About 4 weeks ago a friend of mine skyped me and asked "do you have Tom, from The Nation Blue's email address?"
NO! Why would I? I don't know the guy, Never met him, wouldn't know him from a bar of soap, I barely know the band... sorry

Anyway, last Friday I had the pleasure to travel to Tasmania for the Amplified Conference... I was sitting in the Jetstar lounge at Tullamarine when I was introduced to a guy named Tom. He played in a band called the Nation Blue... Amazing coincidence no? Kate, if you're reading, I've got his email address now.

 Anyway, I got to speak to Tom a bit over the weekend. The Nation Blue are from Hobart but they moved to the 'mainland' years ago. Throughout the weekend, while speaking to some of the leading lights of the Tasmanian independent music community I discovered that Tom also runs a record label called Solar/Sonar.
Solar/Sonar releases lost, forgotten and underground Tasmanian punk music from the early 1990's. It's a hell of a niche. Clearly he's in it for love, not money. Speaking to him, I was inspired by his desire to preserve a subculture that was dear to him. Running a label takes time and energy, you have to be a driven music lover to do it. Kudos. Imagine the sort of musical history we'd have at our disposals if every musical subculture in every city had someone who felt it their duty to preserve it before it got lost to dusty basements, moths, mould, rubbish dumps, warehouse crushers and neglected blogs? Every scene needs a man or woman like that

After a magnificent Tasmanian weekend I returned to my office to find a pile of mail. Amongst it all was a pre-release copy of The Nation Blue's latest album (their fourth), it arrived the Friday before i met Tom. I just hadn't opened it yet. Coincidence?

'Rising Waters' is unflinchingly honest, cold, twisting punk. The morbid drone of the introduction, the My Disco-esque harshness of 2nd Track "if not for the good things we've done", the screams, the yells, the rousing gang vocals, the pounding drums, the unusual song structures, the sensitivity, the melody. This is thinking man's punk music.  It's pushing boundaries lyrically and musically. There's some real maturity in songwriting. At the moment it's one of my favorite Australian albums of the year. I can't wait to discover their back catalogue.

The Nation Blue @ Myspace

Here's a mini doc about the making of their latest album...  check it out:

"Rising Waters" is out August 7th through Caledisco/Shock