The Underground StageEssential new music from Australia’s most exciting artists
“In which Dianas confound and perplex you, and not just with a particularly unsettling time signature. It leaves you wobbly from the juxtaposition of free-floating vocals and squalling guitars, the physical pain of reality and the nagging fears of the unconscious. Strange, lovely.” Learn More: Facebook – Instagram Latest Posts
“Stressless have been playing shows for about a year but they have denied us any recorded output (or indeed any internet presence at all) until now. The debut release, like the live set, shimmers and crackles, Malkmus-meets-Mascis fuzz and wonk. If it’s another year’s wait for the next one, there may be cross words.” Learn […]
“What a charmer! Crane Games’ latest talks bluntly and simply about, er, athletes, in an absolutely lovely song that falls somewhere between Los Campesinos! and Belle & Sebastian. Wide-eyed, giddy, smart-but-innocent, with that sense of play that you had when you were ickle.” Learn More: Facebook – Instagram Latest Posts
An occasional roundup of tracks I can’t get enough of, by bands I’ve somehow not got round to seeing live yet. PJ Orr – Tightrope Walker “This clever little squirrel takes a few listens but – especially on headphones – it gradually turns into something truly loveable. Adding a layer of Tom Petty’s country wit […]
“On the back of the bananas ‘Freak Out’ track, Jerranis come at you again with ‘Dreglord’, dropping another bag of utter filth all over you and your nice clean clothes. This is uncomplicated, uncompromising, and uncouth, spitting into your earhole and stomping on your sensitive little toes.” Learn More: Facebook – Instagram Latest Posts
“It’s been a while, but Bloods’ tub-thumping joy remains as fresh as ever. Although “U & M E” is built from guitars it’s got a strong retro-futurist vibe, with the high-register riff nagging and phasing and pretending to be a synth. I bet it sounds like a bomb going off on stage, but on record […]
“The Underground Stage and Wawawow started near about the same time, and I once wrote that an early track sounded like visiting some demented future. Time has not calmed them. Nine Inch Nails, Plastic Bertrand, and the soundtrack to the weirdest dystopian anime you can imagine collide head-on here like trucks and meteors. It produces […]
“Too few remember Scritti Politti, but Jeremy Neale is the Green Gartside of these times. Gartside wrote a string of pop songs that sounded like merely fashionable and danceable tunes but were – secretly – a lot weirder and occasionally a lot darker. Jeremy Neale’s latest is a direct descendent, sounding on its face like […]
“The Lenores kick off their new album with sneering and stomping glam-punk, larking around like the earliest bits of Green Day. It snarls and it spits and it bites, and it tumbles around like a bucket of bolts in a tumbledryer.” Learn More: Facebook – Instagram Subscribe to The Underground Stage on Spotify