What's the difference between a great act and a great band? In the Snowdroppers' case, one album. It's not like they weren't going somewhere as the swampy blues-rock showmen of 2007's 'Too Late to Pray'. But 'Moving Out of Eden' marks their arrival in a less stylised, more grounded set of boots.
"We've hit the road pretty hard in the last year or two," says singer Johnny Wishbone. "I started feeling a real kinship with a lot of classic pub bands, from AC/DC to the Hoodoo Gurus, Sports, Skyhooks . . . no-bullshit bands. Bands that just write great songs and play."
"I guess there was a conscious decision to sound more Australian," adds guitarist Pauly K. "We knew we wanted to sound less derived from that Americana/ blues thing and more unique on this album. More like us."
However carefully considered, the Snowdroppers' new turf sounds a lot more instinctive than cultivated: a raw mix of earthy rumble and wiry guitar riffs tied together with the wry kitchen sink perspective of the common man.
The origins of the Snowdroppers are steeped in the seedy burlesque underworld of Sydney. Johnny and Pauly had known bassist London since their uni days. Somewhere in between the tits and feathers on the Hume Highway haul from Melbourne to Brisbane, swing dancer Cougar Jones made the fateful move to drums.
Early single "Do The Stomp" made impact on alternative radio as well as the soundtrack to the hit movie, RED DOG. The billowing blues harp and rockabilly slap of the TOO LATE TO PRAY album upped the band's profile as hard players from the Annandale Hotel and the Big Day Out to a whistle-stop US tour from Austin to LA to New York.
Then there's the biblical gravity of the title track, "Moving Out of Eden", which "came from a convoluted idea about Adam and Eve living on the south coast of New South Wales," Pauly says. "It turned into a breakup song about breaking up with religion."
Between black humour and fiery passions, 'Moving Out of Eden' is among the most distinctive and cohesive rock records you'll hear this year.
Listen back to Fang It with Ruari for a live set from The Snowdroppers.
