Our Top 5 Australian Musical Acts

This is just a fun post this week about Australian musical acts and the artists we as a household, enjoy the most.

This blog entry was inspired by an upcoming gig we have where we will be seeing Australian punk rock band Amyl and the Sniffers.

I appreciate people may read this short list and scratch their heads at the absence of ACDC, Kylie, Men at Work and all the others for that matter.

It’s just music like football is a game of opinions, isn’t it?

So the following antipodean artists get the HTWA seal of approval and we’ll drop a playlist on the page to share our favourite tracks with you.

Formed in Melbourne fairly recently (2017), Amyl and the Sniffers take their name from what we British know as ‘poppers’. Apparently, the 30 seconds of sniffing (poppers) and the subsequent headache is how they like to describe themselves and their music.

Personally, I would like to hold the band in much higher regard. Amy Taylor sings about raw stuff-such as the dangers of women walking around at night and never feeling safe (Knifey) as well as more fun tunes about fights in pubs (Security).

On their latest album ‘Cartoon Darkness’ the track featured below ‘U Should Not Be Doing That’ is a middle finger to those self-proclaimed older rockers who slate how she dresses and performs and has to be one of my favourite tunes from their first three albums.

The whole band has a pretty ‘bogan’ persona but their punk-rock riffs and catchy choruses tell much more of a story than their choice of hairstyle.

I cannot wait to see them live next month. From what I have seen from televised live performances, they will absolutely not disappoint!

Sydney band The Vines were my favourite band of the 00s. Or early 00s anyway. They brought back a proper Nirvanaesque grunge sound and mixed that up with melodic 60s pop-tinged stuff on early albums Highly Evolved and Winning Days.

The band’s frontman Craig Nicholls was the coolest man on the planet in my eyes. He cut his own hair, seemed not to have a care in the world, and was able to write some killer rock songs.

Unfortunately, their meteoric rise didn’t last for too long. The shambolic nature of frontman Nicholls in some live performances seemed to strain the relationships in the band and bass player Patrick Matthews left, signalling the end of the band as a meaningful force on UK shores.

If you are a fan of Nirvana and The Beatles, The Vines might just be for you.

Nick Cave is a bona fide Aussie music legend. He’s released a mighty 18 albums at the time of writing with his band The Bad Seeds.

If you don’t know his music from anything else, you have probably heard ‘Red Right Hand’. The track opens episodes of the modern classic BBC drama Peaky Blinders.

Nick Cave has collaborated with some fantastic artists over the years. He’s recorded music with –

• PJ Harvey – (song) Henry Lee
• Kylie Minogue – (song) Where The Wild Roses Grow
• Shane MacGowan – (song) What a Wonderful World

That is just a select few of his duets but Cave is a truly prolific and creative artist.

Melbourne rock and roll band Jet burst onto the scene with the help of mega-hit “Are you gonna be my girl”.

Jet feature brothers Nic and Chris Cester and have a sound inspired by the likes of ACDC, The Beatles, The Who and Oasis.

I’ve been fortunate enough to see Jet live a few times. The first time was at the Leeds Festival in the early 2000s, possibly in 2003.

They had big chunky riffs and good melodies, and singer Nic had a really good shredded rock and roll voice. Their career trajectory was not dissimilar to that of The Vines. They arrived with a bang with their debut album ‘Get Born’ but never really followed it up successfully. Although I am a fan of the third album ‘Shaka Rock’.

Jet went on a hiatus for a while but has recently been on a 20th-anniversary tour in celebration of ‘Get Born’.

Sunshine Coast punk rock band The Chats, possibly look like the most Australian band ever.

In their 3-minute stomper ‘Smoko’ lead singer Eamon Sandwith growls:

A pretty simple bit of down-under exposition to prepare us for a musical celebration of the fag break. Or as it’s known in Australia, Smoko.

I need to listen to more of this band. It’s simple punk rock done well.

Australia Rocks

We truly think Australia rocks. Having huge bands like Oasis, etc visiting is great for music lovers in Australia. However, I’m actually very interested in sampling the local music scenes.

Melbourne is said to have the most music venues per capita in the world which is a stat Melburnians should be proud of!

Adelaide is said to be the City of Festivals whilst I concede this is not purely music festivals. It’s pleasing to know art & creativity have a significant place in the heart of our likely landing spot in Australia.

Thanks for reading, if you’ve made the move from the UK to Australia and want to say anything about the music scene where you are, drop us a message and we might feature you in our blog!