The Stems - Terminal Cool (Anthology ‘83-‘86)

Formed by Fremantle musician Dom Mariani (a passionate rock ‘n ‘roll fan who cut his teeth as youngster on a staple diet of Beatles, Rolling Stones and swampy Creedence tunes), together with Richard Lane (guitar/keyboard/vocals), Gary Chambers (drums) and Julian Matthews (bass), The Stems introduced their captivating brand of garage rock and roll from the punk ‘n’ snarl of songs like "Make You Mine" and "No Heart" to the Byrdsian pop-jangle of "Love Will Grow" and "At First Sight". This was not your typical "garage" band indeed an emphasis was placed on writing original material that would define their sound. Even though The Stems are considered a household name among the moptopped garageheads all over the world, this release might be the very definition of “long overdue”! Everything that makes an authentic mid’60s garage beat soundscape is contained within these 70 minutes, starting from moody fuzzed-out punkers to sharing a more conventional r’n’b vibe, though still retaining the usual punky edge. This brilliant retrospective captures a confident, self-assured band recorded during those halcyon years of ’83 – ’86, and proves that Australia’s Stems were indeed an extremely varied animal. Brimming with gorgeous pop melodies alongside great garage riffs and backbeats, this collection effectively showcases their versatility…Terminally or not, The Stems were cool, and they still ARE.

The Stems - Heads Up

As suggested by their reunion shows all over the world in 2007, Australia’s own “knights of fuzz” are back. With their “heads up” above most of the moderndaze garage beatsters who still having a thing or two to learn from the likes of The Stems, or other yet to be retired pioneering garage-punk revivalists, such as The Chesterfield Kings or The Cynics. With the main Stem, Dom Mariani, delivering the bulk of the goods, he provides us with the opening punked-up r’n’b fuzz of Leave You Way Behind, followed by an even more freaky beat of She Sees Everything, carried out on the wings of the (British) Birds. Of course, there’s a usual dose of Americanized riff-laden blasts, with the ‘Machine-powered Hellbound Train being as good an example as any.

Making the diversity of Dom’s contribution even wider, there’s the Spencer Davis Group-like blue-eyed soul organ-ization of Get To Know Me, as well as Get So Bad, a piece of powered-up classic mid’60s Merseybeat. As for the rest of The Stems, they seem to be rearing their own heads up pretty high as well, with drummer Dave Shaw delivering the slightlydelic jangle of Surround Me, this time with the American Byrds being the ones to provide the wings.

While Dom’s fellow axeman, Richard Lane (note the cool reference within the brackets, reading R.Lane!), comes up with a pretty cool pair of What’s Your Stand and Only If You Want, with the former sounding like a bunch of garage-punkers, backing the likes of such harmony-laden groups like The Cyrkle or something, while the latter is another power-chord stomper, with the power this time being supplied by ’67 Who.

Hold your mop-topped heads up everyone, ‘cause you don’t wanna miss this!

A First Sight Of The Stems

The Stems 1987 debut LP sits comfortably in the pantheon of timeless Australian albums of the era. The first single ‘At First Sight’ is a bona fide classic of Australian indie-pop and the subsequent singles ‘For Always’ and ‘Sad Girl’ cemented a truly engaging and high-quality debut album. The Stems, like their Western Australian compatriots Hoodoo Gurus, The Go Betweens and from across the trench The Church, straddle a retro-jangle garage pop sound that relies on shimmering guitar and organ that is solidly held together by melodic and catchy hooks. Originally issued through Mushroom Records' White Label on vinyl, the album only saw limited CD release at that time. In the early 90s Rolling Stone Magazine included it in the top 100 Australian releases of all time. The 2003 reissue includes a bonus disc with 15 B-sides & live recordings (many of which are available on CD for the first time), 'Sad Girl' (Single Version), 'Grooviest Girl In Town', 'My Beach', 'Can't Forget That Girl' (original demo previously unreleased) & 10 live recordings from the Old Melbourne Hotel, 4/18/1986 - 'Rosebud', 'Make You Mine', ‘Mr Misery’, ‘Under Your Mushroom’, 'She's A Monster', 'Love Will Grow', 'The Otherside', 'Does It Turn You On', 'All You Want For Me', & 'Stepping Stone'.

This album is pure listening pleasure and will delight all who take the plunge to download and listen up. There is a 500 CD run released in 2017 for the 30 year anniversary of the classic 1987 album with the additional studio tracks as a bonus. This means that the live tracks from the Old Melbourne Hotel are only available with this 2 disc reissue. Grab it!