Thirsty Merc: Австралиялық поп-рок тобының тарихы

Australian pop rock band

Thirsty Merc are an Australian pop rock band formed in 2002 by Rai Thistlethwayte, Phil Stack (bass guitar), Karl Robertson (drums), and Matthew Baker (guitar). In 2004, Baker was replaced by Sean Carey, who was, in turn, replaced by Matt Smith in 2010. Thirsty Merc have released one extended play, First Work (September 2003), and five studio albums: Thirsty Merc (August 2004), Slideshows (April 2007), Mousetrap Heart (June 2010), Shifting Gears (September 2015), and Celebration (June 2022). The band have sold over 200,000 albums, toured extensively around Australia, and received national radio airplay for their tracks. In June 2005, Billboards Christie Eliezer felt their debut album showed "electric rock , classical and jazz influenced pop [that] appealed to Australian radio programmers". The work reached the top 20 on the ARIA Albums Chart and was certified platinum by ARIA for shipment of 70,000 units by the end of 2005. Slideshows peaked at No. 4 in Australia—their highest position. It reached No. 38 on the New Zealand Albums Chart; however, Thirsty Merc had attained No. 29 in that market. The group were nominated for four ARIA Awards in 2005, and the Thistlethwayte written track "20 Good Reasons" was nominated for Song of the Year at the APRA Music Awards of 2008. From 2006, their song "In the Summertime" was the opening theme for the Australian TV reality show Bondi Rescue.

Three of the founding members of Thirsty Merc—Matthew Baker, Karl Robertson, and Phil Stack—had played together in various bands in Dubbo, a regional New South Wales city. In 1996, Drown was formed with Baker on guitar, Robertson on drums, Peter Jamieson on vocals, and Stack on bass guitar. By 1998 Baker, Jamieson and Stack had split to form Twenty Two and then moved to Sydney. In 2002, Baker and Stack returned to Dubbo where Rai Thistlethwayte, from Sydney, as lead singer (later also on guitar and keyboards) and Stack worked as a live jazz duo and session musicians. In October 2006 Thistlethwayte described his jazz and R&B background to MusicFix and the band's sound as "rock Sinatra" where "[t]he outlook, I guess, is about being a young person in today's society being an Australian in an American ised, Britain ised kind of world, where you're trying to stay true to yourself". Baker added "We contrived to make it not contrived Rai was all for originality in his own vision and so were we". A car accident on 22 September 2015 at Streatham, Victoria during a Thirsty Merc tour killed the band's stage manager and injured drummer Mick Skelton.

Thirsty Merc's first extended play, First Work, was released on 8 September 2003 by the band's own label, Don't Music and was distributed by Warner Music Australia. and its lead single, "Wasting Time", achieved radio airplay on national radio stations, Triple J and Nova. The self funded music video for the single was broadcast on Channel [V], After extensive gigging around Sydney's pubs, representatives from Warner had signed the band in June 2003, The album spent 48 weeks on the ARIA Albums Chart Top 50, peaking at No. 15, and launched the band in the Australian mainstream. dB Magazines Kelly Parish observed "[e]ven though the band's sound is predominantly rock, it has been influenced by more traditional flavours they have developed a very wide audience which embraces both the alternative and mainstream camps". Thirsty Merc reached No. 29 on New Zealand's RIANZ Albums Chart. It was recorded and mixed on 2 inch tape, and then further mixed by Gravina at his Birdland Studios. Five singles were released from Thirsty Merc: "Emancipate Myself", "My Completeness" (August 2004), "Someday, Someday" (December), "In the Summertime" (April 2005), and "When the Weather Is Fine" (September). All five appeared in the ARIA Singles Chart top 50, with the highest charting, "Someday, Someday" reaching No. 19. "In the Summertime" was nominated at the ARIA Music Awards of 2005 for "Best Video", while "Someday, Someday" was nominated for "Single of the Year", "Best Group", and "Best Pop Release". At the ceremony in October, the group performed "Someday, Someday". In 2006 Carey described the group's style to Jet Magazine, it was "Just be yourself" and "about being young and living in Australia. We’re not trying to be 50 Cent or anything, we’re all just boys from the country, just trying to move into the city and make our way". He listed Evermore, Crowded House, Foo Fighters and Cold Chisel as his favourite bands.

Thirsty Merc's second album, Slideshows, was issued on 21 April 2007 via Warner Music Australia. It became the band's most successful release yet, peaking at No. 4 in Australia, The next three singles appeared in the top 100 in Australia, "The Hard Way" (September), "Those Eyes" (December), and "Homesick" (May 2008). The band's main songwriter, Thistlethwayte, inadvertently wrote a "break up album", which The Sydney Morning Heralds Brett Winterford noted was unusual, "that the articulate and intelligent 27 year old has strung together 12 such stock standard, radio friendly songs about broken hearts". Thistlethwayte described his influences: "Jazz taught me about spontaneity Central to jazz is improvisation. It's also great to get that knowledge of theory, an understanding of the geeky side of music" and writing advertising jingles had showed him how to "do a lot of things in differing genres and recording styles—but had to try to be authentic about it". Carey wanted to work as a record producer and spend more time with his wife. Bernard Zuel of The Sydney Morning Herald opined that "we buy, or actively avoid, songs that excite a response in us but radio wants songs that fit in, that don't provoke strong responses, that offend the fewest people this [album] is a collection of extremely professional, well considered, carefully targeted songs whose key performance indicators are ticked off one by one in a manner so efficient you suspect band meetings must have an agenda, notes secretary and double cream biscuits for elevenses". The band toured nationally in July 2010 to support the album, while its lead single, the title track, had appeared in May and charted in the Top 30 on the ARIA Singles Chart. In November Lip Magazines Shannon Andreucci reviewed a live gig, "[they] are certainly no Pixies, Beatles or Sex Pistols. They're not breaking any rules or boundaries in the revolutionary world of rock music. In fact they are perfectly happy and capable of playing within the parameters of radio friendly and commercially safe pop rock. But one thing is for sure; they go the extra mile in giving a charmingly refined and hearty live performance and that in itself should be commended".

On 30 May 2022 Thirsty Merc announced on their official instagram page they will release their next studio album, Celebration, on 17 June 2022. This will be accompanied with a national tour, Celebration 2022, taking place between July and September of the same year. The lead single, released with the album announcement, is a cover of Daryl Braithwaite's As the Days Go By. Other confirmed songs include Who Listens To The Radio, That’s When I Think of You, Bad Habits and The Seekers's 1966 hit Hey There, Georgy Girl.

+ List of singles, with selected chart positions and certifications, showing year released and album name Title Year Peak chart positions Certifications Album AUS Slideshows "The Hard Way" 63 — "Those Eyes" — — "Homesick" 2008 — — "Mousetrap Heart" 2010 30 — Mousetrap Heart "Tommy and Krista" — 10 "All My Life" 80 — "The Good Life" 2015 — — Shifting Gears "—" denotes a recording that did not chart or was not released in that territory.