The new Melbourne group Grandstands joins the legion of Australian musicians with eponymous names that render Google searches utterly useless. Just as, for Melbournians in the know, Dick Diver has become less synonymous with Fitzgerald ’s neurotic protagonist, let’s hope Grandstands become more synonymous with the nascent guitar-pop revival. And if ‘All Talk ’ is any indication, you’ll be sure to have their EP wedged between your Full Ugly and The Ocean Party records.
Melbourne seems to be enmeshed in a figurative guitar-pop renaissance at the moment, with bands taking sonic cues from the usual suspects – early to mid 80s Flying Nun by way of Calvin Johnson and the American lo-fi – filtered through a lackadaisical and thoroughly “ocker” Australian drawl and steeped, like all good things, in a healthy respect for Paul Kelly . There are obvious nods to the current vanguard maintained by bands such as The Twerps and the abovementioned Dick Diver – and the lauded mothers and fathers of Australian pop ( The Cannanes and The Go-Betweens ). Grandstands hit all the requisite tropes – from the menial “shitty jobs”, to the habitual comfort of the “couch” – nestled in a landscape that, for most bands, is nominally, and incorrectly, referred to as nostalgic. Grandstands don’t evoke that feeling for me. This is music that comprehends both the past and the future, but remains in stasis, capitulating only to the present. Are they representative of the current malaise of inner-city students? Most definitely.
The debut Grandstands EP will land next week, with mastering credits falling on the shoulders of Melbourne’s man-about-town Mikey Young .
WORDS BY James Webster
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