sound of the suburbs

While thinking of something to post for the Easter weekend, I quickly dismissed the more obvious such as Echo & The Bunnymen or Patti Smith before stumbling upon the New Christs, who a bit like JC himself have a habit of coming back from the dead, as recent as last year they were back with a new line up and playing selected dates in the old continent. Seeing as ever since first hearing the Saints classic debut 45t '(I'm) Stranded' back in '77 I've had a soft spot for Australian rock, something that goes a lot further than Nick Cave, Inxs and Midnight Oil, I thought sharing some Antipodean rock with you was well over due. The New Christs were formed from the ashes of Australian band Radio Birdman, who's main claim to fame apart from being an excellent band was their cover version of the Hawaii 5 O theme, they have an excellent compilation available on Sub Pop. Rumour has it that ex Birdman vocalist Rob Younger formed the band when he was offered the opening spot on Iggy Pop's 1974 down under tour. Having won over the audience with their high octane garage rock the band decided to try and make a go of it and rapidly released two singles on Sydney indie Citadel Records, despite these 7"s gathering good reviews Younger was to find himself the sole band member when the others quit to return to their day time bands, Celibate Rifles and Hoodoo Gurus. This was to herald the first of many line up changes. I caught the band on stage in Toulouse at the tail end of the 80's and was seriously impressed. Today's music comes from a 1987 12" single 'Detrius' that compiled the 4 tracks from their first two classic singles.