The Top 25 Australian Bands/Artists
After recent Best Band/Artists lists done by I (Heart Music) for Canada, Take Your Medicine for the UK, and Information Leafblower for the US, I decided to try to compile a list for Australian bands. Part of the motivation was very selfish. I’m new to Australia and by having a bunch of people send in their favourite bands I figured I could be exposed to a bunch of artists really quickly. And it worked. Since I began contacting people to contribute their own Top 20 Australian acts a few weeks ago I’ve bought some CDs by these bands and downloaded a lot more (to be purchased in the new year). That wasn’t the only motivation however. My friend Quinn at From Blown Speakers seemed to think I should do one as well.
So I did. Contributing to this list were the following: The Boudist, Invasion of the Reverb Snatchers, Fat Planet, Brown Cardigan, Lypton Village, as well as Levins at Sydney’s best radio station, FBI. So, that’s five bloggers, two DJs. In addition I asked a number of friends from other online places as well as friends I’ve met at shows in the past few months. All in all there were 18 or 19 people who submitted a list. Between them 118 (!!!) bands were nominated. That is a LOT.
The only stipulations for the nominees were as follows: they had to still be an active band (though they needn’t have released anything in 2005 – this saved the Avalanches for one) and they had to be Australian. Most people submitted a list of 20 bands, some did more, some did less. I then tallied the scores (a first place vote got you 30 points, second place 20, third 19, fourth 18….etc.). If there was a tie (and there were a couple ties in the Top 25), then the band with more votes won. I’ve included some comments from people’s lists as well.
Soooo…I think that’s all you need to know. To the list:
25: Wolf and Cub (listen here)
23: British India (listen here)
22: Pivot (listen here)
They avoid the “sameness” that’s possible of instumental post-rockish bands
21: Big Heavy Stuff (listen here)
Simply put, they rock.
19: Sarah Blasko (listen here)
She won me over with her live performance, which made me listen to the cd, which made me really really like her. I may have a bit of a girl crush on her, but then who doesn’t.
18: Art of Fighting (listen here (wma only))
The most beautiful band in the cosmos… or at least Australia.
17: The Avalanches
16: You Am I
15: New Buffalo
14: Wolfmother
12: The Grates (listen here)
They will do something great to music.
11: Gerling
9: Decoder Ring (listen here)
They’ve put together some pretty darn great recordings.
8: Architecture in Helsinki
Just fun pop.
7: The Mess Hall
Imagine the White Stripes…but murkier and with a kickass drummer.
6: Dirty Three
Such simple instrumentation, such moving music arising out of three people seemingly playing at cross-purposes.
5: Cut Copy (listen here)
Cheesy, dancey, synthy fun. These guys rock – or is it beat?
4: Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
(listen here)
Because he’s Nick fucking Cave.
3: Bluebottle Kiss (listen here)
They suck you in with pop prettiness and backhand you with some truly vicious guitar.
2: Dappled Cities Fly (listen here)
As indie as it gets down under i.e. Flaming Lips/Pavement.
drum roll….
1: Augie March
What is there to say? It’s Augie March – quite possibly the single most underrated band in the WORLD.
I’m sure a lot of people are happy with this and a lot of others pissed. How are Augie March and Bluebottle Kiss so high without any releases in a while? I don’t know. I just got here. Please leave a comment and argue away. I will try and post a complete list of every other band that got a vote in the next day or two. And I will do this again next year!
2008 UPDATE:
I’ve noticed that many people land on this post when searching for the best/top/greatest/etc Australian bands. And since this post was done in 2005 that seems a tad crap. So if you are currently reading this post and would like to see the updated lists just click here.
December 19th, 2005 22:18
Hey Sean
Great list, interesting to see it (even though I don’t agree with the order of the top 3) I still need to discover some of those too. And I have to say my opinion of Architecture In Helsinki has changed slightly after seeing them at Homebake…
December 19th, 2005 22:25
Hey Lucy!
I’ve just added comments that weren’t there before. So thank you for those. Were AiH not good at Homebake?
December 19th, 2005 22:29
Yeah I don’t know why but they were just all over the place (more so than usual anyway). Like someone said it sounded like they haven’t touched their instruments in a few months.
December 19th, 2005 22:47
Haha, maybe they hadn’t. I wish I had gone to Homebake now. Not for that obviously…but you know.
December 20th, 2005 00:35
Augie March and Bluebottle Kiss in the top three? Am i caught in a time warp?
It’s odd that they rate so high for bands that have been around for so long but never really done anything that popular or had much recent buzz.
December 20th, 2005 01:07
Well a few of the people who sent me lists are BIG BBK and Augie March fans. And while they may not have released anything this year BBK have been playing shows and Glenn Richards has been doing solo shows as well. Apart from the likes of those 2 bands, I do think the amount of really young, new bands on the list is great.
December 20th, 2005 07:23
Hey Sean, that list is totally bogus. No fucking silverchair? Come on, man, get your head out of the Australian sand!
December 20th, 2005 10:23
No Oils, No Chisel, No Hunters, No AC/DC, No INXS – surely these bands are apart of Australian history and deserve to be in the list. The recent violence in Cronulla would not have been the same without these iconic legends!!!
December 20th, 2005 10:31
HAHHAHAA.
Josh: Silverchair are reforming next year!
And Pete: Ratcat did receive one vote (as did the Finns) but they were discarded for not being active.
December 20th, 2005 12:44
reformation or not, the band is great… and still active!
great blog, by the way.
