kim salmon - Living legend!
With a career that started at practically year zero of punk, few artists have followed a career trajectory as interesting, prolific and wildly unique as Australia's Kim Salmon. Starting in the late '70's with possibly one of the most influential and innovative Australian guitar bands ever, the Scientists, Salmons career has evolved and mutated into more shapes and forms than the T2000 from Terminator 2. From punky garage pop, to psycho blues and demented primal electro-scratch noise, the Scientists have left a sonic legacy that is unsurpassed in Australian rock, paving the way for noise makers and white-blues howlers all the way from Melbourne booze-barns to Lower East Side cool-zones.
But it doesn't stop there, his stint with the Beasts of Bourbon was dynamic, injecting their junkie/alcho/benzo blues-rock with a fresh dose of funk and crunch that hasn't been matched in Australian rock, since the almighty AC/DC. The Beasts have never recovered from his departure in the mid '90's. It was soon after the demise of the Scientists in the late 80's however, that Salmon followed his own creative vision, forming the Surrealists, who to this day continue to confound and enlighten audiences the world over with their unique blend of Stones/Sly Stone big-band swinging rock.
And like the T2000, Salmon just doesn't stop. From doing hoity-toity soundtrack work for high-brow theatre troupes, to the techno-pop project Antenna, Salmon is out there painting a canvas that becomes more essential and interesting with age.