Webcuts Music

It’s ok for you to think “who? never heard of ‘em”. Honestly, you’d have to be aged 35+, Australian, and a regular listener of Triple J or Triple R. Maybe you watched Neighbours. In the finicky annals of Australian music history, and with no disrespect to Helvelln, they barely warrant a mention. To briefly summarise, Helvelln were an inspired pop/rock 3-piece formed in Melbourne in the late 80′s, released two singles and one album and then broke up in the early 90′s. Google them and you’ll get pictures of mountains. Impressive and rocky, but hardly rock n’ roll.

Part 2 of our Secret History of Australian Music retrospective on Helvelln and interview with guitarist/vocalist and songwriter Jeremy Gronow. For part 1 and a more considered introduction, go here. Bedroom critic that I am, I’d be amiss not to suggest that only thing that lets Side 1 down is the lugubrious “Temptation”. If I [...]

Continuing our exploration into the Secret History of Australian Music, we open the doors to our New Zealand neighbours and welcome the Headless Chickens as we fill our tanks in their “Gaskrankinstation”

In the annals of Australian music history, The Welcome Mat only succeeded in living up to their name, laid down at the gates of opportunity to watch in dismay as their more fated friends were to find out what lay behind door number one. As an underground phenomenon in Sydney, they were the kings of [...]

In our never-ending attempt to immortalise those classic Australian singles that touched our collective hearts, Webcuts shines a light on the Hoodoo Gurus and their tear-jerking ode to love gone astray “My Girl”. It was in the pages of Countdown magazine around 1984 that I first recall seeing the Hoodoo Gurus, hanging out in the [...]

It was the Johnny Marr guitar flourishes at the start that first sucked me in. Here is the moment when a band who’ve been doggedly plying their guitar pop trade since the early 90s actually wrote something worth a damn. I remember when I first heard this (which would’ve been sometime around January 1997), turning [...]

The Post-Punk years in Australia were a mixed ground. The key bands of that era were floundering or disbanding while the second wave was about to hit, bands like Hunters and Collectors, Hoodoo Gurus, The Scientists and The Beasts of Bourbon would soon come to prominence, but one of the bands who had been lingering [...]

Bughouse’s classic debut single “V for Vendetta” is remembered in our ongoing “Secret History of Australian Music” series which digs through our archives looking for some forgotten vinyl gems by bands of the Australian music scene that shone brightly, but all too briefly. We spoke with Genevieve Maynard, bassist of Bughouse and solo singer/songwriter of [...]

It should be obvious by now, but if you want to sell me your record, couple it with some chiming chords, a memorable lyric and a catchy hook, and I’m all yours for the next three to four minutes. The plangent chords and echoed vocals of The Screaming Tribesmen’s “Igloo” create a chilling landscape, blanketing [...]

In another expanded edition of SHOAM Craig delves into 80′s Sydney band Dropbears‘ debut single “Fun Loving” and features an interview with frontman Johnny Batchelor. The Dropbears only existed in the periphery of my memory, briefly clashing with the already discussed Beargarden in the “bear” stakes around the same time both bands had their brief [...]