Bands from Melbourne

September 12, 2015 Unknown 0 Comments

I'm going to take a moment to make an extra post this week to talk about music! It's always a weird experience for aspiring expats when you find out just how much stuff you loved growing up actually ended up being from the place you're headed to. A couple bands I listened to growing up actually ended up becoming part of that disorienting experience. So I thought I'd take a moment to talk about a few bands from Melbourne that I really like. Happy Listening!


Who doesn't remember this song? This is one of the bands that were really big for me growing up. I didn't have any idea that they were from Melbourne until a few months ago. This song in particular was extremely popular in America. It was virtually everywhere during its year of release. In commercials on television and in the movie theatre, not even to mention on the radio. Their first album, Conditions, is something of an indie pop anthem. Because of this it's easy for most Americans, like myself, to assume they're based out in LA rather than in Australia.


This was another hugely popular band for me growing up. They had songs in movies like spiderman 2 and they were all over the radio. Their album, Get Born, was a defining part of the early 2000s rock scene for most people. Their other popular songs were 'Rollover DJ', 'Get What You Need', 'Get Me Outta Here'. Like most other popular bands, people that didn't pay close enough attention would assume they're based out in LA but Jet was a Melbourne band. You'd think the line "10:34 Flinders Street Station" would've been a dead giveaway.
Their success makes them arguably the most popular and famous on this list.

Strange Talk is a synth pop band that I discovered during the beginning of my undergraduate days. They're energetic and easy to listen to. I knew they were from Melbourne when I discovered them, but at the time I didn't know anything about Melbourne nor did I have plans to leave the US. They debuted in 2012, when I was getting into the electronic music scene which is how I discovered them!

Growing up I had listened to a lot of electronic music from Australia, so during my junior year of university I decided to revisit some of those bands. In the beginning of 2014 I discovered Cut Copy through my Empire of the Sun Pandora station with their song "Lights & Music" and went on to listen through their whole discography. I loved all of it. Their album Zonoscope is actually one of my all time favourites.
When I found them I knew they were from Melbourne, but even then I didn't have plans to go anywhere. It was a few months later that I decided I needed to stop day dreaming of living abroad and make it a reality and a few months after that is when I settled on Melbourne. They were, and are, something I listened to when I was thinking about going there.

The Cat Empire is a band I discovered very recently while trying to learn even more about Melbourne. They're a jazz, ska, and alternative rock band. Their music sounds like a really odd fusion of alternative and jazz. But I dig it! It's good, and pretty popular internationally. Something about them has sparked a sort of cult following and I can see why.

This is an indie pop band that I also discovered fairly recently. Their music is very easy to listen to and catchy. They're not particularly well known like the Temper Trap or influential in the way that Cut Copy is, but they've been growing.