Within the space of a year Newcastle’s No-Fi Records, backed by a savvy use of social media, have developed a cult following to the point that the budding label’s associated bands regularly attract an army of young admirers across the city’s music venues.

This was no more evident than when about 450 people turned out last August for the infamous Grouse House 2, a glorified rock’n’roll house party held in Hudson Street, Hamilton. Bands played in a skate half pipe while art adorned the walls. Inevitably the police shut down the show when it breached noise restrictions. 

The bands PALS, Vacations, Wavevom and Voodoo Youth have sprung out of this burgeoning scene producing six EPs on No-Fi Records that incorporate punk, psychedelica and garage rock. Others like RAAVE TAPES, William John Jr and Kale have formed close associations with the label and regularly appear at their shows.

“The Grouse House scene is the whole reason we’re here at the moment,” says RAAVE TAPES frontman Joab Eastley. “There’s this whole torrent of people that turn up to every show that has anyone involved in Grouse House.”

The genesis of No-Fi Records began early last year when Vacations frontman Campbell Burns, artist Krystyan Nowak and Voodoo Youth’s Hunter Powell decided to unite to promote, record and produce their respective projects.

“The three of us had the idea to band together and make things and try to get in more people,” Burns says. “There’s always been a strong underground scene in Newcastle, but it makes sense to work together instead of keeping everything separate. As a group we have all these resources and connections, so it works like that.” 

Around the same time three music business TAFE students Jed Kirbyshire, Ben Campbell and Kale Newburn were about to launch the inaugural Grouse House event in Wilton Street, Merewether, to provide a showcase for underground bands. Burns’ Vacations performed at Grouse House and struck up a friendship with Kirbyshire, whose band Wavevom swiftly joined the No-Fi stable. 

Initially No-Fi started by booking gigs at Mayfield East’s Peppertown Cafe, but due to the growing audience and noise restrictions, they quickly outgrew the premises. Next the scene moved onto The Croatian Club at Wickham, where No-Fi Records held its official launch party on September 3 to coincide with the CD and digital release of the label’s first three EPs – Days by Vacations, Alright, Alright, Alright by Voodoo Youth and Durrievom from Wavevom.

“We had to figure out how we were going to do these releases, so we did 50 CDs for each band and released it on the same day,” Burns says. “All the bands showed off their stuff and there was a great turn out and it was all snow-balling. We were getting bigger and bigger and we weren’t really anticipating what was going to happen. Other bands were starting to come along as well.”

One of Newcastle’s best and most raucous emerging bands, PALS, soon joined No-Fi and have since released their EP Spring and a shared release with Wavevom. Vacations’ double-sided single Melting/Sleep In has taken No-Fi’s output to six records. All four No-Fi bands have been played on Triple J Unearthed and on Sydney and Melbourne community radio. PALS and Vacations have even been reviewed in overseas blogs.

All the No-Fi releases have been self-funded by the bands involved. Burns says No-Fi aren’t about financing music, but merely assisting in distribution by sharing resources and ideas.

“Looking back now we should have called it No-Fi Collective rather than No-Fi Records because with a record label you think Universal Music, someone who can put in stacks of money into the release,” he says. “We’re completely different and very DIY. Instead if a band comes to us, we can help put out a release. When it came to PALS, I said, ‘I know how to put out a CD, you guys just give me all your songs and I’ll take care of it.’ When they got it they were absolutely stoked because they had 50 professional CDs in cases looking legit.”

In exciting news for No-Fi, Kurri Kurri-bred garage dance band RAAVE TAPES officially joined the label on Wednesday night. On June 25 the three-piece of Eastley, bassist Joel Burgess and drummer Jake Wyborn will launch their debut EP at the King Street Hotel where the entire No-Fi stable are expected to feature on the bill. 

The hard-working RAAVE TAPES have generated plenty of interest around Newcastle in the past year through their colourful high-energy performances at Grouse House parties and No-Fi shows at The Croatian Club, Lass O’Gowrie, Small Ballroom and Cambridge Hotel.

Their only release so far has been a single Throwin’ Shade, which reached No.6 on Triple J Unearthed after they supported Newcastle’s US-based garage rockers The Gooch Palms. The yet untitled EP was recorded at Newcastle’s RTN Studio and mastered at Sydney’s famed Studios 301.

Eastley and Burgess bonded over their shared love of guitar pedals. It has since sonically and aesthetically become the band’s trademark. Eastley boasts 42 guitar pedals on stage, and Burgess has 18, to produce the band’s fuzzed-out electronic sound.

“It peaks people’s interest straight away,” Eastley says. “They think something is going on here, so I wanna watch.”

The band’s trademark white t-shirts, which features “RAAVES TAPES” written over the iconic Tooheys beer label, have also become a popular fashion item among the No-Fi and Grouse House crowd. The mock logo originates from Eastley’s love of Tooheys New canned beer and he even wrote a song Blue Tins for their forthcoming EP.

Newcastle’s underground music is also earning praise from outsiders. Cailan Smith moved to Port Stephens almost year ago from Melbourne for work. In Victoria Smith played with psychedelic rockers Arctic June, but has since created electronic project Drama and launched his debut album on Thursday night at the Lass O’Gowrie. 

“I just fell in love with the music scene up here, I’ve never seen anything like it to be honest,” Smith says. “Just the amount of shows each band plays each week. William John Jr and RAAVE TAPES, who were on my album release show, play like three shows a week. I’ve never seen that form of dedication before and I love the musicians up here, it’s amazing.”

The RAAVE TAPES EP launch at the King Street Hotel will mark a major turning point for No-Fi.  The show at the popular youth nightspot will expose the underground scene to its biggest and most mainstream audience yet. 

Newcastle’s music scene is famous for producing Silverchair and The Screaming Jets, but No-Fi Records have not formulated any such lofty ambitions. Burns says the only long-term goal for No-Fi Records is keep creating more music collectively.

“Everything just keeps on expanding and it’s been great to see what could happen in a year,” Burns says. “It makes me wonder what will happen as we keep going on with everyone working together to keep this little scene building up.

“I haven’t really got an end goal. We’ll just keep working and see what happens. It’s kinda more fun that way.”