Clowns / Ed Kuepper
    Hitmen
    Sunnyboys
    Lime Spiders
    Moodists
    Go Betweens
    Triffids
    Scientists
    Beasts of Bourbon
    Johnnnys .........
     
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  7. blutiga

    blutiga Forum Resident

    Dragon in the 70's, like Skyhooks, had classic 70's instrumentation and production. In the 80's that changed, with the introduction of synths and an 80's production sound. But they had great anthemic singles like Rain then, so you might like that too. l really like 70's era Dragon, and find Skyhooks cheeky and endearing, but a bit dated musically.
    Early Cold Chisel is great too. 'Breakfast At Sweethearts', 'East' and 'Circus Animals' are awesome albums.
     
  8. paulisdead

    paulisdead fast and bulbous

    Thank god we've had labels like Aztec Music and Citadel Records to save these albums from being lost to the ages

    http://www.aztecmusic.net/
    http://www.citadel-records.com/

    It's a real shame (abelt a disgrace) that Aussie Rock has been given such poor treatment for reissues during the first 20 years of the CD era. Thank god the tide seems to be turning.
     
  9. D Schnozzman

    D Schnozzman Forum Resident

    Location:
    Sydney, Australia
    Uh oh! Please don't refer to Dragon as an Australian band. I can hear the Kiwis muttering in the distance ;)

    The Sports were a terrific band. Singer Stephen Cummings has been churning out excellent solo albums to general commercial indifference for the last 30 years. His book, Will it Be Funny Tomorrow, Billy? is also a great read.
     
  10. John Buchanan

    John Buchanan I'm just a headphone kind of fellow. Stax Sigma

    Most of the Billy Thorpe And The Aztecs remasters had to be remastered from acetates or vinyl, sadly. No tape remaining. Gil "Rats" Matthews (drummer in Billy Thorpe And The Aztecs") is the head honcho of Aztec Music, AFAIK.
     
  11. John Buchanan

    John Buchanan I'm just a headphone kind of fellow. Stax Sigma

    Cold Chisel are fantastic. The remasters are far too loud, but very well packaged with some amazing b**tleg footage included on the bonus DVDs.
     
  12. imarcq

    imarcq Men are from Mars, I'm from Bromley...

    Location:
    Sydney, Australia
    Spy v Spy are bloody good - but definitely a product of the 80's. Try these:

    1986 Harry's Reasons
    1986 A.O. Mod. TV. Vers.
    1988 Xenophobia (Why?)

    Also you may probably already know or have heard of Hunters and Collectors - Another quite brilliant Aussie band who formed in the early 80's:

    (1984) The Jaws Of Life
    (1986) Human Frailty
    (1987) What's a Few Men?
    (1989) Ghost Nation

    Bold are the LP's I like the best.
     
  13. PaulE

    PaulE Forum Resident

    INXS and Midnight Oil aren't 'under the radar' but some of their early albums were not international hits and are really great. Try Shabooh Shoobah (1982) or The Swing (1984) for INXS and Head Injuries (1979) for the Oils, for a great raw rock album.

    For something a bit more obscure how about Matt Finish. Their 'Short Note' (1980) album has some nice tracks on it. Australian Crawl were a big 70's, 80's Aussie band who never made it overseas to my knowledge.

    There was also a great Aussie band called The Badloves. Their album Get On Board was early 90's I think, but it is just fantastic. All of the tracks are great. Very soulful and funky. Criminally underrated. I recommend it to everybody.
     
  14. AFOS

    AFOS Forum Resident

    Location:
    Brisbane,Australia
    If you like Skyhooks I'd suggest Sherbet who were kind of The Beatles to Skyhooks Stones during the 70's. They produced some wonderful pop records like Howzat,Summer Love & Childs Play.

    I agree with The Go-Betweens one of my favourite bands.

    Australian Crawl might be another band to investigate.

    Icehouse too especially Primitive Man unless you hate the 80's synth sound.
     
