This week for City Scenes we have reached the letter P we’re in Perth Australia. An unexpected goldmine of alternative, indie and psychedelic rock music.
Perth or Boorloo as it is known in the indigenous Nyungar language is a city on the west coast of Australia and capital of the state of Western Australia. With a population of 2.1 million it is the fourth most populous city in Australia and is known for it’s relaxed vibe, beach lifestyle and, as we’ll see a very active music and arts scene. Interestingly its position on the west coast of australia makes it one of the most isolated large cities in the world with Adelaide being the nearest big city at over a 28 hour drive away.
In this episode we hear a couple of great bands from Perth’s past and then focus on the prolific ensemble of musicians and their side projects that revolves around the members of bands like Tame Impala and Pond who were responsible for a whole wave of psych rock revival in Australia in the 2010s.
The Triffids formed in 1978 and received big success in the 1980s and are known as one of Australia’s most loved Post-punk bands from that period. Perth has always maintained a reputation as a hotspot for alternative rock and in the 90s a new band on the scene called Jebediah, took Australia by storm when their debut hit Jerks of Attention gained massive radio play on the influential alternative radio station Triple J.
A particularly fertile moment in the music history of Perth came about in 2008 with the appearance of a couple of new bands on the scene called Tame Impala and Pond. Both of these bands shared members with Tame Impala focused around the psychedelic songwriting of frontman Kevin Parker and Pond being more of a collaborative project between the musicians Nick Allbrook, Jay Watson and Joe Ryan all of whom at one point all played in Tame impala.
These days Australia is known for its psych rock scene with bands like the lazy Eyes, King Gizzard and the lizard wizard and Jagwar Ma all finding worldwide success but it wouldnt be an understatement to say that all of this was catalyzed in some way with the emergence of Tame Impala in 2008.
Since then Tame Impala have released 4 albums, found huge success all over the world and these days Tame Impala sell out stadiums and Kevin parker is a producer to the stars, collaborating with the likes of Mark Ronson and Diana Ross.
Another band that have gaiend a huge following and who are intrinsically linked to Tame Impala is Pond who started making music at the same time and some of which’s members have played in Tame Impala as Kevin Parker’s backing band.
Perth’s music scene is particularly active and exciting but in the early 2010s, as Tame impala and Pond were beginning to gain recognition and tour internationally it must have been a particularly inspiring time to be making music in the city. Other bands to have emerged from this group of musicians include The Growl and Gum, the solo project of Jay Watson who is both the guitarist of Pond and has played both drums, and keyboard in Tame impala.