Six Of Our Favourite Australian Indie Bands Of The 90’s
There has always seemed to be an undeserved lack of attention on the Australian music scene, no matter how good the music coming out of here is.
Some artists and bands have been able to gain attention, but usually it is sparked by an international move or an extended period abroad. It is always harder for Australians to make their impact, globally. The first answer to the question of why that is, always seems to be distance, we are so far away isolated from the rest of the world. It is true, but in the conversation of music that has been proven wrong by the bands who came out of New Zealand’s, Flying Nun Records, which is even more isolated than Australia.
Flying Nun are an independent label from Dunedin, a university town on New Zealand's South Island who released the music of bands like, The Chills, The Clean, The Bats and Look Blue Go Purple, bands that made a splash in the global music scenes of the eighties and nineties and are still regarded as some of the best indie rock that era had to offer. Their success furthers the question of: why is Australia so overlooked? It feels nearly impossible to pin point a real answer, especially when there is so much talent here, maybe it is just distance and Flying Nun got their music into the right hands at the right time, who knows. There has always been incredible music coming out of the nation and the nineties produced some of the best bands Australia has ever seen. In honour of Ausmusic Month it only feels right to explore and highlight six of our favourite underground Australian indie bands of the nineties.
Smudge
Smudge might be the biggest band on this list, yet they are still criminally underrated. As do all the bands on this list, Smudge deserves to be considered one of the greats. Formed in 1991 after Nic Dalton of Half A Cow records asked the trio of Paul Duncan, Alison Galloway, and Tom Morgan to contribute a song to the 1991 Half-A-Cow 7-inch EP, Slice. That song was “Tea, Toast and Turmoil”, a fun, catchy power-pop hit that laid down the blueprint for what Smudge was to become. Smudge became a staple of the Half A Cow catalogue, which I’m going to say is the best Australian Indie label of all time. Morgan, the band's vocalist, was also a song writing collaborator of Evan Dando and his band, The Lemonheads.
Smudge stayed together through the nineties, touring, playing the inaugural The Big Day out in 1992, releasing three albums, three compilations and a plethora of EPs. They stopped releasing new music just before the turn of the millennium, but they are still together and occasionally perform live. Their next show is in Sydney opening for Superchunk on the 13th of December.
Spdfgh
Spdfgh are a band from Sydney with a name that is almost impossible to remember and was called ‘The dumbest name in Australian rock’ by TV Week. Spdfgh is pronounced, ‘spuh-duh-fuh-guh-huh’ and are the letters used in chemistry when determining the number of electrons in the shells of an atom. The quartet got started playing together at their high school in Sydney’s southwest, quickly getting signed to Half A Cow.
Their music is power pop at its finest. It’s jangly, a little bit twee but still has that aggression which you can hear on songs like “Picture Me” that lift you up and make you want to charge through your day. Their song “Too Much” from the 1994 ep, Grassroots is one of my favourite Australian songs of all time and deserves to be listened to on repeat. Their 1996 album Leave Me Like This is just as great, yet different, more refined, feeling contemporary – even with the strange spoken word/rapping sections – in a way which is unmatched by the grunge-inspired power pop of Grassroots.
The Cats Miaow
The Cats Miaow are a band who I had known about for a long time before even realising they were from Melbourne, sounding like they could be a Sarah Records band from some seaside British city. It is unknown why the band didn’t reach the same level of success of some of their peers, maybe it was their lack of enjoyment of playing live that got in the way, as their music is incredible. Pitchfork included their 1997 compilation record, Songs for Girls to Sing in their list for the 25 best indie pop albums of the 90s. A list that featured albums by the likes of Belle & Sebastian, Heavenly, The Sundays, and Saint Etienne. Songs for Girls to Sing truly earned it spot on that list to be in that list as much as any other album, it is incredibly underrated and features some of their hits including “Not Like I Was Doing Anything” and “Hollow Inside”.
The vocals on The Cats Miaow’s songs are softly sung, gentle and sweet with the ability to open the wounds of the most sensitive parts of you with a stroke of innocence. While not reaching the success that they arguably deserved they were still able to make quite a name for themselves, being signed to American indie label Drive-In Records and releasing a split 7-inch with Avant-pop greats Stereolab. As of late the band are occasionally playing shows in Melbourne, maybe sparking their enjoyment for performing live.
Even As We Speak
Even As We Speak are the indie-pop band formed in Sydney that were one of Australia’s two contributions to the Sarah Records catalogue. The label crowned the second greatest indie record label of all time by NME. The Bristol-based label made a name for itself, releasing some of the best jangle-indie-pop records throughout the late 80s and early 90s. Even As We Speak sat on the label next to bands like Another Sunny Day, Heavenly, The Field Mice, The Orchids, and fellow Australians The Sugargliders.
After their early Phantom Records releases caught the ears of BBC Radio One host John Peel, he began to play their single, “Goes So Slow” on his show. Peel leading to the band gaining popularity in the UK and the beginning of their relationship with Sarah Records. A label that their sweet, bubbly sound fit so perfectly at. Later the band recorded four Peel Sessions, making them one of six Australian bands to ever record one, with the others being The Birthday Party, The Triffids, The Go-Betweens and Laughing Clowns. Their Peel Sessions were released as the compilation record, Yellow Food: The Peel Sessions in 2014. The band also recorded an incredible, slowed down version of New Order’s “Bizarre Love Triangle”.
Afterglow
I’m not even going to pretend to know anything about Afterglow. All I know and could find about them is that they are a shoegaze band from Melbourne. They might also be one of the only shoegaze bands from the city during that era? They are amazing and I’d like to thank the YouTube algorithm for introducing me to them. If anyone knows anything about Afterglow, please reach out to me and let me know. I’m a big fan.
Bluetile Lounge
Bluetile Lounge are a band from Perth who are considered innovators of the shoegaze and slowcore genres. The band got little attention in Perth and around Australia but gained a cult following overseas due to the support they received from Steve Shelley of Sonic Youth and Alan Sparhawk of Low. They rarely played live, never touring with their only notable show being at the Perth leg of 1996’s Summersault Festival at the order of Sonic Youth who were headlining. Their debut album Lowercase, saw a US release via Summershine records and being distributed by Sub Pop, their second album, Half Cut, also got the same US release treatment being released by Steve Shelley’s own label, Smells Like Records.
My friend Cameron and I have always joked around calling them ‘Perth Duster’, listening to them it makes sense. Yet, knowing that Bluetile Lounge formed in 1991, five years before Duster got together in California, just adds to their brilliance. Ahead of their time in the most isolated city in the world, pre internet, Bluetile Lounge created something extremely special that we are lucky hasn’t been completely lost in the ether.