Four things Australia's music industry does better than us.
And one thing that's much worse.
Grinspoon.
Grinspoon?
Grinspoon.
That right there is the name of an Australian alt-rock band from the 90s that I haven’t thought about for at least two decades.
Wikipedia tells me Grinspoon last performed in New Zealand at the 2010 Big Day Out, a festival I attended with gusto, yet my brain refuses to conjure up a single memory, a momentary frame or a passing note of the band’s performance that day.
Sitting here today, I couldn’t tell you the name of a single member of Grinspoon, or one of their albums, or songs.
So it was with some surprise that I saw that band beaming out at me from the cover of a free street ‘zine (Australia still has those!) lying on doorsteps around Sydney.
That magazine featured news, reviews and a gig guide, plus a two-page cover story on Grinspoon’s nationwide tour.
Great, I thought, another nostalgia tour.
But this is more than that.
This is insane.
Across the second half of this year, Grinspoon plan to tour Australia for four straight months.
That’s a whopping 45 shows from a band whose mild peak was, what, the early 2000s?
It got me thinking. If Grinspoon can successfully tour Australia on that scale, what else is the lucky country doing better than us?
I have some ideas…
Australia supports homegrown talent.
Grinspoon isn’t the only local doing big numbers. Jebediah will soon embark on a 26-show run with Magic Dirt in tow. Amy Shark is touring extensively. So too is Spiderbait. Even Cold Chisel and Midnight Oil are back on the road. Australian music websites are heaving with local tour announcements. In comparison, many of our own artists struggle to get punters through the doors as international acts and stadium shows suck up our spare cash. The result? Small venues are struggling to stay afloat.
There’s just so much happening.
Last Saturday night, you could see classic UK dance act Underworld perform. Too old school? Maybe dubstep duo Digital Mystikz is for you. In the mood for hip-hop? How about Yung Lean? All of this was happening in one venue. Thanks to Vivid, the night-time mid-winter show that lights up Sydney for three weeks, many local and international acts are playing huge winter shows in Sydney, and they’re packed out. We have a waterfront. We have artists. We have lights. And we have venues. We could easily replicate Vivid here. So why don’t we?
Music journalism still exists.
Gah. Sorry for banging on about this, but Australia still employs music journalists, and they’re busy. There’s street press. There’s Rolling Stone magazine. There are dozens of online music sites covering all kinds of industry angles. Legacy mastheads The Age and Sydney Morning Herald continue to write about music extensively. Soaking it all up made me feel bad for us, but happy that music journalism continues to exist, albeit somewhere I’d have to leave my extended family to partake in.
Local radio supports local acts.
I listened to Australia’s famed Triple J radio station pretty much non-stop across my week in Sydney, and they use their two separate frequencies to do a great job of supporting local artists with interviews, in-house performances, and ticket giveaways. We have a wonderful student radio network doing that work, but I can’t help but think a more commercial alternative station (not called Hauraki) could still work here. If only Channel Z had survived…
And the one thing that’s worse…
Okay, so Australia has better salaries, hotter weather, and giant stadiums for Taylor Swift to play in. But they’re not doing everything right. I expected to arrive home nursing a bag of newly purchased records, but Australia’s vinyl prices are out of control, easily 25-50% more expensive than here. As an example: Tool’s Fear Inoculum days costs $150. Here? It’s just $80. Instead, I jumped online and stocked up in JB-HiFi’s 20% off sale. (It’s still running today.) You can’t have them all, eh?
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Everything you need to know…
A Thom Yorke solo show is a tantalizing proposition. Called The Everything tour, it hits Christchurch’s Wolfbrook Arena on October 23 and Auckland’s Spark Arena on October 25 and promises to include material from through his career. That means Radiohead songs. That means Eraser songs. That means soundtrack songs. That means songs from Wall of Eyes, the excellent new album from side-project The Smile. Radiohead’s Spark Arena show in 2012 is top five for me, so I’ll see you in the pre-sale queues; they begin on Thursday, at 11am.
Speaking of announcements, the Listen In festival line-up is out and it’s a goodie: 21 Savage and Skepta headline, with Tyla, Flo Milli, Lil TJay and Teezo Touchdown among those playing support. It’s happening at Go Media Stadium on October 4; tickets haven’t been announced but should be on sale soon.
I did not manage to stream the Aotearoa Music Awards from Australia but it was nice to discover the main awards were shared between two different acts this year. RNZ has all the winners and a great photo gallery, but I particularly enjoyed this interview with Tom Scott, one of the night’s big winners who says he’s “still a loser”. Then there’s host Jesse Mulligan’s Substack recap of the night in which he has a bit of a laugh at a couple of mistakes he made that no one seemed to notice until he bought them up.
Speaking of the AMAs, the night’s other big winner, The Beths, announced a three-date New Zealand tour straight after taking out the night’s best album and best group prizes. Fresh from Coachella, they’re playing The Hollywood in Auckland on September 20, Christchurch’s Church Pub on September 27, and Wellington’s Meow Nui on September 28. Pre-sales begin today at 10am.
Finally, I usually find Common’s rap schtick too cheesy but, when gifted a classic Pete Rock beat, he took understood the assignment completely. This is old school-era rap with Souls of Mischief and De La Soul vibes. I played this one on many long walks around Sydney and never got sick of it…
I should also note that we do have a light festival happening in Auckland this month, with live music and video installations, to celebrate Matariki ... https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/518612/light-installations-to-usher-in-matariki-for-aucklanders
I've been thinking about this a bit after some recent trips to Melbourne. I love Australia and will basically encourage any of my friends to move there if it makes sense. So much to do and see + a barista job might actually give you enough money to live.
I don't think it's all as rosey as it seems tho on the music front. Besides the benefit of having a much larger population, I don't see it as nearly as optimistic as I once did. Triple J doesn't seem to have the pull that it once did. A quick look at the ARIA Top 50 Singles Chart and I don't think there's a single Australian artist on there. Their festivals are getting cancelled too. Anecdotally the young artists I know over there are in much the same position we are - fighting for scraps and largely turning their attention overseas.
In the past I've argued that NZ artists are in a better position than Australian ones purely because there are only crumbs of an industry left here. We can pull all our focus towards what matters while they are still looking for validation in an industry that's dying out.
Sorry to come in here so cynical!