It’s only natural for us Aussies to enjoy Aussie music. I, for one, am a massive fan of celebrating local acts – I’m actually inclined to like a band or artist more if I know they’re from Australia! So, let’s take a little trip around the country, stopping in at all the capital cities to listen to some ripper Aussie songs by some top-notch musos.

ONLY FRIEND – CUB SPORT Let’s begin our journey in Brisbane, with the indie-pop group Cub Sport. “Only Friend” is a melancholic track, but with a synthesised and ice-cold edge. I picture it as the backing track to a dream sequence where a movie protagonist is lost wandering in a maze of liminal Aussie spaces (like small-town pubs and being in Woolies at night). Frontman Tim Nelson sings, “Have you ever thought of walking away? / Cos I been thinking ‘bout it every day.” Yeah, life is like that sometimes.

SETTLE PETAL – THE BUOYS Don’t be fooled by their name, The Buoys are a four-piece all-female alt-rock band that formed in Sydney back in 2016. “Settle Petal” was recently reissued as a bonus track on the 2024 single Subject A, which reignited my love for the song. It’s everything you’d expect from an Aussie girl group and more: fiercely upbeat, edgy and lyrically quick-witted, complete with an Aussie slang phrase for a title that I reckon all our mums used to say to us when we were running amok. 

COUNTING SHEEP – SAFIA You probably know this Canberra band for their collaboration with Peking Duk on the song, “Take Me Over”. A year later they released this funky but creepy banger, which to this day remains one of the best but unsettling songs I’ve ever heard. It makes me feel like I’m trapped in an abandoned house, or an endless forest, a graveyard or a dank basement, watching the clock “tick tock” away until I can sleep. As one of the speaking samples warns, “Well you know what the most frightening thing in the world is? / It’s fear.”

DANCING ON GRAVES – CASH SAVAGE & THE LAST DRINKS Down in Melbourne, we’ll have a listen to brash vocalist Cash Savage accompanied by her backing band The Last Drinks. Cash’s uncle Conway Savage was the keyboardist for Nick Cave back in the day, another Melbourne muso legend. “Dancing On Graves” begins as a solemn country ballad of heartbreak, but soon transforms into a heel-tapping folk tune, and rolling guitar tabs are to blame. The harmonica is the rural gothic cherry on top, weaved together like a web with all other elements to give us a vibe that’s both country and not quite country.

SMOOTH SAILING – A. SWAYZE & THE GHOSTS Now we cross the sea to Tassie, where we find punk outfit A. Swayze & The Ghosts.  I love band names formatted into ‘someone and the somethings’. The Aussie punk scene is small but packed to the brim with passionate individuals – not unlike Tasmania itself – and “Smooth Sailing” is a prized tune. It's a mix of thumping drumming, saturnine desperation and emotionally charged guitar, all topped off with longing in the lines, “I’m hungry / hungry for your love”.

SHOOK – TKAY MAIDZA 2020 was a crazy year. There was the pandemic and in the midst of it all, “Shook” was released just in time for us to dance around the house to during lockdowns. It’s dance-pop, but most importantly, it’s totally awesome. Zimbabwe-born rapper Tkay Maidza moved to Australia when she was five, and has since lived across Perth, Kalgoorlie, and Adelaide. I love how she says she’s “goin' forward in a Falcon”, you know because it sounds like Ford Falcon? Even though she’s now signed to English label 4AD, she definitely hasn’t forgotten her Aussie background. What’s more Australian than a Ford Falcon? Maybe a Holden Commodore.

THE LOVE ME OR DIE – C.W. STONEKING I’d forgive you for thinking this is from the ‘30s but no, C. W. Stoneking is an unexpected Australian anomaly born in Katherine, Northern Territory. He grew up in the small Indigenous community of Papunya, about 240 kilometres northwest of Alice Springs. God knows where he picked up this niche and rootsy genre inspiration, but I’m definitely glad he did.

SHELL – R.W. GRACE Also known by her full name, Grace Rachel Woodroofe, blues singer R. W. Grace delivers a heavenly vocal performance in “Shell.” Grace grew up in Perth and was actually friends with Heath Ledger’s sister, and it was through this friendship that she became the first artist signed to Heath’s and Ben Harper’s record label The Masses. Since then, she’s released three albums and reserves the moniker R. W. Grace for her folk electronica work.

ROAD TRAIN – PIGRAM BROTHERS In the final leg of our round trip, we arrive at the coastal town of Broome, where the seven-piece Indigenous band The Pigram Brothers formed in the mid-'90s. Their track “Road Train” is reminiscent of the rocky red coastlines and flat baking highways of upper Western Australia, scenery I can picture so clearly in tune with the plucking acoustic guitar and shrilling harmonica. The lyrics reflect the beauty of Aussie nature, conjuring up images of “unfolding flowers”, “dewdrops in the dawn”, “rising mountains” and “foggy morns.” It’s a testament to what’s seen by truck drivers and ever-soaring wedgetails alike, both whom hold the sentiment that if all else fails, just keep “rolling like a road train.”

RUNNING BACK – JESSICA MAUBOY And last but certainly not least, we arrive in Darwin, the hometown of Aussie pop and RnB princess Jessica Mauboy. From Australian Idol runner-up to multi-platinum singer-songwriter, Mauboy is of Indonesian and Indigenous Australian heritage, and has served as a positive role model for an entire generation of young Indigenous women. She’s joined by early 2000s rap superstar Flo Rida on “Running Back”, which appeared on her 2009 debut album, Been Waiting. It’s a fairy tale of being tethered to a not-so-good spouse, set against pounding drums and a synthesised rhythm that fits like Cinderella’s slipper into the international Y2K RnB scene. I remember it from my So Fresh CDs.

To help you all out, we also made a nifty map showing all the locations of these rad Aussie artists.