Violent Soho

Hailed as flannelled successors to Nirvana and The Vines, Violent Soho emerged from the Brisbane suburb Mansfield as scrappy teens in the mid-aughts. The band cemented their alt-rock cred by signing to Sonic Youth guitarist Thurston Moore’s Ecstatic Peace label and enlisting Pixies producer Gil Norton for 2010’s self-titled second album. Lead single “Jesus Stole My Girlfriend” even rivaled the Pixies’ quiet/loud dynamics, thanks to frontman Luke Boerdam’s sudden lurches from slacker drawl to feral scream. But it was 2013’s hook-crammed Hungry Ghost that gave Violent Soho their proper breakthrough, especially in Australia. Staging anthemic ambushes like “Covered in Chrome”—whose surprise shout of “Hell fuck yeah!” become an instant fan favourite—the grunge-steeped band proved that their whiplashing shout-alongs belong firmly in the here and now. Capturing the malaise of living through bushfires and a pandemic, 2020’s Everything Is A-OK is another bracing portrait of a fraught era.