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13 April 1981
Here’s an interesting pop music fact: Johnny Marr asked Mike Joyce to be in the Smiths after attending a gig by Anglo-Australian alt-rockers the Church. Would the modern musical landscape be any different if this event hadn’t happened? There’s a nice dinner-party discussion right there. As for
how the Church’s paisley-hued, nouveau psychedelia informed northern England’s premier purveyors of quality teenage angst, well, it’s up for debate. That said, there are some striking similarities (a certain 1960s aesthetic, a carefully measured approach to lyrics.
And here comes the biggie: the electric guitar is at the heart of every song, yet it never resorts to the overblown, rock-god histrionics that punk tried, but failed, to eradicate. In the era when everyone was buying one of those new and affordable synthesizers that appeared in music shops around the world, a few bands clung to their guitars. Some of those bands, such as the Church, were rewarded with a
[Photos via Spotify]
“Detroit is the capital of Australia.” That phrase got thrown around a lot in ’80s American fanzines as our underground discovered Australian punk’s loud-and-aggressive charms. The basic sound: U.S. protopunk, especially of the
MC5 variety, mixed with ’60s garage, played with thermonuclear energy through modern heavy metal amplification. There was also an especial appreciation for the
New York Dolls’ rowdy glam. It was as stripped-down and unpretentious as rock ’n’ roll gets, even more so than other punk scenes. The national motto seemed to be: Forget fashion, let’s rock!
Oz enjoyed a particularly vibrant garage scene in the ’60s, well documented on the