Playlist: Down Underground

We're thrilled to have Andy French from Raven Sings The Blues, an indispensable resource for discovering music outside of the spotlight, here to share some his favorite underground rock from Australia and New Zealand.

For many in the United States, Australian and New Zealand music tends to come filtered through the pop music cycle, not as a genre unto itself. Though, for every towering Lorde single or Tame Impala radio hit, there exists a shaggier underground that we often never really get the chance to hear.

In the past few years, the continent and its neighboring isle have doubled down on their allegiance to the indie ethos that permeated labels like Flying Nun and AuGoGo, spinning out new hubs of influence like Bedroom Suck, Aaarght Records, R.I.P. Society, Flightless, and Tenth Court. The new wave has created just as many enduring bands as their forebears, and with the kind of impressively prolific schedules that might even put American garage rock to shame. It's high time to get acquainted with the Australian underground.

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About Raven Sings the Blues

Raven Sings The Blues started in 2006 as a collaboration between three co-workers - Tom Sullivan, Andy French, and Mike DeSutter - then employed by indie vinyl site Insound.com (RIP). Eventually it fell to the hands of just one of the contributors, Andy, who maintains it to this day.

Andy has written for Pitchfork’s Altered Zones (also RIP), AdHoc, Colour Magazine, and he's spent years working for shops, labels, and in other corners of the music industry. Raven Sings the blues is purely a labor of love, a project that's spent the last decade mining corners of indie, psych, garage, and experimental music for those lost gems that seem to fall between the cracks.