Ninetynine (styled as ninetynine) is an

indie Indie is a short form of "independence" or "independent"; it may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Gaming *Independent video game development, video games created without financial backing from large companies *Indie game, any game (board ...

band based in

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

. The band was founded by

Laura MacFarlane Laura Sandra MacFarlane (also credited as Lora MacFarlane) is a multi-instrumentalist, singer, songwriter and audio engineer. Since 1996 she is the founding mainstay of the Australian indie rock band, ninetynine. MacFarlane also performs solo an ...

, who played drums in

Sleater-Kinney Sleater-Kinney ( ) is an American rock band that formed in Olympia, Washington, in 1994. The band's current lineup features Corin Tucker (vocals and guitar) and Carrie Brownstein (guitar and vocals), following the departure of longtime member ...

, in 1996 as a solo project. The first album, ''99'', was recorded with her playing all the instruments. Not long after she assembled a band with

Cameron Potts Cameron Potts (born 10 November 1971 in Subiaco, Western Australia), is a musician based in Melbourne. Since 1999, he has toured regularly to the United States, Canada, Europe, Mexico, Japan, Taiwan, China, Malaysia, Scandinavia and Iceland w ...

, Rhonda Simmonds (who has since left the group) and

Iain McIntyre Iain McIntyre is an Australian writer, musician and community radio broadcaster, currently based in Melbourne. From the 1980s onwards he has published books and zines, including the ''How To Make Trouble and Influence People'' series. 1980s In ...

(who played with Laura in several earlier bands). Other former members of the band include Michelle Mansford and Amy Clarke. Meg Butler joined in 2006. Ninetynine's music has been described as art-pop, combining elements of

indie rock Indie rock is a Music subgenre, subgenre of rock music that originated in the United States, United Kingdom and New Zealand from the 1970s to the 1980s. Originally used to describe independent record labels, the term became associated with the mu ...

post punk Post-punk (originally called new musick) is a broad genre of punk music that emerged in the late 1970s as musicians departed from punk's traditional elements and raw simplicity, instead adopting a variety of avant-garde sensibilities and non-roc ...

and

power pop Power pop (also typeset as powerpop) is a form of pop rock based on the early music of bands such as the Who, the Beatles, the Beach Boys, and the Byrds. It typically incorporates melodic hooks, vocal harmonies, an energetic performance, and ch ...

with strong melodic elements and a playful approach. Some of their songs incorporate experimental elements such as unusual

time signature The time signature (also known as meter signature, metre signature, or measure signature) is a notational convention used in Western musical notation to specify how many beats (pulses) are contained in each measure (bar), and which note value ...

s or exotic

scales Scale or scales may refer to: Mathematics * Scale (descriptive set theory), an object defined on a set of points * Scale (ratio), the ratio of a linear dimension of a model to the corresponding dimension of the original * Scale factor, a number w ...

. One of the band's trademarks is the use of

Casiotone Casiotone was a series of home electronic keyboards made by Casio in the early 1980s. Casio promoted the Casiotone 201 (CT-201) as "the first electronic keyboard with full-size keys that anyone could afford". The name "Casiotone" disappeared from ...

keyboards and chromatic percussion (typically a

vibraphone The vibraphone is a percussion instrument in the metallophone family. It consists of tuned metal bars and is typically played by using mallets to strike the bars. A person who plays the vibraphone is called a ''vibraphonist,'' ''vibraharpist,' ...

) in their music, with the musicians frequently swapping instruments between songs, even sometimes in the middle of songs. Ninetynine Performing in Mexico 2007

Recordings

Ninetynine ''The Triantiwontigongolo – Ninetynine EP'' CD 1996 (Woozy) Ninetynine ''99'' CD 1996 (Patsy/Endearing ) Ninetynine ''767'' CD and LP Album 1998 (Patsy/Endearing/Chapter) Ninetynine ''Girl Crazy – Woekender'' LP 1998 (Remedial Records) Ninetynine ''Ersatz'' Split 7" 1999 (Radio One) Ninetynine ''180'' Degrees CD and LP 2000 (Patsy/ Radio One) Ninetynine ''Vivian Girls'' Split 7" 2001 (Chapter) Ninetynine ''Anatomy of Distance'' CD 2002 (Patsy/Stckfigure) Ninetynine ''The Process'' CD and LP 2002 (Trifekta/Appliances & Cars) Ninetynine ''Receiving the Sounds of Science Fiction'' CD EP 2003 (Dark Beloved Cloud) Ninetynine ''World of Space World of Population World of Robots'' CD 2006 (UAR/Stickfigure) Nineytynine ''Chapter 99 – Compilation'' CD 2006 (Sones) Ninetynine ''Silo'' EP 2008 (Patsy) Ninetynine ''Bande Magnetique'' CD 2010 (Patsy) Ninetynine ''Woods'' 7" 2016 (Patsy) Ninetynine ''Further ''7" and CD 2016 (Patsy) Ninetynine albums are released through the band's own label Patsy. Some albums have been previously released through other labels such as Chapter Music, Trifekta, Stickfigure, Unstable Ape, If Society and Endearing Records. They also have recorded a number of tracks for various compilations. ''Anatomy of Distance'' is a retrospective compilation of tracks recorded for various compilations and 7" singles between 1997 and 2001. ''Receiving the Sounds of Science Fiction'' was released exclusively to subscribers of the New York-based Dark Beloved Cloud single club. ''Chapter 99'' (Sones, 2006) was a compilation of previously released songs. Original releases of ''99'', ''767'' and ''180 degrees'' came in hand-folded sleeves made of printed card. The release of ''Further'' was part of the band's 20th anniversary celebrations.

Live shows and tours

Ninetynine have played live extensively in Australia, and toured internationally in

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

, the UK,

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

and

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

External links

Ninetynine Facebook page

Ninetynine Bandcamp page

Ninetynine Youtube Channel

Ninetynine "Woods"

References

{{Authority control Victoria (Australia) musical groups Australian indie rock groups