Trusty Chords

If you, the enterprising listener of this podcast, have been paying attention over the 111 previous episodes (and bonus episodes), you'd probably have gathered by now that I'm a fan of musicians who inject emotion, vulnerability, and stellar storytelling into their works. If that's also resonated with you, then you're probably going to fall in love with Tig very soon. Tig has been...

At the start of the 2010s, it felt like it was almost impossible to avoid The Vaccines if you were a fan of indie rock music. Hailing from the streets of West London, The Vaccines first came together at the end of the '00s, but it was in 2010 that Vaccines fever took hold. Tracks like 'If You Wanna' showed a band whose approach to guitar rock was a refreshing one, and attention from ra...

It's almost impossible to imagine the world of alternative rock without the influence of Dinosaur Jr. Forming in Amherst, Massachusetts back in 1984, the core trio of guitarist and vocalist J Masics, drummer Murph, and bassist Lou Barlow first came together under the name Dinosaur, but added their diminutive title after the release of their second album. Fuzzy, immersive, and highly distinctiv...

It's a little difficult to think about the Australian music scene of the past 15 years without thinking of The Rubens. Hailing from Menangle in New South Wales, the largely familial band (three of its five members are brothers, you see), first came to prominence in 2011 when they found themselves scoring quite a bit of airplay over on triple j.  Barely a year old, they'd made it into the s...

If you're someone who likes their indie rock and alternative music with a healthy dose of shoegaze, well I reckon you'd do pretty well to check out Wishy. Why's that, you ask? Well, it's probably because that's exactly what the Indiana outfit have been dishing up for the past five years. Coming together thanks to high school friends Kevin and Nina (the former of which used to b...

When it comes to folks who ensure their life is surrounded by art, it's hard to look past iOTA. Having launched into the world of music and drama as a teenager, both of these disciplines have been vital parts of his life since. A batch of bands would give way to the launch of a solo career at the end of the '90s, and a string of impeccable albums would arrive along the way. On the dramatic...

I'm going to preface things this week by saying this is going to be far from anything close to a normal podcast. Why? Well, it's because this week's guests are TISM co-founders Ron Hitler-Barassi and Humphrey B. Flaubert. Formed in Melbourne back in 1982, TISM have had a long and storied career. Known for hiding their identities behind masks and pseudonyms, high-energy live performance...

I don't think I'm talking out of school when I say that Tex Perkins is a man who wears many hats (and oh my, does he ever look stylish when he does). If you're a casual consumer of music, then band names like Beasts Of Bourbon or The Cruel Sea would come to mind upon mention of his name.  If you're a bit more of a diehard, then I could start mentioning the likes of his solo work, t...

As far back as I remember, I've never been someone to really find myself attracted to bands that generate a lot of 'buzz'. I mean, I remember realising as a kid that I had to listen to a song numerous times before it really clicked with me. That's probably why I was pretty surprised I found myself really digging Getdown Services when they first came across my desk. Having only been...

It's always really fun watching artists catch on quickly and suddenly seeing their popularity skyrocketing as folks catch on and pay deep attention to them. That's pretty much what happened with Sydney outfit The Lazy Eyes when they first formed about seven years ago. Launched by a bunch of school mates, they swiftly found themselves performing at events like BIGSOUND before they released...

It's always fascinating to see how songs can catch on and – in some cases – become emblematic of an entire era. For many, the early '90s hip-hop scene is typified by songs like 'Jump Around', the debut single from Los Angeles trio House Of Pain. They charted around the world, and while that debut single hit No. 3 in the US and No. 15 in Australia, they never quite matched the same...

Cast your mind back to the early-to-mid-'00s, and it was pretty hard to escape Epicure. That is, if you were listening to triple j, the Ballarat outfit were a hot commodity. Having formed in the mid-'90s, a few formative releases gave way to a bit of a personnel shuffle and something of a musical refocusing. What came next was the sort of thing that most bands of the era could only dream o...

