Tradition suggests that musicians get quieter as they get older, as the volume beloved by youth is replaced by gentler leanings. If you’re banging out noisy riffs as a young adult, there’ll probably become a point where you want to break out the acoustic guitar.
One man bucking the trend is Australian singer and guitarist Dom Mariani, who first found fame with The Stems, a magnificent Perth band whose full debut album At First Sight, Violets Are Blue is rightly considered a garage rock classic, a triumph of chiming guitars and wistful, power-pop melody. Although The Stems are still an occasional concern, his main focus these days is Datura4, an altogether more powerful beast. Named after a particularly noxious hallucinogenic plant (the ‘4’ was added because another Datura got there first), they’re a riffing machine with a heart full of psychedelia. And there’s more Australian rock royalty in the band, as Mariani is joined by You Am I and one-time New Christs singer/guitarist Greg Hitchcock. The line-up is completed by Warren Hall on drums and bassist Stu Loasby. – GO TO THE TEAMROCK SITE TO READ THE WHOLE FEATURE