Biography
Australian indie pop trio the Lucksmiths formed around singer and percussionist Tali White, guitarist Marty Donald, and bassist Mark Monnone, three longtime school friends whose shared enthusiasm for the Smiths first drew them together. After pursuing separate university studies and travels, the three reunited in Melbourne early in 1993 and played their initial concert that April as openers for the Sugargliders. Their debut cassette appeared shortly afterward, followed in 1994 by the EP Boondoggle. Signing to the Candle label, the Lucksmiths issued their first full-length CD, The Green Bicycle Case; What Bird Is That? arrived the next year. Their American introduction came in 1997 with the single “The Invention of Ordinary Everyday Things,” issued on Michigan’s Drive-In Records.
After the 1998 album A Good Kind of Nervous, the Lucksmiths performed several European shows backing Belle & Sebastian, whose wispy folk-pop style and self-effacingly witty lyrics were often cited as points of comparison. During one later performance Monnone endured a near-fatal onstage electrocution, yet the road-weary group still closed the year with the single “Untidy Towns.” While White resided in London for several years, the Lucksmiths toured and recorded only intermittently, laying down tracks in locations as distant as Washington, D.C., and Paris. The Happy Secret compilation and the Staring at the Sky 10-inch both surfaced in 1999, succeeded in 2000 by the single “T-Shirt Weather” and the tongue-in-cheek “Greatest Hits” cassingle. Early 2001 brought Why That Doesn’t Surprise Me, the band’s first studio album in nearly four years.
Thereafter the Lucksmiths maintained a pattern of releasing a record every couple of years—Naturaliste in 2003 and Warmer Corners in 2005—while continuing to tour internationally. During this period White also launched the Guild League, which issued Private Transport in 2002 and Inner North in 2004. Prior to the Warmer Corners sessions the lineup expanded with the addition of second guitarist Louis Richter, who contributed guitar and vocals to that album as well as to First Frost, released on Matinée in late 2008. The group disbanded soon afterward, playing its final concert in August 2009. White resumed activity with the Guild League, while Donald, Monnone, and Richter formed Last Leaves in 2012.
After the 1998 album A Good Kind of Nervous, the Lucksmiths performed several European shows backing Belle & Sebastian, whose wispy folk-pop style and self-effacingly witty lyrics were often cited as points of comparison. During one later performance Monnone endured a near-fatal onstage electrocution, yet the road-weary group still closed the year with the single “Untidy Towns.” While White resided in London for several years, the Lucksmiths toured and recorded only intermittently, laying down tracks in locations as distant as Washington, D.C., and Paris. The Happy Secret compilation and the Staring at the Sky 10-inch both surfaced in 1999, succeeded in 2000 by the single “T-Shirt Weather” and the tongue-in-cheek “Greatest Hits” cassingle. Early 2001 brought Why That Doesn’t Surprise Me, the band’s first studio album in nearly four years.
Thereafter the Lucksmiths maintained a pattern of releasing a record every couple of years—Naturaliste in 2003 and Warmer Corners in 2005—while continuing to tour internationally. During this period White also launched the Guild League, which issued Private Transport in 2002 and Inner North in 2004. Prior to the Warmer Corners sessions the lineup expanded with the addition of second guitarist Louis Richter, who contributed guitar and vocals to that album as well as to First Frost, released on Matinée in late 2008. The group disbanded soon afterward, playing its final concert in August 2009. White resumed activity with the Guild League, while Donald, Monnone, and Richter formed Last Leaves in 2012.