Tag: new wave

a brief history of australian (and new zealand) rock bands pt 2

The Boys Next Door – Somebody’s Watching (1978)
Nick Cave’s first band, before the Birthday Party and long before The Bad Seeds, way back when he hadnt even done drugs yet, imagine that?

Radio Birdman – Descent Into Maelstrom (1977/78)
70s Aussie punk / indie garage rock heroes

Split Enz – History Never Repeats (1981)
Formed by Tim and Neil Finn and Phil Judd in 1973 in New Zealand, Split Enz would become the face of Australian New Wave with a multitude of top 10 hits, later moving to the UK and eventually splitting off into the international pop success Crowded House.

The Swingers – One Good Reason (1979) [7″ version]
Phil Judd‘s next band and another of Australia’s iconic new wave bands (although originally from New Zealand). The band was featured in the popular 1982 cult movie musical “Starstruck” doing a totally revamped version of this track.

The Veronicas – 4ever (2005)
And i’ll leave you with the infectious pop anthem from The Veronica’s debut album, back when identical twin (whats with aussie bands and siblings?) sisters Lisa and Jessica Origliasso were just sweet innocent teenagers. Go find their further videos to see how that turned out (spoiler, still sweet, no longer teenagers, not so much innocent)

a brief history of australian (and new zealand) rock bands pt 1

The Easybeats – I’ll Make You Happy (1965)
Known as Australia’s Beatles, The Easybeats dominated Aussie rock throughout the 60’s, and after breaking up, songwriting duo Harry Vanda and George Young would continue to write and produce Number 1 hits for a dozen other bands throughout the 70s and 80s

AC/DC – Can I Sit Next To You Girl? (1974)
Their first single, with vocalist Dale Evans and Easybeats guitarist George Young sitting in with his little brothers Angus and Malcolm.

Cheetah – Bang Bang (1981)
Another Vanda and Young produced band, fronted by tough as nails hard rock sisters Chrissie and Lyndsay Hammond

The Angels – No Secrets (1979)
Brothers Rick and John Brewster formed The Angels in 1974 and preceded the late 70s powerpop and 80s no frills hard rock genre, and are still active 5 decades later. Also produced by Vanda and Young, of course.

Quiet Life at 40, new wave gets serious

Rocks burgeoning New Wave in the late 70s was a hodgpodge of quirky art rock, humorous post punk and novelty pop rock bands, but on December 20, 1979, exactly 40 years ago today, a mostly forgettable late-to-the-party uk glamrock band faux-exotically named Japan took a new turn and unexpectedly released a groundbreaking album which invented a new genre. Blending Roxy Music, Bowie/Eno and Giorgio Moroder, they dropped a bombshell of style and sophistication and daresay, serious art onto the british future-pop scene, inadvertently launching the new romantic craze (which they never claimed to be a part of). New Wave finally got real.

Japan – Quiet Life (1979)

Japan – Halloween (1979)

Japan – All Tomorrow’s Parties (1979)

japanese music you should be listening to – part 2

0.8syooogeki – Arishima Machine Gun
translated as “0.8 Seconds and a Crash” the band released 5 albums between 2009 and 2017

Midori – Doping☆Noise Noise Kiss
prog/jazz/noise/punk quartet Midori are a genre all to themselves. Manic and yet cohesive. They released 3 albums before lead Mariko Goto went solo as seems to happen to many japanese bands.

Jun Togawa – Suki Suki Daisuki
1980s avant garde new waver Jun Togawa is kinda sorta like the japanese Kate Bush, but so much weirder. Between her solo works and collaborations and her bands Yapoos and Guernica, she paints a very broad canvas of diverse musical colors and poetically profound and disturbing lyrics. The song represented here is a manically happy love song about a Yandere girl, the kind of psychopath who’s love for you may end in murder. (youll want to turn captions on for the english lyrics!)

Fra-Foa – aojiroi tsuki (pale blue moon)
On the periphery of the japanese late 90s indie rock boom, Fra-Foa were amongst the heaviest and most dynamic grunge-inspired bands. With a massive sound and near psychotic vocals from frontwoman Chisako Mikami, they were a powerhouse small club band but never achieved great fame but released two superb albums before Chisako went solo. The video here is her singing about her deceased brother and the intense emotion is breathtaking.

japanese music you should be listening to – a prelude (updated jan 2025)

Sheena Ringo – tsumiki-asobi (playing with blocks)
Japan’s avant-pop, psychedelic-jazz uber-diva Sheena Ringo started out in the 90s as a grunge rock firebrand during Japan’s indie rock boom era. For more superb 90s alt-rock check her first 2 albums Muzai Moritorium and Shouso Strip. For an update on her latest music see my blog post here.

Perfume – Edge (triangle mix) Live 2020
Its believed that Perfume are not actually just 3 girls from Hiroshima but in fact 3 girls time traveling from the future to show us how pop music will be done 100 years from now. Not just Japan’s biggest technopop idol band for the past 20 years but a collaboration between Shibuya-kei era band Capsule‘s songwriter and producer Yatsutaka Nakata, the group themselves, their high tech choregrapher Mikiko and a vast army of lighting, video, animation and stage mechanical technicians. The end result is a string of lush and catchy albums and live shows that would surpass even Pink Floyd’s fever dreams.

Expand to full-screen for best effect!

NiNa – Happy Tomorrow
Late 1990s supergroup consisting of Kate Pierson (B52s), Yuki (Judy & Mary), Mick Karn (Japan) and the founding members of Plastics. They made just one album together and its essential listening. Infectious soaring pop!

bothneco – choco-mint flavor
Vocaloid dreampop at its absolute dreamiest from a mysterious anonymous composer known only as bothneco. No information anywhere about who they are, but a playlist of wonderful songs are up on youtube.