Clairy Browne & The Bangin' Rackettes

Despite their ostentatious moniker, Clairy Browne & the Bangin' Rackettes function primarily as a lively retro-soul ensemble whose influences encompass jump blues and doo wop. The group assembled in 2009 and initially operated from a former coffin factory in suburban Melbourne, Australia. Fronted by big-voiced Browne, the lineup includes Peter Bee on guitar, Camilla McKewen, Loretta Miller, and Ruby Jones on background vocals, Nick "Ricky" Martyn on drums, Darcy McNulty on saxophone, Jules Pascoe on bass, and Gabriel Strangio on piano. Within a brief period they assembled a repertoire and established themselves as a visually striking, widely respected live act. Their debut album, Baby Caught the Bus, arrived in November 2011 as a characteristically buoyant yet sincere collection, issued digitally along with pressed CD and vinyl editions; ABC Radio National subsequently designated it Album of the Year. Exposure expanded in 2012 once “Love Letter” appeared in a Heineken advertising campaign. The album reached American listeners in 2013.