The Beautiful Girls

Australian roots band
the Australian band

The Beautiful Girls are an Australian roots music group founded in Sydney in 2001 by Mat McHugh, Clay MacDonald, and Mitchell Connelly. They have released three extended plays, Morning Sun (2002), Goodtimes (2002), and The Weight of the World (2004), plus five studio albums, Learn Yourself (2003), We're Already Gone (2005), Ziggurats (2007), Spooks (2010), and Dancehall Days (2014). The last four albums have all peaked into the top 20 on the ARIA Albums Chart. Spooks and Dancehall Days also debuted at No. 1 on the Australian Independent Chart and No. 7&5 on the American Billboard Reggae Albums Chart, respectively. Their single "I Thought About You" reached No. 60 on the ARIA Singles Chart. Songwriter/producer/multi instrumentalist Mat McHugh has issued two solo albums, Seperatista! (2008) and Love Come Save Me (2012), as well as an EP, Go Don't Stop (2011). Clay MacDonald fronts multiple bands, including The Orange Bird, The Lung, The Guilty Conscience, The Oort Cloud, and Hungdonkey. He also plays in fuzz rock group Valley Floor. Mitchell Connelly has written and recorded under the name aliTTLErowBOAT. MacDonald and Connelly write and record instrumental hip hop under the name The Undertones. They also have a noise rock band named Salmon Facade. The pair provided the rhythm section on Angus & Julia Stone's first two EPs and first two albums, and toured extensively with the siblings from 2007 to 2009. By 2014, The Beautiful Girls had toured the world multiple times – including Japan, Canada, Brazil, and the United States – and their total album sales had reached 350,000.

The Beautiful Girls formed in Sydney in 2001 as a roots music group with Mitch Connelly on drums and percussion, Clay MacDonald on bass guitar and backing vocals, and Mat McHugh on lead vocals and guitar. Previously, McHugh had travelled to New York to pursue a music career, and he returned to Sydney to record some demos, at which point he founded the band. McHugh chose the name to counter the "macho posturing and the associated tough guy band names. And a beautiful girl was just about the sweetest, most appropriate opposite I could think of". In March 2002, The Beautiful Girls issued their debut eight track extended play, Morning Sun, on a self funded independent label, which was distributed by MGM Distribution. The track "Periscopes" received airplay on national radio station Triple J. McHugh explained why they chose not to sign with any major label, saying "It's the way we've always been as a band and the way I've always wanted to do things. I like artists and musicians who I get the vibe of where they’re coming from and an understanding of what kinda person they are. For me it's just a way of conversing back and forth with people". United States pop rocker Mason Jennings provided lead vocals on the track "Freedom (Part 2)", and former Soul Asylum drummer Ian Mussington provided percussion on two tracks. In January 2005, they released a four track EP, The Weight of the World, where the title track was a "rollicking, dance hall tune, featuring, wails of melodica and a tinge of hip hop, [it] has already been added to rotation on JJJ". which peaked at No. 19 on the ARIA Albums Chart. The special edition of We're Already Gone includes a four track DVD, Legged, with live video footage and film clips. In October 2006, the group issued a compilation album titled Water. In late 2005, Kmiecik returned to Rio Negrinho, Brazil, to raise his newborn daughter. In 2006, Connelly left the band, citing irreconcilable differences with McHugh. In February 2007, MacDonald left the band as well, for similar reasons. MacDonald and Connelly subsequently worked on Angus & Julia Stone's albums and EPs while working on their hip hop project The Undertones. They then went on to follow their own projects, Connelly with aliTTLErowBOAT and MacDonald with The Orange Bird, Hungdonkey, and later, The Lung, The Oort Cloud, and The Guilty Conscience. In 2009, Kmiecik, as Felipe Harp, issued a solo EP, Back on the Road. The Beautiful Girls continued with McHugh now on lead vocals, lead guitar, bass guitar, keyboards, melodica, and percussion – he was joined by (The Beautiful Girls producer) Pritchett on bass guitar, backing vocals, guitar, keyboards, and percussion, and Bruce Braybrooke (ex Frenzal Rhomb, The Fantastic Leslie) on drums, percussion, and vocals. On 14 May 2007, the group issued their third album, Ziggurats, on Die!Boredom Records, with McHugh and Pritchett co producing. The Sydney Morning Herald felt the group's "sound is punchier and more angular. Lyrically, McHugh has drifted away from the personal politics of relationships to a wider political outlook. The album, in particular the stand out 'I Thought About You', are a convincing departure from the 'roots' scene". By 2010, The Beautiful Girls had toured the world twelve times and their total album sales had reached 285,000. It peaked at No. 18 on the ARIA Albums Chart, In September, a US tour was interrupted when McHugh was diagnosed with a ruptured appendix. In April 2012, McHugh's second solo album, Love Come Save Me, was released on his website as a free download. By late 2012, McHugh established a new band name, Mat. McHugh and the Seperatista Soundsystem, which first toured in January 2013.