The Vines

Part of a great explosion of high octane, garage bands who burst on the scene in the early 2000s (laughably coined as the new rock revolution), Aussie rockers The Vines delivered great blasts of ragged, spiky indie pop. Led by hyperactive, Asperger Syndrome sufferer Craig Nicholls, the band formed over a love of Nirvana while working together as teenagers at McDonalds and they renamed themselves in 1999 as a homage to Nicholls' father's band The Vynes. Signed to British label XL Recordings on the strength of a demo, debut album Highly Evolved (2002) went on to reach Number 3 in the UK charts with singles Get Free and Outtathaway! becoming some of the big alternative anthems of the year. They became the first Australian band to feature on the cover of the NME in 20 years and played at the 2002 MTV Music Video Awards show; but Nicholls' behaviour was starting to become more and more erratic and promotion of their second album Winning Days (2004) became completely chaotic. Later albums Vision Valley (2006), Melodia (2008) and Future Primitive (2011) retained their popularity within Australia, but failed to make an impact worldwide.