The Eastern Dark--Where Are All the Single Girls? Legendary Australian Band's Brief Flicker Brought the Thunder

One of the great groups from Australia careers ended not long after they began. Where Are All the Single Girls? is an outstanding compilation of The Eastern Dark, containing their small output of studio recordings supplemented by live tracks. Half a Cow records released this collection in 2000, and reissued the CD in 2010. Unfortunately, the band was involved in an automobile accident which killed lead singer/guitarist James Darroch, and injured the other band members, Bill Gibson (bass) and Geoff Milne (drums). What a great band these guys were--you can only speculate what levels they may have gone to had tragedy not struck. This collection is essential Australian rock and roll. Certainly some of their songs released as single can be found on Australian Punk rock compilations like Do The Pop, but you really need every scrap you can find of this band in my opinion.

Inflammable material this is! Fast and furious, but loaded with pop hooks and harmonies, with the added treat of Darroch's remarkable lead guitar work. I would agree with the argument made by many, that had these guys avoided disaster, they would probably spoken in the same breath as The Saints, Radio Birdman, and the Scientists. They weren't around long enough to release an LP. And I am equally blown away with the
live tracks. It's pretty clear they were a monstrous live act if these tracks are indicative. The intensity of these tracks make my heart race. There is not a duff track in this collection. And there is also an extremely informative 40+ page booklet that comes with the disc.



A lot of people refer to the bands love of The Ramones, as can obviously be seen by song titles like Julie is a Junkie and Johnny and Dee Dee. But I think they had their own thing going, even at this early stage. Certainly they combined pop smarts and punk energy as The Ramones did. I think the Husker Du comparisons are pretty spot on also. Just listen to I Don't Need The Reasons and you'll agree. Drums are fantastic on this one. The aforementioned songs are as good as it gets as far as pop/punk goes.

Actually a lot of the recordings sound to me like a more tuneful variation on The Scientists, like on songs like Mr Clean and Stay Alone. A song like Over Now sounds like Nirvana may have cribbed some ideas from these guys. Walking is classic hard rock riffing at its finest, like punked out AC/DC. No Pictures and Julie Loves Johnny are just more example of punk pop perfection--it's like finding another punk rock holy grail.



The live stuff shows another facet of this band; out of the studio they rock with the energy of early Replacements, but tight. I'm impressed by the spoken word bits by Darroch in the song Whore. You can't help but admire the chain saw boogie of a tune like C&W Metal. Remarkable tunes like The President is Dead, and Stay Sane Somehow never saw the inside of a recording studio, but thankfully we have these molten live versions.



I think as far as the US goes, Australian music is a bit of a mystery. People think of Men at Work, INXS, Kylie Minogue, Olivia Newton-John, but there is so much more going on Down Under. HooDoo Gurus, Go-Betweens, Triffids, Saints, DM3, Hummingbirds...the list is pretty impressive and goes on a lot further than this. Unfortunately, the US dollar is pretty weak these days, so some of these cool Australian reissues are prohibitively expensive for us, and sometimes just plain scarce. Where are the Single Girls is readily available directly from Half A Cow along with a host of other worthy recordings. While not cheap, I think this collection is well worth the cost. This is an unbelievable disc that belongs in any good music collection.