Dick Diver

I'm just going to put this out there. The Australians have been kicking everyone's ass in terms of quality music output over the last few years. It's at the point where hearing a band is from Melbourne or Sydney (or even Queensland) is enough to perk the ears as hearing a band is from Portland or Montreal. To be fair, Australia has always had a rich musical pallate that gets oddly ignored by the American critical community. Bands like Hoodoo Gurus, The Saints, The Celibate Rifles, Died Pretty, The Sleepy Jackson, Spiderbait, and Hunters & Collectors are all largely and unexplainably missing from larger conversations about great and influential artists. It drives me crazy when I read Midnight Oil referred to as a 'one hit wonder'. Nevertheless, it has become impossible to look at the last decade and ignore all of the great music coming from Down Under.

Adding to that barrage comes Dick Diver and their newest LP Melbourne, Florida. Dick Diver started making rumblings in Melbourne in 2008, when the chemistry between guitarists Rupert Edwards & Alistair McKay coalesced with drummer Stephanie Hughes (Boomgates) and bassist Al Montfort (Total Control, UV Race, Lower Plenty). Melbourne, Florida is the band’s third album in six years time. The group had previously released an EP & two critically acclaimed albums (2013’s Calendar Days was nominated for The Age’s Music Victoria Awards; the largest public-voted music awards in Australia) on Australian label Chapter Music, but Melbourne, Florida is their first U.S. release & first for Trouble In Mind.

Recorded in a former sheep-shearing shed in Apollo Bay, Victoria by Mikey Young, Melbourne, Florida recalls the brief but golden period of late-seventies punk (which included the aforementioned Saints and Celibate Rifles). But, instead of taking cues from their punk countrymen, Dick Diver play in the jangly style more familiar to fans of groups like The Adverts and The Only Ones. These are underachieving anthems that make the soul feel warm (owed in part to fantastic guitar tone and multi-part vocal melody). I've long held that the best rock n' roll music is made by people who write epic songs without sounding like they give a shit. That is Dick Diver to a fault. Every track on Melbourne, Florida has a certain endearing off-the-cuff quality, but is also teeming with great ideas. This band plays like they have something to say and don't really care who hears it. That's a hard line to walk. But, when it's done well, it makes for magical music.

Just listen to a song like Leftovers. You have this massive 1 1/2 minutes introduction to a simple little love lyric from drummer Stephanie Hughes. It is the bravado of rock, coupled with the sweetness of pop; a combination irresistable to any oxygen breathing human being. Dick Diver don't come off as snotty brats or overliterate snobs on Melbourne, Florida. This isn't overly fashionable or so obtuse as to be unlistenable. It is a formula as old as music itself. The boy pines for the girl. The girl pines for the boy. What is special here is that the approach is both raw and thoughtful. I want every band to be Dick Diver. Unfortunately, it takes a lot to be this honest and talented.

Melbourne, Florida isn't going to change your concept of what music can be. That isn't what it's meant for. What it might do however is show you how good music can be. Writing ten minutes solos for broken Moog machines or songs arcs about Assyrian mythology doesn't make you a better musician. It usually just makes you an asshole. You can follow those naked emperors all day long for all I care. I'll be investing my time in groups like Dick Diver.