The Mid 1990s Australian Alt-Rock Music Scene: The Glory That Was?

Maybe it was the convergence of great-sounding affordable hi-fi and bands “accidentally” composing their best stuff, but is the mid 1990s Australian alt-rock scene nothing more than a faded glory?

By: Ringo Bones

From the perspective of my audio-buddies, it seems that there’s a consensus that the years between 1995 to 1997 - whether by happenstance or design - the Australian alt-rock music scene managed to compose music way, way, way better than their American and British counterparts and with a sound quality way above average than the ones by the Americans and Brits. Which is no mean feat indeed given it is not easy to record a realistic sounding drum-kit on a 24-track analog tape running at 30 inches per second, especially when tone-warming compression is involved. Maybe my idea of a realistic sounding rock music recording involves what Led Zeppelin frontman Robert Plant hears on stage just a few feet away from John Bonham’s drum-kit, but hey we all have our preferences. And the Australian recording engineers managed to produce the magic of sound realism around this time period too.

One of the stand-out groups of the time was Deadstar with Caroline Kennedy on vocals and Barry Palmer of Hunters & Collectors on guitars. Seen by many as a so-called “supergroup”, Deadstar largely evolved from the previous success of Hunters & Collectors with their Ghost Nation album in the college radio scene in the United States near the end of 1989, and given that Hunters & Collector’s frontman, Mark Seymour is the brother of Nick Seymour of Crowded House who also got big in the States with the runaway success of their Don’t Dream Its Over single back in 1987. Although Barry Palmer is not one of the original members of Hunters & Collectors when they started out in 1981, many Deadstar fans see Barry as better off with Deadstar during the mid 1990s and maybe this is primarily the reason why he left Hunters by 1998. But most Deadstar fans see Caroline Kennedy and Barry Palmer as the glue that holds the band together back then. Even though Caroline Kennedy is still composing new music, to me, the mid 1990s is probably their very heyday and given that through the prism of time given how long ago that was, I often confuse the video of Deadstar’s Don’t It Get You Down with some other video where some girl who looks like Caroline Kennedy was wearing a Lunachicks t-shirt was sorting a bunch of 6L6 vacuum tubes with a tube tester.

Another stand-out band of the mid 1990s Australian alt-rock music scene is Pollyanna. With the runaway success of their Long Player album back in 1996, most of their non-Australian fans who I knew back then often commented “why can’t Americans write good stuff like this anymore…” which speaks for itself. But as for me, I’m just too busy rocking out to Keep Me Guessing and Potomac and their other hits back in July 1996.

And who can forget Sceamfeeder, with their runaway single Dart. I now forgot who said it, wheter it was one of my ex girlfriends or my little sister, but back in 1996 when Maayim Bialik’s TV series Blossom was still airing on NBC, but after seeing the music video of Screamfeeder’s Dart one of them commented “now I know what Mayim Bialik with a nose-ring looks like" after seeing Screamfeeder’s bass player Kellie Lloyd on the Dart music video. I think Screamfeeder is still around and touring.

Another stand-outs of the time was Moler, with Infatuation, Mustang Bass and Red Light Disco in continuous airplay back in 1996 to 1997. Back then Moler more or less became the de-facto Hale-Bopp Comet viewing soundtrack. Weird fact, it was often overlooked by radio DJ’s and TV video music jocks that the “uncensored” version of Moler’s Red Light Disco was the one being played. I think Moler just released new stuff this 2019.

Probably one of the most “interesting” bands of the mid 1990s Australian alt-rock music scene was Rebecca’s Empire. On lead vocal duties were Rebecca Barnard and her then domestic partner Shane O’Mara on lead guitar duties. Often referred by their overseas fans as the “Australian Liz Phair”, the band was active from 1994 to 2000 – although Rebecca Barnard performs solo from time to time. Their album The Way of All Things was seen by many at the time as the best Australian alt-rock album and the single Empty is probably the best known of the group at the time. 

And let’s not forget Snot with their catchy and rocking Cromagnon Man. And even though Snout had other songs with nice music videos, most of their mid-1990s era fans remember them for Cromagnon Man.

Other bands of the time also include Nancy Vandal with their “green party approved” remake of Mӧtley Crϋe’s Kickstart My Heart. Frenzal Rhomb probably gained international exposure around this time period and some say Australian musical icon Yothu Yindi did their best touring performances during the mid-1990s. Maybe You Tube is the closest thing we have so far of reliving the glory days of the mid 1990s Australian alt-rock music scene, unless of course if one has access to a working time machine – or maybe I just took it all for granted how good it really was back then.