The Sunset Strip

The Sunset Strip

Genres: psychedelic, Stoner Rock, australia, indie, australian

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About The Sunset Strip

The Sunset Strip emerged out of the vibrant 1980s indie music scene in Melbourne, Australia. The two members who've remained connected to The Sunset Strip since 1988 are Warwick Brown and Andy Turner. They had a different slant to the Detroit sound that was predominant in the Australian scene. Mining a seam of guitar-heavy music that stretched from The Byrds to Buffalo Springfield, Crazy Horse, Dinosaur Jr. and beyond. The band fell apart in 1995 with an album recorded, but unreleased. That album, 'Stone Lazy', came out in 2015 and re-energised the band to begin new recordings. The 2017 album 'Music From The Endless Sea' saw the band embrace a more electronic / psychedelic approach with nods to Krautrock and early 1970s Moog soundscapes. Diving deeper into this style the 2019 album 'Crystal Ships Infinite Arrivals' saw two long songs fill the album with hypnotic Can-like progressions and Tangerine Dream washes, along with found sound, musique concrète and lush mood pieces. These recordings were culled from edited jams and shorter pieces. A double album called 'Open City' came out in 2023, melding Tangerine Dream with The Stooges. Another album, 'Lonely Surfer' remains in the can awaiting final mixes. It harkens back to their first album's with an almost country styling and a touch of the recent electronic experimentation. Born out of the ashes of Geelong's Behind The Magnolia Curtain in late 1985 by Warwick Brown. The Sunset Strip started well with the release in 1986 of the single on AuGoGo called Going Home. Both critically and commercially successful (particularly in Europe), Warwick decided to beef up the sound and recruited ex-Magnolia Andy Turner on second guitar in 1986. These two artists remain the core of The Sunset Strip and have been supported by a floating lineup to this day. Despite the initial success the band found itself plowing a lonely field of Buffalo Springfield, Neil Young and 60s influences at a time when the scene was dominated by Detroit-style guitar riffarama. From 1986 onwards the band remained a critical favourite without garnering a significant following. The 1987 self-titled album was a mishmash of various lineups that never quite gelled but still contained a couple of Strip epics in The Rising Wind and Shotgun Blues. 1989s 10" Holocaust was a more coherent release and 1990s Move Right In was generally considered the bands best release. The band's sound hard hardened considerably over the years and begun to incorporate more experimental ambient and pure noise elements taken from jazz and punk. Two cd eps were culled form sessions for the next album. 1992s Scrape It Out and 93s Nothing Lost Nothing Gained were brilliant distillations of the band's increasingly diverse approach. An album, Stone Lazy was completed and ready for release in 95 when the band's record label went bust. The band was also rocked by drug-related and mental health issues in that year which saw the members unable to self -finance or release the album. Increasingly distracted by personal issues, the bands members put aside and eventually forgot the unreleased album. It languished in drawers and cupboards for years, literally unheard and forgotten. In 2009, finally able again to consider the history of The Strip, Warwick and Andy found and remastered the tapes using the best of today's digital technology. The album will be released on vinyl and with a digital download code for the album plus bonus tracks. "Imagine guitar freakouts along the lines of Yo La Tengo; with maybe some serious Stooges damage plus the trademark young/Crazy Horse sprawling approach. More importantly it moves you to tears in ways hard to explain. " Fred Mills US writer-critic "An aurally, visually and esoterically stunning band that leave little to the imagination or, indeed, to be desired. Australia's Sunset Strip have a passion and craving for finding new sounds from beyond the range of normal amplification. Their raggedy-edged melee of psych-tinged Stones cum Alex Chilton post-blues apocalyptic guitar rock gems for the Au Go Go label back in the the eighties failed to garner them the recognition expected although, to be fair, it was probably their own instability and lengthy periods of inactivity which led too their tenure in the realms of obscurity. Now they're back." Phil McMullen, Ptolemaic Terrascope (UK mag) "Move Right In [the band's 2nd album] will surprise a few people with its astonishing strength and scope. Without doubt it's the most cohesive record from The Strip, but more interestingly it's without doubt the best record ever to appear on the Au Go Go label. Try to imagine the first two Velvet underground albums mixed with the sonic malevolence of The Dream Syndicate, then seasoned with liberal doses of Neil Young and Television and a couple of Byrdsian touches and you'd be getting close. what a brew! All nine tracks are superb but the standouts are clearly Move Right In, I Want To Know and Don't you Let Me. The first two are awesome with their devastating guitar riffing and powerhouse performances. Morning Dew features a particularly eerie and haunting rendering, while the epic Out Of Touch Out Of Time and Say Goodbye are more traditional in their Neil Young-like atmosphere." Ian McFarlane. Australian Record Collector magazine, 1990 Band sites: www.facebook.com/thesunsetstripaustralia https://thesunsetstrip.bandcamp.com/ https://soundcloud.com/the-sunsets-1

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