Primitive Calculators was an Australian post-punk, synth punk, and noise rock band from Melbourne, Victoria, active from 1978 to 1980 and from 2009 to 2018. The group was formed in 1978 by guitarist and vocalist Stuart Grant, bassist and keyboardist David Light, drum machine operator and vocalist Frank Lovece, and keyboardist Denise Rosenberg, who met as teenagers in Springvale and moved to St Kilda in 1977, originally performing under the name the Moths. After renaming themselves Primitive Calculators in 1978, they became leaders of Melbourne's experimental Little Band Scene. They released their independent debut single, “Do That Dance”, in late 1979, featuring “Pumping Ugly Muscle” as the B-side. Following their disbandment in March 1980, their eponymous live recording, Primitive Calculators, was released as a live album in 1982. They reunited briefly in 1986 to perform a new version of “Pumping Ugly Muscle” for the feature film Dogs in Space. In 2003, their live recordings from 1979 were issued on the extended play Glitter Kids. The classic lineup reunited in January 2009 for the All Tomorrow's Parties music festival. They subsequently released their first studio album, The World Is Fucked, through Chapter Music in 2013. Lovece and Rosenberg departed the band following a tour of China in 2015, and the group released the single “On Drugs” in 2016. Following Light's departure in August 2017 and Lovece's death on January 10, 2018, Grant released the studio album On Drugs on April 13, 2018, as the last remaining original member before the group disbanded later that year.
