The Scientists

Kim Salmon's gritty vocals and slashing guitar define the Australian ensemble Scientists, where he ranks among the nation's most iconic musical presences. Forming in the final years of the 1970s, the group began as formally attired punks fusing high-octane New York Dolls glam with bright, ringing power pop. Releases such as the early singles "Frantic Romantic" and "Last Night" demonstrate the strength of that combination. Following a short disbandment, the musicians resurfaced in the first half of the 1980s as post-punk noise rockers blending blues roots with raw, down-and-out energy. The Blood Red River EP signaled their new direction, and the 1985 album You Get What You Deserve established them firmly in noise-rock circles. After an unsatisfying stretch in London and a brief U.S. label run via 1986's Weird Love, Salmon disbanded the project. Following an extended period exploring varied musical directions, Salmon reassembled the 1986 lineup of Scientists after the release of a career-spanning Numero Group box set. The musicians resumed their earlier course, issuing several singles and an EP before returning with the forceful 2021 album Negativity.

Salmon's initial band, the Cheap Nasties, formed in 1976 and already reflected his signature "trash" sensibility modeled on acts such as the Trashmen and the Ramones. The Nasties became the first punk group to surface from the isolated city of Perth in Western Australia. Salmon noted that the band lacked polish, yet they sparked the Perth punk scene that later produced many of Australia's strongest musicians. When the Nasties ended the following year, Salmon joined the Invaders. Scientists emerged in 1978 from the remnants of that unrecorded group. The original lineup featured Salmon on guitar and vocals, Boris Sujdovic on bass, Rod Radalj on guitar, and James Baker from the Victims, who contributed lyrics and played drums.

The band's name stemmed from Salmon's youthful fascination with science, particularly nuclear physics. Their debut single paired "Frantic Romantic," a dense power pop ballad, with "Shake (Together Tonight)," a frantic rocker drawing heavily from the New York Dolls. This incarnation toured eastern Australia and issued a self-titled EP in 1980 featuring Ian Sharples on bass and Ben Juniper on guitar. The next year the band, reduced to the trio of Salmon, Baker, and Sharples, released a self-titled LP blending jangling power pop with punk guitars and Salmon's unmistakable sneer. Shortly afterward the group split. Radalj and Baker relocated to Sydney, where they connected with Dave Faulkner, another Perth transplant and former Victim, in a precursor to the Hoodoo Gurus, while Salmon formed Louie Louie with Kim Williams, who had produced the first Scientists album, though the project lasted only months. Salmon and Sujdovic then revived Scientists, with Salmon assuming primary songwriting duties. In 1981 the musicians also relocated to Sydney. Salmon's tastes had shifted toward American proto-punk acts including the Velvet Underground, Captain Beefheart, and Television, shaping a new vision centered on minimalism, stripping songs to their raw core, and rejecting artifice, including the deliberate use of "dumb" lyrics as Salmon later characterized them. The outcome was raw, unhinged, feedback-heavy swamp blues carrying a trace of twang influenced by Hank Williams.

The refreshed lineup of Salmon, Tony Thewlis, Brett Rixon from Louie Louie, and Sujdovic issued the 1983 EP Blood Red River on Au-Go-Go, one of Australia's leading punk labels. By then Salmon had absorbed the influence of Suicide, evident in the heavier bass lines, more repetitive and hypnotic rhythms, increasingly dissonant and distorted guitars in the style of Link Wray, and more unhinged, menacing vocals. Scientists soon built a stronger following in Sydney than they had maintained in Perth. They continued touring and produced a video for Blood Red River. Their next release was the equally fierce EP This Heart Does Run on Blood, This Heart Doesn't Run on Love, followed by further touring.

Just as the Birthday Party and the Go-Betweens had achieved recognition in London, Scientists made the same move in 1984. They subsequently released the LP Weird Love, widely regarded as one of their strongest efforts, along with the EPs Demolition Derby and Atom Bomb Baby recorded live in London and the single "You Only Live Twice," a stark reinterpretation of the James Bond theme. Their timing proved unfortunate. With limited exceptions, the British press, especially NME, received them less enthusiastically than Salmon had anticipated. Following the Birthday Party's path, they were viewed by some critics as imitators despite having developed their sound over a comparable period and from a distinctly different lyrical and geographic standpoint.

Subsequent releases focused mainly on archival material. You Get What You Deserve from 1985 compiles Atom Bomb Baby, Demolition Derby, and the B-side "If It's the Last Thing I Do" from "You Only Live Twice," while Heading for a Trauma mixes four new tracks with Demolition Derby, earlier singles, and a radio session. Drummer Rixon and Sujdovic, whose visa had expired, had departed by then; Rixon died in 1993 from drug-related causes. Rubber Never Sleeps, a cassette-only collection of live recordings spanning 1978 to 1983, appeared next. The 1986 re-recording of Weird Love as a three-piece with Leanne Chock replacing Rixon, including "Nitro" from the This Heart EP and the original "You Only Live Twice," became the first Scientists release issued in the United States on Big Time.

Scientists devoted much of this era to European tours alongside Alex Chilton, the Gun Club, the Jesus and Mary Chain, Alan Vega from Suicide, and others. Their following full-length, 1987's The Human Jukebox, contained new material, though only Salmon and Tony Thewlis remained from the Sydney-era lineup, now joined by Nick Combe. This marked the beginning of the end. Scientists disbanded that year, and Salmon returned to Perth. Though inactive, the band was remembered through their cover of Captain Beefheart's "Clear Spot," included on the 1988 tribute album Fast 'N' Bulbous.

Despite the breakup, Kim Salmon remained active. That same year he launched Kim Salmon & the Surrealists, a related project incorporating soul and funk elements. In subsequent years he explored numerous styles and lineups, including Salamander Jim with Tex Perkins of the Beasts of Bourbon, a group Salmon frequently performed with during the 1980s, Kim Salmon's Human Jukebox, Kim Salmon's STM, Kim Salmon & the Business as an extension of the Surrealists, Antenna a techno-pop collaboration with longtime Perth associate Dave Faulkner, Darling Downs a duo with Died Pretty singer Ronald Peno, the instrumental outfit Salmon, and a duo project with former Scientists drummer Leanne Cowie.

Compilations helped spread the Scientists' reputation, including 1990's Pissed on Another Planet gathering early punk and power pop recordings and 1991's Absolute issued by Sub Pop. After appearing headed for cult status and eventual obscurity, they reunited for a one-off performance at the 2010 ATP Festival in New York. Following additional years of relative quiet, Numero Group released the extensive 2016 box set A Place Called Bad collecting most of their 1980s output. Motivated by the collection, Salmon revived the 1985/1986 lineup of Salmon, Thewlis, Sujdovic, and Cowie for live dates in 2018. The shows proved successful enough to prompt new recordings. The single "Braindead (Resuscitated)"/"SurvivalsKills" appeared in 2018, followed by the 2019 EP 9H₂O.SiO₂, both issued by In the Red Records and retaining the band's abrasive, loose character. The same lineup recorded the 2021 album Negativity. Salmon altered his songwriting approach by laying down drum tracks himself before sending them to Thewlis for riff development, after which the full band assembled to complete the arrangements. However constructed, the album delivers classic Scientists material with added elements such as occasional female backing vocals, Baroque pop choruses, violins, and humorous lyrics. In the Red also released the record.