It seems like even longer ago, but back in 2009 Short Stack ruled the country with standy-uppy hair, flawless skin and Stack Is The New Black containing songs like… um, you can’t actually remember them, can you?
Yeah, that video really hasn’t dated well.
It’s been ten years this week since the band – singer/guitarist Shaun Diviney, bassist Andy Clemmensen and drummer Bradie Webb – released the aforementioned massive-selling and chart topping album which contained a genuinely awful title and singles like ‘Sway Sway Baby’, ‘Sweet December’ and other songs which were as international in sound as they were unmemorable in content.
But dear god, it’s easy to forget that a decade ago, they were absolutely massive.
There were honest-to-goodness riots at their TV appearances as Stackmania gripped the country, including one particularly nutso performance for Sunrise. There was even a Rolling Stone cover story, despite the critical appraisal of the band being less than entirely flattering.
And that wasn’t exactly helped by that time that Clemmenson wrote a review of a Kanye West album which was uncannily similar to one which Australian music critic Craig Matheson had just published in the Fairfact papers.
He later claimed that a friend had written the review because… um, that’s better, somehow?
The trio split suddenly in March 2012 midway through making their third album (which was eventually nudged onto digital platforms the following year as Art Vandelay) but reformed in 2015 for a sold out tour and a fourth album. And then split again.
That last split was for all the usual reasons why people in their late 20s stop doing things – travel, jobs, kids, etc – and who knows, maybe they’re reappear and OH MY GOD THEY’RE BEHIND YOU RIGHT NOW!
Still, Short Stack were pioneers in 2009. They paved the way for the likes of 5 Seconds of Summer in showing that pop-punk sensibilities could be melded into mainstream pop music, but perhaps most importantly they taught a generation of Australian men they could wear makeup and emote.
And for that, gents, we salute you. See you at the next reunion.