The Beautiful Girls

australian

In the year 2002 when artists like Moby, The Chemical Brothers and Eminem were topping the Australian charts with big beats and even bigger production, an Aussie songwriter – oblivious to it all - recorded a low key, acoustic ep that was meant for little more than the solidification of his band’s own sound. Morning Sun was simply about things that were real – real for lads who’d lived their lives on Sydney’s northern beaches – surfing, playing music and thinking (a lot) about girls. Triple J latched onto the simple poetry of Morning Sun, it’s naïve innocence providing a refreshing breeze in the musical climate of the time and the subsequent success of its first track, ‘Periscopes’, set a tone that would buoy The Beautiful Girls through more than a decade. One year later, The Beautiful Girls would release their first long player, Learn Yourself, adding thatched walls onto the beachside foundation that had already been laid by Morning Sun. Learn Yourself cemented that sense of pure joy that can only be found in the simple things – friends being together, lighting bonfires and singing of loves discoveries; it’s pains and it’s pleasures. Learn Yourself would contribute two songs to triple j’s hottest 100 of 2003 and it would be the beginning of a life filled with strewn packets of guitar strings, hotel keys and flight stubs that would map a ten-year zig-zag across as many continents as it would come to zig-zag genres. We’re Already Gone, released in 2005, was the first real zig in that zag as the band’s singer/songwriter, Mat. McHugh, started gravitating toward electricity and exploring the world that he would come to connect with so deeply, the world of reggae. Mat. left the band’s acoustic set-up behind, choosing instead to plug in their guitars and add keys to the line-up also. With a darker, heavier sound than times past, The Beautiful Girls was growing up, leaving the simple world of the Northern Beaches behind as their presence overseas started to outweigh their time on the sands of home. With another two tracks making their way into triple j’s hottest 100, an ARIA nomination for best Blues & Roots album and a j award nomination, this validation of the musical maturing would further propel Mat. down a road of musical (as well as self) exploration. It was at this point that the band’s original bass player, Clay MacDonald, and drummer Mitch Connelly, would depart the band and the new conduit’s for Mat’s songs - Pa...