  15. PaulE

    PaulE Forum Resident

    Oh I forgot. Do-Re-Mi were a good Aussie band from the early 80's. Try the tracks Man Overboard or Idiot Grin. Their singer Deborah Conway went on to some solo success. They were quite a bit different than your average pub rock fodder at the time.

    Also The Angels were a great hard rock band who I think had minor success in America as 'Angel City'. Pretty basic stuff but it rocked hard.
     
  16. D Schnozzman

    D Schnozzman Forum Resident

    Location:
    Sydney, Australia
    Re: Hunters & Collectors, they started out as Can-influenced art rockers (their name is taken from a Can song) and gradually morphed into pub-rock-anthemeers. I prefer their earlier, arty stuff. :D

    The remasters (so I am told) are pretty horrendous but the original CDs should be OK. The vinyl is easy enough to find so I haven't really checked out any CDs.
     
  17. jacksondownunda

    jacksondownunda Forum Resident

    I moved here in late '88, so had to learn from scratch. A lot of biggies already mentioned in post 6.

    I was kinda fond of Joe Camaleri & The Black Sorrows in their late 80's edition.

    However, I really got hooked, lined and sunk on the Cruel Sea (IMHO a tastier guitar sound behind frontman Tex Perkins than Beasts Of Burbon)

    They mentioned the Aztec remasters/re-issues upthread and a pal's exposed me to a lot of the earlier 70's stuff I'd missed. Spectrum, for instance, were known for their one hit, but had a schizo split of some really weird and strange prog rock (which was often quite imaginative), balanced (for the sake of steady gigging on other nights) with generic rock n roll tunes.

    There's a fair amount of early 70's instrumental and prog rock. I like Taman Shud and thier spacey/heavy surf sound.
    There were some early instrumental and prog bands like Tully (one gig with orchestra) and Sebastian Hardy (who also backed Jon English?).

    For the R&B or Blues from early 70's one might have a peak at Levi Smith's Clefs (a rotating line-up, kinda like an R&B Aussie Mayall), or blooze singer Wendy Saddington.
     
  18. John Buchanan

    John Buchanan I'm just a headphone kind of fellow. Stax Sigma

    OMG - the Hunters and Midnight Oil. I managed to get the Hunters complete box set for some ridiculously cheap price a while back. Lots of good stuff there.
    The Oils - fantastic.
     
  19. blutiga

    blutiga Forum Resident

    Sorry Kiwis:)

    Now all Kiwis reading this in Australia, please go back to New Zealand, immediately. Accept the musos, you can stay:D
     
  20. PaulE

    PaulE Forum Resident

    Another quite obscure 80's band were Avion. Their two albums tanked even in Australia, but I thought the first self titled one was pretty good. Just good Aussie guitar based rock.

    The guitarist/singer was a talented guy called Randall Waller who was in Shania Twain's band the last I heard.
     
  21. jumpinjulian

    jumpinjulian Forum Resident

    Another mention for Died Pretty, a truly great band who deserved wider attention!
     
  22. andythiing

    andythiing Forum Resident

    Stems have been mentioned but you coukd grab dom mariani's Rewind and play or popsided guitar anthology - you wont regret it

    http://dommariani.earplugmusic.com/discography

    Go betweens and triffids bug thumbs up as well

    Of much more recent note but from the WA talent pool is a great band called little birdy - they can hold their heads up with some of the great 70's and 80's bands IMHO :)

    Mental as anything - cats and dogs lp is my favourite of theirs

    Or get this 5 cd comp which gives a good spread of talent
    http://shop.abc.net.au/products/100-best-australian-albums

    Hoodoo gurus stoneage romeo is a classic

    And for pure pop grab some reels

    And for some social commentary grab some paul kelly - kinda like an aussie billy bragg?
     
  23. blutiga

    blutiga Forum Resident

    I saw Ron Peno on the train once. He got on at South Yarra and got off at Cheltenham:)
     
  24. Mylene

    Mylene Senior Member

  25. Pavol Stromcek

    Pavol Stromcek Senior Member

    Location:
    SF Bay Area
    I love Hunters and Collectors, but only their early output. I can't get into the pub-rock stuff at all. But those early post-punk albums are amazing!
     
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