Gaslight Radio: Rory Cooke’s lyrics are wonderful – bitter and strange but also poetic. There’s a line in one of their songs, Dumbnouns for Suntowns which goes, “Don’t sell your drum kit for a car.” We can relate to that; we’ve gone through our share of drummers.
The Triffids: David McComb was one of the great Australian songwriters. He had a lot of vision and ambition and he was very successful at realising it. I think Born Sandy Devotional is the greatest Australian album of all time. There’s a song on our new album called Jewel of the West which is a tribute to him.
Underground Lovers: There’s this seamless blend of European electronics and shoegaze-influenced wall of noise guitars in their songs but it’s filtered through a quintessentially Aussie lens. The Undies (in the Aussie tradition of abbreviating everything including band names) are still going strong and are always great live.
The Go-Betweens: Probably the ultimate Brisbane band. Literary, poppy, jangly – that striped sunlight sound. I lived in Brisbane for a time and was fortunate to see them live a few times before Grant’s untimely passing.
The Church: I must confess, I have just about every Church and Steve Kilbey-related release. I love the blend of guitars, I love Steve’s laid back vocals and the lyrics are a trip. What are his lyrics about? I couldn’t tell you. Maybe I would have to be in a certain altered state of mind to find out.