December 20th, 2005 21:39
Thanks a lot Josh.
December 21st, 2005 09:56
AiH blew me away the first time I saw them at the Media Club (you were there, no?) but we mediocre at best on the Wolf Parade tour. They looked tired, bored and frustrated…perhaps the exact opposite of lucy’s comment is true, maybe they’ve just played and toured too much?
Is it just me, or do The Grates really sound like the yyy’s on thier louder stuff? Would have been interesting to see them when they toured with The Go! Team. (Grates & New Buffalo have the same agent as bss and all of arts-crafts so hopefully they’ll have some success out here).
This list gives me a lot to search for now…thanks! love the blog
December 21st, 2005 10:45
Thanks Shea,
Yeah the Grates are pretty interesting. They also remind a bit of the Unicorns.
December 22nd, 2005 02:07
You forget the Church, Neil Finn,Finn Brothers, AC/DC, Jet.
December 22nd, 2005 12:37
Great list but Trial Kennedy should really be on there(sorry thats so patronising, in my humble opinion they should). Up and coming but promising to do amazing things.Think their my space is http://www.myspace.com/trialkennedy
December 23rd, 2005 08:17
To the last 2 people…I didn’t forget anyone! I didn’t make the list!
Thanks for that link Emma.
December 23rd, 2005 15:13
The Church. Twenty five years of intelligent space/pop rock. They only get better with each release and always coming up new tunes that do not borrow from their past. Voice and lyrics to match.
December 23rd, 2005 17:41
To be honest I had no idea they were still making music until just recenty.
December 23rd, 2005 18:48
good list!
but i reckon wolfmother should be disqualified due to extreme crappiness.
December 24th, 2005 13:39
Well Wolfmother didn’t actually appear on that many lists, but the people who did included them had them ranked pretty high.
Augie March and Dappled Cities Fly had the most votes each, appearing on 10 lists. So it made sense that they were the top 2 bands.
December 25th, 2005 14:38
cool idea, but it would have been interestinng if you’d opened your scan a bit wider. it’s a pretty limited picture of the australian music scene…
no go betweens, koolism or hilltop hoods, the stems, no triosk (well at least pivot’s in there), curse ov dialect, god?! instead you get big heavy stuff, augie march and bluebottle kiss and do you am i even still exist as a band?
December 27th, 2005 12:51
Well I didn’t limit the list to any single genre…so it’s not my fault you think it’s too limited. I was limited by the fact that I don’t know too many people in Sydney/Australia yet. I do know the The Go Betweens got at least 1 or 2 votes, but it wasn’t enough to make the list. The Hilltop Hoods had 1 vote if memory serves. Hopefully next year more people will participate and the list will be more diverse.
December 27th, 2005 16:44
it’s all good sean, just offering a bit of criticism! look forward to seeing next year’s.
December 28th, 2005 12:31
26.sparkadia and 27.valentinos and 28.red riders! sorry just thought i’d add:)
January 1st, 2006 15:32
Bluebottle Kiss have just finished recording and mixing a double album and the single for it, The Women Are an Army will be released at the end of January in time for their tour with Richmond Fontaine from the US.
The new album will be interesting for anyone who likes music. It is basically done as Jamie Hutchings’ mixtape with all the songs being new and original but borrowing key ideas from some of his favourite musician such as John Coltrane, Van Morrison, Slint, Neil Young, Fugazi and plenty of others. There is a great duet with Sarah Blasko too. Plenty of material for people who like to kill the hours talking about music.
January 1st, 2006 17:54
Thanks for that Nick.
And sorry to sound so defensive Matt! I appreciate all the comments and critiques.
January 10th, 2006 01:09
[...] sean over at a reminder recently asked me to submit a list for his compilation of ‘top australian bands’. the results of the poll (by a small number of us aussie bloggers) are in, however rather than let my own thoughts be subsumed into the void, here’s my own top 20 – the fat planet top aussie 20. get surfing to check the tunes. [...]
January 11th, 2006 13:08
thanks again for that!
make sure you all check out fat planet’s list. and post your own!
February 1st, 2006 22:15
Interesting.
Not a fan of architecture in helsinki after seeing them live…
What’s your take on the cat empire?
And have you come across any of the following?
Dan Kelly & The Alpha Males
Cog
Gersey
Airbourne
Dallas Crane
The dirty three
The cants
?
February 2nd, 2006 13:14
I’ve not heard enough of the Cat Empire to really judge. I quite like the Dirty Three though, especially Cinder. I saw Dan Kelly at Spectrum a couple months back but wasn’t OVERLY impressed. I do like “Election Night” though. I’ve read some stuff about Airbourne that tells me I wouldn’t like them.
February 10th, 2006 14:43
[...] In completely unrelated video news, Augie March (winners of last year’s Top Aussie Artists Poll) are set to release their third album next month. They are playing Sydney on February 23 at the Vanguard in Newtown; the gig is going to be very small and intimate and I can’t wait. They are also playing Melbourne on the 22nd, Perth on the 25th, and Melbourne again on the 26th. A full-scale tour in support of the new record will be announced at the end of the month as these gigs wrap up. Until then, here is the new video for the current single: [...]
February 15th, 2006 22:28
Good to see BBK right up there, and good too see BHS sneaking in towards the back.
Also good to see Dirty Three in there, even if most of them are ex-pats.
However i dunno how dappled cities fly got up there… don’t get me wrong, i think they’re good, but better than BBK?
New BBK album should be awesome if their live renditions of their new material are anything to go by.