page_title: Kim Salmon
section_title: The Surrealists and Beasts of Bourbon
hierarchical_section_title: Kim Salmon / The Surrealists and Beasts of Bourbon
caption_attribution_description: en:Kim Salmon at his home in Perth in January 1989. Photographed on cheap compact 35mm film camera.
context_page_description: Kim Leith Salmon is an Australian rock musician and songwriter from Perth. He has worked in various groups including The Scientists, Beasts of Bourbon, Kim Salmon and the Surrealists, Kim Salmon and the Business, and Darling Downs. Australian rock musicologist, Ian McFarlane, described Salmon as one of the first Australians to "embrace wholeheartedly the emergent punk phenomenon of the mid-to-late 1970s" with The Scientists. He declared that Beasts of Bourbon were "masters of uncompromising gutbucket blues and hard-edged rock'n'roll". In 2004 Salmon was inducted into the West Australian Music Industry Association Hall of Fame and in 2007, into the Music Victoria Awards Hall of Fame.
context_section_description: In August 1983 while still a member of The Scientists, Salmon on guitar joined Beasts of Bourbon as a side project alongside old band mates Baker and Sudjovic; with Spencer P. Jones on guitar (of The Johnnys); and Tex Perkins on vocals (ex-Tex Deadly and the Dum-Dums). In October that year they recorded the group's debut album, The Axeman's Jazz (July 1984). In February 1984 Salmon and Perkins formed Salamander Jim with Richard Ploog on drums (also in The Church), however by the following month Salmon had returned to his commitments with The Scientists.
  During The Scientists 1987 tour of Australia Salmon formed Kim Salmon and the Surrealists in Perth as an indie pop group. Fellow founders were Brian Henry Hooper on bass guitar and Tony Pola on drums. Their first two albums, Hit Me with the Surreal Feel (October 1988) and Just Because You Can't See It ... Doesn't Mean It Isn't There (February 1990), were described by McFarlane as having a "dark, confrontational sound powered by Salmon's scratchy, neurotic guitar and snarling vocals". Also in 1990 Salmon issued his debut solo single, "Lightning Scary", which appeared on the Surrealists third album, Essence, in September of the following year.
  From March 1988 Beasts of Bourbon reconvened and Salmon spent time with both groups over the subsequent five years. By February 1991 Hooper and Pola had replaced Sudjovic and Baker respectively as members of Beasts of Bourbon. In 1993 after touring Australia and Europe with Beasts of Bourbon Salmon, Hooper and Pola left the group to concentrate on the Surrealists. McFarlane declared Beasts of Bourborn were "masters of uncompromising gutbucket blues and hard-edged rock'n'roll".
  In July 1994 Salmon issued an album, Hey Believer, with backing band STM (Sexually Transmitted Music) featuring Warren Ellis on violin and Jim White on drums (both future Dirty Three members), and Andrew Entsch on double bass. Also that year Salmon released a solo live cassette album, Hookline and Singer, available at his gigs.
  The Surrealists line up changed as members left - Greg Bainbridge joined on drums in 1994 and Stu Thomas joined on bass in 1995. Micheal Redman and Leon De Bruin were the brass section for The Surrealists in 1998-9. Later, Phil Collings took on The Surrealists drum duties, and is the current drummer as at 2020.
caption: Kim Salmon at home in Perth, January 1989
exif: {}