What does the Australian underground mean to you? For plenty of American music fans, I would wager it means a select few groups: INXS, Midnight Oil, The Church, and Crowded House. For those with larger record collections, no doubt you include a couple influential Aussie artists who left home early in their careers for the UK — Nick Cave and The Go-Betweens.

To me, the Aussie underground begins with a primal, bluesy punk inspired by the Stooges. It’s called Radio Birdman (pictured above), and they, along with punk brethren The Saints, unearthed a bedrock sound that would later morph into an incredible scene for lovers of brooding post-punk (Birthday Party, The Scientists, The Wreckery), loud-fast garage (Celibate Rifles, Lime Spiders, The Johnnys), and noisy-as-fuck rock (Cosmic Psychos, Lubricated Goat, King Snake Roost).

But the Aussie underground was also a hot-bed for “college rock” and a slew of jangle-pop enthusiasts. Some, like Hoodoo Gurus and The Screaming Tribesmen, took their cues from the Birdmen. Others, such as The Hummingbirds, The Mad Turks, Ups and Downs, and The Someloves, worshipped at the altar of those early Church records and dreamed of following their footsteps toward international success.

The ’90s birthed a small, but active indie rock scene that could be splintered into pop (The Cannanes, The Moles, Even As We Speak), rock (Swirl, Sidewinder, The Earthmen), and power pop (The Welcome Mat, Smudge).

We’ll also touch upon some new-wave peculiarities — “The Cicada (That Ate Five Dock)” and “Nips Are Getting Bigger” — and a fair share of provocative post-punk (Hunters & Collectors, Died Pretty, Metronomes, etc.). Plus, we’ll engage in an exploration of melancholy, as Australians express this oh so well.

Total running time is a little more than six hours, broken into three parts.

Playlist, Part 1

1. The Church – Unguarded Moment
2. The Triffids – A Place In The Sun
3. The Moffs – Another Day In The Sun
4. The Apartments – Mr. Somewhere
5. Primitive Calculators – Pumping Ugly Muscle
6. The Fabulous Marquises – Honeymoons
7. Metronomes – Bad Timing
8. Do-Ré-Mi – Standing On Wires
9. Outline – The Cicada (That Ate Five Dock)
10. Lubricated Goat – Funeral on a Spit
11. Razar – Stamp Out Disco
12. The New Christs – No Next Time
13. The Parameters – Pig City
14. Hunters & Collectors – Drop Tank
15. Models – Unhappy
16. Sea Stories – Gone For Sure
17. Nice – Dear John
18. The Cat’s Miaow – Climb My Stairs
19. The Marigolds – I’ve Had Enough
20. The Leftovers – Cigarettes & Alcohol
21. Tactics – Standing By The Window
22. Crow – Never Said
23. Sidewinder – Moments Like These
24. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – Tupelo
25. No – Loss
26. The Numbers – Govt. Boy
27. Radio Birdman – Burn My Eye
28. Venom P. Stinger – Hell Street
29. XL Capris – Fat Boy in the Swimming Pool
30. Toys Went Berserk – Worlds Away
31. Huxton Creepers – Rack My Brains
32. The Sugargliders – Top 40 Sculpture
33. The Particles – Apricot’s Dream
34. Loaded Dice – Making Me So Sad
35. The Stems – At First Sight
36. The Crystal Set – Benefit Of The Doubt
37. Plunderers – I Didn’t Even See Them At All
38. Seminal Rats – Part Time Girl
39. The Victims – (I’m) Flipped Out Over You
40. Cosmic Psychos – Can’t Come In

Playlist, Part 2

1. Hoodoo Gurus – Tojo
2. The Riptides – Rules Of Love
3. Ed Kuepper – Also Sprach The King Of Euro – Disco
4. The Earthmen – Cool Chick #59
5. Minutemen – Voodoo Slaves
6. Boys Next Door – Masturbation Generation
7. Mental As Anything – The Nips Are Getting Bigger
8. INXS – Don’t Change
9. Ya Ya Choral – Waiting Time
10. Autohaze – Satellite City
11. The Welcome Mat – All Or Nothing
12. The Bhagavad Guitars – Sold
13. News – Chop Chop Chop
14. Sunnyboys – Tell Me What You Say
15. The Johnnys – Bleeding Heart
16. SPK – Flesh And Steel
17. Machinations – Arabia
18. Pineapples From The Dawn Of Time – Too Much Acid
19. The Eastern Dark – Julie Is A Junkie
20. The Lucksmiths – William and Mary
21. The Cannanes – Felicia
22. Even As We Speak – Getting Faster
23. Captain Cocoa – Ring Me Up
24. Pel Mel – Shoes Should Fit
25. Popular Mechanics – Fatal Slip
26. Severed Heads – Dead Eyes Opened
27. The Lipstick Killers – Hindu Gods (Of Love)
28. The Celibate Rifles – Wild Desire
29. King Snake Roost – My Zippo
30. God – My Pal
31. The Acid Drops – Surfin’ Prostitute Beat
32. The Hard-Ons – The Girl In The Sweater
33. The Thought Criminals – More Suicides, Please
34. The Wreckery – Body Like A Stone
35. Ups And Downs – The Living Kind
36. Glide – Something
37. Shrinking Violets – She Said
38. The Hummingbirds – Alimony
39. The Scientists – Frantic Romantic

Playlist, Part 3

1. The Saints – (I’m) Stranded
2. The Screaming Tribesmen – (I Want To) Mess With You
3. The Hollowmen – Someone Else’s Yard
4. Mad Turks From Istanbul – Looking Forward To Destroy
5. The Go-Betweens – One Thing Can Hold Us
6. Boys – Weoh, Weoh, Weoh
7. feedtime – Rock N Roll
8. The Philisteins – Outside
9. Midnight Oil – Sleep
10. Dropbears – Fun Loving
11. Swirl – She Goes
12. Jupiter – Leave The Ground
13. The Psycho-Surgeons – Horizontal Action
14. The Trilobites – Tall Poppies
15. Sardine V – Sudan
16. The Moles – Bury Me Happy
17. The Spliffs – Are You Happy Now?
18. The Lime Spiders – Slave Girl
19. Slugfuckers – Schizo Revolution
20. The Moodists – Chad’s Car
21. X – I Don’t Wanna Go Out
22. Olympic Sideburns – 13th Floor
23. The Someloves – Know You Now
24. Smudge – Divan
25. Happy Hate Me Nots – Soul Rejection
26. Manikins – Premonition
27. Exploding White Mice – Burning Red
28. Died Pretty – Laughing Boy
29. The Bamboos – With Which To Love You
30. Ashtray Boy – Let’s Raise Our Glasses
31. Tall Tales & True – Wasted Life
32. Fun Things – When The Birdmen Fly
33. Seven Ballerinas – Sometimes I Feel
34. Icehouse – We Can Get Together
35. Ash Wednesday – Love By Numbers
36. Curious (Yellow) – Taken By Surprise
37. Falling Joys – Shelter
38. The Lighthouse Keepers – Lip Snipe Groin
39. Voodoo Lust – She’s So Psychedelic
40. Teenage Radio Stars – I Wanna Be Ya Baby
41. Divinyls – Siren Song