Laura Macfarlane
Encyclopedia
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
-born rock and roll
Rock and roll
Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...
musician, singer and songwriter based in Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
. Originally from Glasgow
Glasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
, she arrived with her parents in Perth
Perth, Western Australia
Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia and the fourth most populous city in Australia. The Perth metropolitan area has an estimated population of almost 1,700,000....
when young, and was involved in a number of bands there from the late 1980s onward. She relocated to Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
in the early 1990s, playing with hardcore punk
Hardcore punk
Hardcore punk is an underground music genre that originated in the late 1970s, following the mainstream success of punk rock. Hardcore is generally faster, thicker, and heavier than earlier punk rock. The origin of the term "hardcore punk" is uncertain. The Vancouver-based band D.O.A...
band Manic Pizza and forming The Sea Haggs
Sea Haggs
The Sea Haggs were an indie rock band formed in Melbourne, Australia in the early 1990s by Perth expatriates Lora Macfarlane and Iain McIntyre, and featuring other members, including Ben Butler. Towards the end of its career, the band also recorded under the name Keckle.In 1995, the band was wound...
/Keckle (involving long-time collaborator Iain McIntyre
Iain McIntyre
Iain McIntyre is an Australian musician and writer.Originally from Perth, he relocated to Melbourne in 1992, where he played in The Sea Haggs with fellow Perth expatriate Laura Macfarlane. In 1996, he joined Macfarlane's new band ninetynine...
) and Popemobile (with Ben Butler). In 1995, she went to Seattle and began playing drums in Sleater-Kinney
Sleater-Kinney
Sleater-Kinney was an alternative rock band from Portland, Oregon that formed in 1994. Originally formed in Olympia, Washington, the group's name is derived from Sleater-Kinney Road, Interstate 5 off ramp #108 in Lacey, Washington, the location of one of their early practice spaces. They were a...
. She appears as the drummer on their self-titled debut, Sleater-Kinney
Sleater-Kinney (album)
Sleater-Kinney is the debut album from the punk trio Sleater-Kinney. All the songs on the album were written by the band, who also co-produced the album...
, on which she also sings a track titled "Lora's Song". She also drums and sings backups on their seminal follow up album Call the Doctor
Call the Doctor
Call the Doctor is the second album by the punk band Sleater-Kinney. It was released on March 25, 1996 on Chainsaw.Allmusic praised the album, saying: "Forget the riot grrrl implications inherent in the trio's music — Call the Doctor is pure, undiluted punk, and it's brilliant." The album also...
. She subsequently returned to Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
and founded ninetynine
Ninetynine
Ninetynine is an indie band based in Melbourne, Australia. The band was founded by Laura Macfarlane, who played drums in Sleater-Kinney, 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 and...
, initially as a solo project. Ninetynine soon became a band, and have since released eight albums and toured the world's indie
Indie rock
Indie rock is a genre of alternative rock that originated in the United Kingdom and the United States in the 1980s. Indie rock is extremely diverse, with sub-genres that include lo-fi, post-rock, math rock, indie pop, dream pop, noise rock, space rock, sadcore, riot grrrl and emo, among others...
scenes many times.
She is currently a member of Lee Memorial, featuring Karl Smith of Sodastream (band)
Sodastream (band)
Sodastream were an Australian duo consisting of Karl Smith and Pete Cohen . They have toured widely in Australia, US, Europe and Japan and have had national rotation on Triple J....
and Matt Bailey of The Paradise Motel
The Paradise Motel
The Paradise Motel are a critically and commercially successful independent Australian band from Hobart, Tasmania, first active from 1995–2000, who reformed in 2008.-Formation and early releases 1994–1998:...
.
Laura Macfarlane has played a variety of instruments on a number of records, including vibraphone
Vibraphone
The vibraphone, sometimes called the vibraharp or simply the vibes, is a musical instrument in the struck idiophone subfamily of the percussion family....
, Casiotone
Casiotone
Casiotone refers to a series of home electronic keyboards released by Casio Computer Co. in the early 1980s.These first keyboards used a sound synthesis technique known as Vowel-Consonant synthesis to approximate the sounds of other instruments...
keyboards, drums, and guitar. She has played with numerous other bands, including Clag, Disaster Plan
Disaster Plan
Disaster Plan are an indie rock band from Melbourne, Australia featuring Richard Moffat and Michael Ruff. Formed in 1997, they have released six albums, toured nationally and been on rotation on Triple J.-Discography:* Assembly Area #1...
, and New Buffalo
New Buffalo (band)
Sally Seltmann is a Melbourne-based singer-songwriter. Until 2009, she performed under the alias New Buffalo.-Biography:...
.