When I first started this podcast, I made a wishlist of people I wanted to chat to. I've still not achieved my most-wanted artist (but I came close earlier this year!), but one of those first names I put on that list was none other than Eric Michener, better known as Fishboy. If you're not across Fishboy, then you definitely need to go back and right that wrong immediately. I truly believe...

Has there ever been a musician harder to categorise than Pinky Beecroft? (Okay, for those saying Frank Zappa or Ween, that was more of a rhetorical question, so please hold onto your opinions for the end.) For the vast majority of music fans, his is a name which would have come to prominence thanks to his role as the de facto frontperson of Machine Gun Fellatio, a group whose very success needs to...

I say this a lot, but as a former Adelaidean, I really do enjoy listening and chatting to musicians from South Australia. If you're someone whose finger has firmly been on the pulse of the City of Churches' music scene, then you might be aware of Any Young Mechanic, a quintet whose music is a true delight for anyone who enjoys a blend of indie, folk, and rock in equal and appropriate measu...

Ahead of making this podcast, I really had to think back to where I first discovered the band Metric.  Hailing from Toronto in Canada, the group came together back in 1998, initially forming as a duo between Emily Haines and Jimmy Shaw, before things expanded, evolved, and early releases started arriving. There's an interesting story about how their first records actually came about (stay tune...

One of my favourite things is watching a band achieve their goals. I don't just mean recording an album, releasing it, hitting the charts, and going on tour – both domestically and internationally – but honestly, even just playing music together. While Melbourne outfit The Velvet Club have certainly achieved all those initial things I mentioned, the majority of their journey was predicated on...

If you've taken anything away from the sort of artists I've had on this podcast in recent years, you can probably surmise I'm a bit of a fan of the more indie, alternative, punk, and heavier genres.   One of the groups that does manage to traverse all of those elements is The Menzingers, a punk-influenced outfit from Scranton, Pennsylvania who this year celebrate two decades in the gam...

Hello and welcome to Trusty Chords, the podcast which aims to celebrate music and those that create it. Most Australian bands would tell you that the dream is to not only carve out a respectable niche for yourself on home soil, but to make impressive in-roads overseas. For Newcastle's Vacations, that's exactly what they've spent the past decade doing. Initially formed out of solo recor...

There's a very good chance that if you've listened to music lately, then you might have heard of Dexter And The Moonrocks. Maybe theirs isn't a name you've particularly become familiar with, but on a statistical level, you've likely heard them thanks to their March single 'Freakin' Out'. Hell, I'll admit I had no idea who they were until the track popped up on m...

For close to 25 years now, Canada's own The Flatliners have been bringing their unique brand of punk to the world. Formed in 2002, the Ontario group are one of those rare bands who have managed to maintain the same line-up through the entirety of their career. They've used this stability to craft numerous records over the years, including the likes of 'The Great Awake', 'Cavalc...

There's a very good chance that if you've found yourself listening to music in recent years and noticing there seems to be a stylistic shift to the straightforward pop and rock of the '60s, you've likely found yourself listening to The Lemon Twigs. Hailing from Long Island in New York, The Lemon Twigs is the musical project of brothers Brian and Michael D'Addario, who, after st...

Last week saw the  Trusty Chords podcast celebrate 100 episodes, so we here at  TC HQ figured it was high time to offer up a few facts and stats from the past couple of years. We're talking information about the theme song, info on the longest and shortest episodes, the most chosen artists, albums, and songs, and all that other sort of granular stuff you didn't even know you wanted until n...

For about 15 years now, the Australian music scene has been home to The Pretty Littles, arguably one of the best rock bands this country has produced in quite some time. From humble beginnings with a batch of albums that largely flew under the radar, it was in 2016 or so that The Pretty Littles began to experience wider fame.  Albums like 2016's 'Soft Rock For The Anxious' and 2018&#39...

If you're someone who has a penchant for music which is a little bit ferocious, a little bit honest, and a whole lot of impactful, then you might have come across Chasing Ghosts over the years. Originally, Chasing Ghosts was formed as a solo act by Jimmy Kyle, a Thungutti man who also happens to be a musician, storyteller, and educator up there with the best of them. Following Chasing Ghosts&#...