Melbourne / London
1977–1983·Melbourne, Australia
Melbourne's late-70s post-punk underground produced The Birthday Party — Nick Cave, Rowland S. Howard, Tracy Pew, Mick Harvey, Phill Calvert. They moved to London in 1980 and got louder and uglier until the band collapsed under its own weight in '83. Cave's pre-Bad-Seeds years are the direct ancestor of every noise rock frontman who ever slammed a microphone into his own face. Melbourne's noise inheritance runs through them into feedtime, Lubricated Goat, and an Australian noise underground that's still going.