{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2018}} {{Use Australian English|date=March 2018}}
{{Infobox musical artist | background = group_or_band | name = New Waver | image = | image_size = | image_upright = | landscape = <!-- yes, if wide image, otherwise leave blank --> | alt = | caption = | alias = | origin = Melbourne, Victoria, Australia | genre = {{hlist|Alternative rock|hard rock|alternative dance}} | years_active = {{Start date|1990}}–{{End date|1999}} | label = Spill | spinoffs = | spinoff_of = | current_members = | past_members = * Greg Wadley * Peter Jetnikoff | website = <!-- {{URL|example.com}} or {{Official URL}} --> }}
'''New Waver''' was an Australian satirical musical project developed by Greg Wadley in 1990.<ref name="Ankeny"/><ref name="Defeated"/> It grew out of Wadley's prior projects, a zine ''Loser'', a mock political action group, Campaign Against Uninteresting Shops in Brunswick Street and a fictitious tribute band, Christmas Party.<ref name="Ankeny"/>
== History ==
New Waver was founded by Greg Wadley in 1990 in Melbourne.<ref name="Ankeny"/><ref name="Wadley">{{cite web | url=http://disweb.dis.unimelb.edu.au/staff//gwadley/music.htm | title=Music: Greg Wadley | author=Wadley, Greg | website=disweb.dis.unimelb.edu.au | via=National Library of Australia | archive-url=https://webarchive.nla.gov.au/awa/20080721150722/http://disweb.dis.unimelb.edu.au/staff//gwadley/music.htm | archive-date=22 July 2008 | access-date=22 July 2022}}</ref> Wadley, on bass guitar, was a founding member of Tex Perkins' Brisbane-formed cowpunk band, Tex Deadly and the Dum Dums, in 1982.<ref name="McFarlane TP">{{cite book | last1 = McFarlane | first1 = Ian | author-link1 = Ian McFarlane | title = Encyclopedia of Australian Rock and Pop | chapter = Encyclopedia entry for 'Tex Perkins' | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20040607181400/http://www.whammo.com.au/encyclopedia.asp?articleid=570 | chapter-url = http://www.whammo.com.au/encyclopedia.asp?articleid=570 | year = 1999 | publisher = Allen & Unwin | location = St Leonards, NSW | archive-date = 7 June 2004 | isbn = 1-86508-072-1 | access-date = 22 July 2022 | url-status = live }} Note: McFarlane has Peter Jetnikov.</ref> Fellow member Peter Jetnikoff provided guitar.<ref name="McFarlane TP"/><ref name="Dum Dums">{{cite web | url=http://homepage.powerup.com.au/~toxico/tex.htm | title=Tex Deadly & The Dum Dums | website=Tex Deadly & The Dum Dums Official Website | via=National Library of Australia | archive-url=https://webarchive.nla.gov.au/awa/20040819033904/http://homepage.powerup.com.au/~toxico/tex.htm | archive-date=19 August 2004 | access-date=24 July 2022 }}</ref> They relocated to Sydney but disbanded in the following year.<ref name="McFarlane TP"/> Wadley established the Losercorp project in the 1980s, which published a zine ''Loser'' (1987–1992) under the pseudonyms A Loser and Arthur Protestant,<ref name="Sticky Loser">{{cite web |url=http://www.stickyinstitute.com/zineopedia/L.html | title=L | website=Sticky Institute | via=National Library of Australia | archive-url=https://webarchive.nla.gov.au/awa/20080429230102/http://pandora.nla.gov.au/pan/83244/20080429-1548/www.stickyinstitute.com/zineopedia/L.html | archive-date=30 April 2008 | access-date=22 July 2022}}</ref> formed a mock political action group, Campaign Against Uninteresting Shops in Brunswick Street and a fictitious tribute band, Christmas Party.<ref name="NW About">{{cite web | url=http://members.dodo.com.au/~gwadley/nw/about.html | title=About New Waver | website=New Waver Official Website | via=National Library of Australia | archive-url=https://webarchive.nla.gov.au/awa/20040510093156/http://members.dodo.com.au/~gwadley/nw/about.html | archive-date=10 May 2004 | access-date=22 July 2022 }}</ref>
New Waver, was the music project of Wadley, which has a similar pessimistic outlook to Losercorp's earlier efforts, underwritten with Darwinism. Its music consists of electronic elements (from synthesisers, samplers and drum machines), along with samples from TV nature programmes, advertisements and audio books by Richard Dawkins, selectively chosen to reinforce the bleak, fatalistic message, coupled with dark humour. The New Waver world view extends the survival of the fittest hypothesis to the social ladder present in modern urban and suburban culture. The songs feature both cover versions and parodies of well-known songs with lyrics altered to reflect their world view, as well as instrumentals populated with samples and loops. The term "New Waver" is 1980s-vintage pejorative Queensland slang for a male who is interested in music, rather than football, and thus deserving of harassment or violence. "New Waver" also became a term for those who were fans of new wave music throughout the 1980s.
