Moler formed in 1996. They released two EP's, one album and four singles for the mushroom records subsiduary "infectious". These songs recieved high rotation airplay on triple J as well as community radio stations. Their garage-pop sound appealed to a wide audience and they toured extensively throughout 1997 and 1998, supporting more mainstream bands like The Mavis's , Ash and Everclear in the process.
Helen's laid-back, blondie inspired vocals juxtoposed against a background of over-the-top garage riffing and old-school-punk drumming gave them a unique angle when compared to similar bands of their era like Magic Dirt, Screamfeeder, The Superjesus, Fur, The Mavis's and The Breeders. In short they were less influenced by grunge and more influenced by 70's punk rock which was reflected in the band's attitude and sound.
1998-1999 Moler played at the falls festival, the Mushroom records "concert of the Century" at the Melbourne Cricket Ground and released the single "Delicious" which seemed a radical departure from their sound, being an over-produced slice of disco-cheese. The B-side to that single was however an inspired cover of the Eastern Dark song "Julie Is A Junkie"...perhaps if common sense had prevailed the Eastern Dark cover would have been the A-side.
1999-2000 saw the band split from their label. They released a couple of seven inch EP's on obscure indie labels, write some new songs which showed a heavier, more muscular sound and toured the USA.
However the band sadly broke up before these amazing new songs were released, leaving us with only the memory of hearing them live. (See setlist re: the unreleased songs).
In 2001-2003 the band reconvened to release a new single as a homage to the Ramones as an independent release. But soon disappeared again after performing a couple of shows.
2007 Julien has released a new project "The Green Mist" and Helen currently plays in "Los Dominados" (see top friends for links) Andrew Kentler works as an engineer at the infamous Birdland Studios and plays bass in the Surf-Punk band "the Gamma Rays" along with the 2nd last Moler drummer "Chaos". Matt played in the Sailors and probably half a dozen other bands since then.
Perhaps some of what I have written is chronologically inaccurate but at least it gives you an idea. I am just writing off the top of my head for now. If you think this page sucks, make your own tribute.
Moler were my first "favorite band" when I was growing up and I have a huge folder of memrobilia to scan so I will be adding to the blogs/pictures as I find things. I was inspired to make this after seeing that the Mavis's had their own tribute page and seeing the freaky video for "Red Light Disco" on youtube. I got all nostalgic and decided that people should be able to hear the songs if they like...at least to educate kids what punk/pop sounded like before the Veronicas and Aviril Lavinge co-opted the terms.
- James Earthenware
I edited my profile with Thomas Myspace Editor V4.4 (www.strikefile.com/myspace)
