After this self-titled debut was initially released in late 2005, the Exploders generated the same sort of hype that hit a few weeks previous with Airbourne, fellow country expats to the big rock ‘n roll city smoke of the metropolis of Melbourne.

The Exploders were then the latest chip off the rock block; a three-piece originally from Lake Bolac who moved to Geelong (Rock City!), before heading to Melbourne. The hype was justified in the debut: like a series of, uh, explosions going off in your speakers, The Exploders is one of the rare occasions where a band beginning their recording career with an album, rather than EP, is completely justified – The Exploders is a smashing debut.

It’s all about the songs, y’see. If they simply filled them with big hooks and little substance between, The Exploders would be far less than the sum of its parts. Instead, there’s so much more to that here. Sure, songs like “My Country Brain”, “Big Hair Revolution”, and “Please Please” (not to mention the insanely brilliant “Stepping Out”) are superbly catchy and delightfully drunk on Southern Comfort, but the slow-burners like “Cowboy Jim” and the instrumental “Hugh’s Lullaby” lose none of the impact that gives The Exploders a breadth of sound that the incredibly successful Jet missed entirely on their debut.

The Exploders aren’t you average country cousins – they’ve got a loose swagger that’s pure hip-shakin’ happiness, with the guitars bouncing and riding along. With Kings of Leon having already fired up the national appetite for a cool Southern rock revival and the likes of Drive-By Truckers inspiring a revisitation of the Skynard legend, perhaps the Exploders are going to be the Southern rock band Australia can sell back to America, much as the Beatles and the Stones sold rock ‘n roll back to ‘em in the 1960s. They’re gonna be that big. The fact that a bidding war erupted for their services is no surprise, and the fact that The Exploders is now getting the sort of attention it always deserved is completely justified.