New Waver issued their first music cassette, ''Middle Class Man'', in 1990. According to a reviewer for ''Radiation from Space Magazine'', it is "esoteric, weird and wild keyboard and samples, blended with drums, bass and odd guitar they created a hypnotic groove."<ref name="Spring Valley 1">{{cite journal | url=http://www.springvalley.com.au/yippiebean/newwave.htm | title=New Waver – Instrumentals | journal=Radiation from Space Magazine | issue=3 | via=National Library of Australia | archive-url=https://webarchive.nla.gov.au/awa/19971010111220/http://www.springvalley.com.au/yippiebean/newwave.htm | archive-date=10 October 1997 | access-date=22 July 2022 }}</ref> The title track is a parody of "Working Class Man" (1985) by Jimmy Barnes, while "Teabreak" relates to AC/DC's "Jailbreak" (1976).<ref name="Spring Valley 1"/>
In 1998, the band was one of many in the music video "Thunderbirds Are Coming Out" by fellow Australian band TISM. For New Waver's album, ''The Defeated'' (1999), Zyklatt provided drum loops.<ref name="Defeated"/> Most of its original tracks were written by Wadley however, former bandmate, Jetnikoff wrote the track, "Struggle for Hogwash", for the album.<ref name="APRA Strubble">{{cite web | publisher = APRA AMCOS (Australasian Performing Right Association, Australasian Mechanical Copyright Owners Society) | title = 'Struggle for Hogwash' at APRA search engine | url = https://www.apraamcos.com.au/works-search?works=true&title=Struggle%20for%20Hogwash&writer=&performer= | access-date = 24 July 2022 }}</ref> In 2006 a compilation album, ''Neuters'', was issued, its "music consisted of dinky covers of Top 40 hits with the lyrics changed to address the life of the office loser."<ref name="Blackman">{{cite web | url=https://www.theage.com.au/entertainment/music/neuters-20060426-ge26ya.html | title=''Neuters'' | first=Guy | last=Blackman | work=The Age | date=26 April 2006 | access-date=22 July 2022 | archive-url=https://webarchive.nla.gov.au/awa/20060821081057/http://www.theage.com.au/news/cd-reviews/neuters/2006/04/25/1145861332208.html | archive-date=21 August 2006 }}</ref> Guy Blackman of ''The Age'' described the band's members, "two unassuming public-servant types lurking behind cheesy synthesisers, with a singer who began most gigs naked, putting on an item of clothing after each song in a deadpan inversion of rock'n'roll behaviour."<ref name="Blackman"/> There is an interview with Wadley in Iain McIntyre and Mike Munro's book, ''How to Make Trouble and Influence People'' (2009).<ref name="McIntyre">{{Citation | author1=McIntyre, Iain | author2=Munro, Mike | title=How to make trouble and influence people: pranks, hoaxes, graffiti & political mischief-making from across Australia | year=2009 | publisher=PM Press | edition=1st | isbn=978-1-60486-882-1 }}</ref>
== Discography ==
* ''Middle Class Man'' (cassette, 1990)<ref name="Ankeny">{{cite web | url=https://www.allmusic.com/artist/new-waver-mn0000631949/biography | title=New Waver Biography, Songs, & Albums | first=Jason | last=Ankeyn | publisher= AllMusic | access-date=22 July 2022 }}</ref> * ''Hard Drivin' Beat'' (cassette, 1991) * ''Perverted by Wheat'' (cassette, 1991)<ref name="Ankeny"/> * ''Low Self Opinion'' (cassette, 1992) * ''Live 'n' Lossy'' (cassette, 1993) * "What a Man" (cassette single, 1994) * ''Aspects of Loserdom'' (cassette, 1994)<ref name="Ankeny"/> * ''Mr Loser-Boozer Goes to Town'' (cassette, 1996)<ref name="Berry">{{cite web | url=http://vanessaberryworld.wordpress.com/2010/09/10/bad-grunge-music/amp/index.html | title=Bad Grunge Music | author=Berry, Vanessa | website=Vanessa Berry World | via=National Library of Australia | archive-url=https://webarchive.nla.gov.au/awa/20180415221009/http://pandora.nla.gov.au/pan/83242/20180416-0000/vanessaberryworld.wordpress.com/2010/09/10/bad-grunge-music/amp/index.html | archive-date=16 April 2018 | access-date=22 July 2022 }}</ref> * ''Darwin Junior High'' (vinyl EP, 1997) * ''Bohemian Suburb Rhapsody'' (album, 1998)<ref name="Ankeny"/> * ''The Defeated'' (CD, 1999) – Endearing Records<ref name="Ankeny"/><ref name="Defeated">{{cite web | url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/the-defeated-mw0000507038/credits | title=''The Defeated'' – New Waver {{!}} Credits | publisher=AllMusic | date= | access-date=22 July 2022 }}</ref> * ''Computer World'' (mp3 album, 2001) * ''Neuters'' (CD compilation album, 2006) – Dual Plover/Spill Records<ref name="Blackman"/><ref name="Dual Power">{{cite web | url=http://www.dualplover.com/newwaver.php | title=New Waver : ''Neuters'' | work=Dual Power | access-date=22 July 2022 }}</ref>
== References ==
* Kouvaras, L. (2009) "Hissing at the margins: Postmodern mainstream positioning in Australian sound art", in Strong, C. and Phillipov, M. (Eds.) "Stuck in the Middle: the Mainstream and its Discontents. Selected proceedings of the 2008 IASPM-ANZ conference". * Priest (ed., 2009) Experimental Music: Audio Explorations in Australia <references />
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Category:Australian alternative rock groups