The legendary third album by Australian rockers Spiderbait, Ivy and the big apples, turns 25 this year. A masterpiece of mid-90s rock, the band found their stride with this record, their major label debut. The record features Buy Me A Pony, the first Australian track to reach #1 on the triple j hottest 100 and hit single Calypso, featured in the film 10 Things I Hate About You.
To mark the 25th. anniversary of the album, the band are releasing a super-limited edition repress of it on red vinyl to match the cover art. Available to buy now.
On winning the triple j Hottest 100 with ‘Buy Me A Pony’, singer and bassist Janet said the band “found out about it at Hobart town hall playing with Silverchair. Looking back now, I realise it (an Australian band winning for the first time) was a big deal”. Guitarist Whitt added that, at the time, he “felt not only happy for the band, but happy for Australian music lovers who regarded their own as highly as an band from overseas. It’s an achievement any band would be proud of and I’m so grateful that it happened to us”.
“It’s pretty interesting to listen back to the songs, it’s like a little photo album of the memories and experiences of the time”, said Janet, looking back on the album. “Pretty chuffed to have that time capsule now. Friends tell me how much it meant to them which is pretty humbling… We were just three friends hanging out, making music, and trying to make each other laugh!”
The narrative of the Spiderbait story is so fantastical it could only be based in truth: three friends from a small country Australian town taking on the music scene on their own terms and emerging triumphant 30 years later, the friendships unscathed but their band one of the biggest and best.
As brash and confident as they are strange and uncompromising, the three founding members of Spiderbait – Janet, Whitt and Kram – started humbly in the rural NSW township of Finley, fervent music lovers taking inspiration from everything from Slayer to The Bangles and meshing into one intoxicating and unique brew.
Having learned their trade bashing out their idiosyncratic thrash-pop tunes in the shed on Janet’s family’s farm, they soon relocated down to Melbourne and immersed themselves in that rich and fertile scene. From there, they quickly consolidated their status as national treasures, their popularity spanning three decades and showing no signs of abating. They’ve released seven acclaimed albums, which have all racked up gold, platinum or double platinum status and have combined Australian sales of over one million units.
Spiderbait have also racked up pretty much every accolade there is to achieve on the Australian scene, having taken home numerous ARIA Awards, chalked up a number one single (their 2004 cover of Leadbelly’s Black Betty) and even topped the prestigious triple j Hottest 100.