Australian Crawl

From their emergence in 1979 through disbanding a scant five years later, Australian Crawl stood as a bizarre anomaly against the largely punk & political scene Down Under. Essentially sculpted as the Melbourne Beach Boys, the Crawl's songs ranged from odes to Errol Flynn and Resort Girls to rousing sing-alongs like "Hootchie Gucci Fiorucci Mama" and their mash cover of the Kingsmen's "Louie Louie". Consisting of James Reyne (lead vocals, piano), Guy McDonough (co-lead vocals, rhythm guitar), Bill McDonough (drums, percussion), Simon Binks (lead/acoustic/slide guitar), Paul Williams (bass), and Brad Robinson (rhythm guitar), the Crawl appeared initially to be little more than hedonistic surfers - in Reyne's own words, "part of people's lives; a representation of the beach, the open air and good vibes". But their debut album, 1980's The Boys Light Up, also contained recountings of automobile accidents ("Indisposed") and vicious attacks against shallow materialists ("Beautiful People", the Crawl's first hit single). Their combination of light breezy tunes with significantly darker subtexts (not altogether unlike Brian Wilson's best material) left The Boys Light Up on the Aussie charts for no less than 104 weeks. 1981's sophomore effort, Sirocco, did not mess much with their proven formula. Alongside hits like "Lakeside", "Things Don't Seem" and "Errol", the album also produced their standard "Unpublished Critics", a Reyne rant later redone as a live track on the B-side of "Louie Louie". The follow-up Sons of Beaches added famed producer Mike Chapman to the mix, lending the proceedings a more polished sound, while much of the music remained the same (the hit "Shutdown" even borrowing its title from a Beach Boys classic). However, Sons also found Reyne starting to veer off...