📺 The One Thing 📺
#17 | May 28, 2025
Overview
Back in the time when it was a lot harder for Aussie rock acts to get serious attention in the US, a handful of bands were able to make it work, and at the top of that pack was INXS. If today you need to master TikTok or YouTube, back then it was MTV, and the fledgling channel could not get enough of the lads from Sydney. They even had their own MTV Texas trailer park hoedown special. This edition we are thrilled to be joined by founding member and bassist Garry Gary Beers, who shares how it all went down, and where the journey has led him.
We are right in the middle of the northern festival season so we let you know who played the big spring festivals and who is scheduled throughout the summer. Spoiler alert, Royel Otis are on a rampage, and currently favorites to be the 2025 Cockatoo US Festival Champions.
If you’re looking for something you can export to the US without a tariff, it’s your career. If that is of interest, scroll down to Career Corner, where we list the grant funding coming out of Canberra, and a US visa update session from Sounds Australia being streamed next week.
Then for those of you in LA this week, Friday will be Aussie night at LP Vinyl Bar, featuring music from Australian artists of all eras and genres. Some of the pleasures of those evenings include reminding people of the music that has come out of Australia in the past and surprising people with the new sounds. Particularly in genres such as RnB, hip hop and Afrobeats, where music from Australia is emerging at a rapid pace.
Three Cool Gigs
Mallrat | Neumos Seattle | May 31 - join Grace for her US tour kickoff in the Pacific Northwest
Pines | Meow Wolf Denver | June 11 - Pines in the Rocky Mountain’s location of the George RR Martin funded arts venue
Grentperez | The Wiltern | June 13 and 14 - two nights at one of the big LA theatres
The Wiltern, at Wilshire and Western in LA’s Koreatown neighborhood
Interview: Garry Gary Beers
It was pretty much a game in that all Australian bands, even early, would jump on a cruise ship and go to England or later on planes. Everyone seemed to want to go back to the mother country, which is fine. In a lot of ways, it was like basically taking English music back to England again. As INXS or Farriss Brothers or even Doctor Dolphin back in the day, we really wanted to play more funk rock.
We grew up idolizing Motown and then later good American bands like Little Feat and the Allman Brothers. We really wanted to just play more of a groove-based stuff. America was always in our crosshairs just to get there first. Luckily for us, our first tour coincided with Shabooh Shoobah and we’d released The One Thing. It coincided with the first few weeks of MTV and we became an MTV darling. MTV helped break us, it was very instrumental in helping us break America.
📖 Click here to read 🎧 Podcast platforms
Who’s Playing US Festivals?
Starting with the past, Beyond Wonderland played off in LA’s Inland Empire in March and featured Mish and Levity. San Diego’s spring CRSSD also took place in March with a healthy Aussie lineup including Fisher, Hayden James, Kita Alexander, Slenderbodies and JOY. It returns in the fall with Empire of the Sun. This year’s golden ticket to Coachella went more in the rock direction with Glass Beams, Amyl and the Sniffers and SPEED on the polo field. Then, up in wine country, Dope Lemon, Vacations, and Mallrat featured at Napa’s BottleRock.
Moving to the future and east for a one day Aussie festival in Central Park on June 14, the Sounds Australia BBQ returns with Flewnt & Inkabee, Gordi, Grace Cummings, PINES, The Grogans and The Wiggles’ DJ Dorothy Sound System.
Also in the Empire State in June is the Governors Ball, where current 2025 festival champions Royel Otis will carry the torch alone. Conversely, over in Tennessee, Bonnaroo is turning out to be south-meets-Aussie weekend at the farm with Dom Dolla, King Gizzard, Royel Otis, and Ziggy Alberts. Chicago’s Lollapalooza will happen at the end of July, also bringing the party with the Royel Otis/Dom Dolla combo, plus Rüfüs Du Sol, fois deux.
We’re seeing Aussie DJs feature heavily on the Breakaway touring festival with names including, you guessed it, Dom Dolla, alongside Alison Wonderland and Night Tales. Come August, Royel Otis and Levity will represent a limited presence at San Francisco’s Outside Lands. Then in the fall we have Ecca Vandal flying the flag solo at Atlanta’s Shaky Knees.
Check out all the Aus artists playing the US at our Who’s Touring page.
Aussie Night at LP Vinyl Bar
The last Friday of the month we play Australian vinyl all night long. Come on down, all welcome!
Music in Media Conference in Hollywood This Week
The Aussie team of Andrew Dalziell and Carisa Mellado aka the Night Temple are launching the Music In Visual Media Conference on May 30, May 31, and June 1, see ticket discounts below. As they explain:
This conference is designed to help our music community learn, share, and discover ways to grow both creatively and economically during these uncertain and ever-changing times.
Live music will be performed each night after the sessions, and speakers include:
Gordy Haab (Indiana Jones and The Great Circle, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor), Jeff Russo (Fargo, Alien: Earth), Anna Waronker & Craig Wedren (Yellowjackets), Bart Nickerson (Yellowjackets Creator) Waz & Jamie Jackson (Bad Monkey), Emmy nominee Sherri Chung (Based on a True Story, Riverdale), as well as The Society of Composers and Lyricists (The SCL) president Ashley Irwin, PR Agent Thomas Mikusz, and many more.
Cockatoo subscribers get 20% of all tickets with the code: C20OFF + the first 10 people to get tickets will get 50% with this code: C50OFF
Career Corner
Sounds Australia has a US visa information session happening online June 3 in Aus, June 2 in US.
Music Australia has announced this new batch of three “export development” grants for activity between October and the end of the year, closing entries on July 8:
International Performance and Touring Activity
International Professional and Artistic Development
International Market and Audience Development
Creative Australia also has fellowships of A$80,000 that apply to career development including music. Those applications close in 5 days.
For Victorians looking to travel, the Melbourne Music Prize has a professional development fund of A$10,000 that can be used toward travel.
And if you made this far, thank you, we appreciate you, and stay tuned for lots more news to come.
Managing Editor: Adam Burke 🗞️ Content Editor: Billy Bianchini
Published from Tongva and Chumash country, now called Hollywood.
