Live Act

Underground Lovers

Melbourne has long been the epicentre of indie and progressive music in Australia, and for much of the 1990’s and 2000’s, local band Underground Lovers pushed sonic boundaries in a manner that made them cult favourites.
The success of their 1990 self-titled LP and singles like ‘Looking for Rain’, won the group the 1991 ARIA for Best New Band.
In 1992, the band’s second LP, Leaves Me Blind, demonstrated a finely honed blend of electro-pop and space rock. The single ‘Promenade’ appeared regularly on Melbourne radio station 3RRR and Triple J.
Around this time the Undies’ live shows became famous for their signature use of looped sound effects, heavily layered shoegaze guitar rhythms and psychedelic lighting. While the recorded version of the pulsating ‘Your Eyes’ lasted a good eight
and a half minutes, at gigs, the dreamily repetitive vocal choruses saw the track routinely extended to a quarter of an hour (and sometimes longer). The band undertook many national headline tours at this time, but also supported the likes of The Cure, Throwing Muses, Ride, Lush and My Bloody Valentine.
The band’s fortunes rose again in 1994 with the release of a third album Dream It Down. While this LP maintained the pulsating electro soundtrack of its predecessors, popular singles like ‘Losin’ It’ suggested a push more into the mainstream, taking out a spot in the Triple J Hottest 100 that year. Live performances during ’93 and ’94 were noted for their stratospheric renditions of ‘Las Vegas’, another standout track from the album.
The Undies’ creative output and critical acclaim continued, as evidenced by 1997’s Ways T’Burn and 1998’s Cold Feeling.
Although Underground Lovers entered a self-imposed hiatus in 2002 after supporting New Order, a formal reunion took place in November 2009 with a performance at the Homebake Festival.
In October 2010, Craig Mathieson and fellow music writers and critics John O’Donnell and Toby Creswell, listed Leaves Me Blind as the 54th greatest Australian album in their book, 100 Best Australian Albums.
Underground Lovers seventh studio album, Weekend was released in April 2013, much to the delight of their fans. In 2017, the band added to their impressive discography, with Staring At You Staring At Me, aptly paying homage to the band’s hometown of Melbourne. The album was nominated for the Australian Music Prize. In 2019, their ninth studio album, ‘A Left Turn’ was released and was also nominated for the AMP prize.
Underground Lovers promoted all three of these releases with national tours, as well as supporting Primal Scream, Stereolab and The Jesus and Mary Chain during this time.
Two online compilations have recently been released on Bandcamp. Shadows (2020) is a collection of old and new remixes and Others (2021) is a collection of 90’s B sides.