Short Stack are an Australian band originating from Budgewoi, New South Wales. Their music is generally classified as pop punk or rock. The band formed in 2005 and consists of Shaun Diviney, Andy Clemmensen and Bradie Webb. They have released a demo album, 3 studio albums and a number of EPs. They have also supported numerous bands on tour such as Simple Plan, Good Charlotte and The Veronicas and appeared on a wide variety of Australian TV shows.
While most of Short Stack's fanbase is located in Australia, they also have also a large number of fans from other countries, due largely to their heavy use of the Internet to promote themselves, originally through MySpace, as well as their YouTube series Short Stack TV. They are mostly popular with teenage girls, though they do have adult fans (most of the early fans who are still in the fanbase are adults now), and gained more male fans with the release of This Is Bat Country, a relatively rocky album compared to the more pop punky Stack Is The New Black.
In March 2012, the band decided to go their separate ways. Shortly afterwards, Shaun Diviney formed his own band, Diviney. Their third album, Art Vandelay, was released on iTunes in September 2013 by Sunday Morning Records, apparently without the knowledge of the band. In April 2014, Short Stack reunited as an independent band and released "Television", the first single and music video from their upcoming album "Homecoming". In August 2014 they announced their new contract with Universal Music.
The band are:
- Shaun Diviney (lead vocals, guitar)
- Andy Clemmensen (backing vocals, bass)
- Bradie Webb (drums, keyboards)
Their discography goes:
Albums:
- Stack is the New Black (2009)
- This Is Bat Country (2010)
- Art Vandelay (2013)
Singles:
- Shimmy a Go Go (2008)
- Princess (2009)
- Sway, Sway Baby! (2009)
- Ladies and Gentlemen (2010)
- Sweet December (2010)
- Planets (2011)
- We Dance To A Different Disco, Honey (2011)
- Bang Bang Sexy (2011)
- Television (2014)
- Live 4 (2021)
EPs:
- Shimmy a Go Go (2008)
- Sweet December (2009)
- Planets (2010)
Tropes associated with Short Stack include:
- A Day in the Limelight: The Back Of My Head and Television, the only songs where Shaun doesn't sing everything
- Angst: Part of the reason In This Place works is that it doesn't turn into
Wangst- which, for a suicidal breakup song written by a teenage boy band, is an impressive feat. - Anti-Love Song: We Dance to a Different Disco, Honey
- Break-Up Song
- Companion Cube: Their logo, which they have dubbed Maurice the Pirate. He even has his own MySpace page.
-
Cowboy BeBop at His Computer - Darker and Edgier: This Is Bat Country, which is much darker and rock-oriented as opposed to the crazy happy Stack Is The New Black.
- Everyone Went to School Together
- Fanservice: The models in the music videos for Sway Sway Baby! and Bang Bang Sexy
- Fight Fur Your Right to Party: The Princess music video.
- Hope Spot: In the Planets video, the band searches for a mysterious something, which is revealed by the blonde alien's torture victim to be another alien. Shaun starts to leave the building with the alien... and then they get caught by the blonde alien's minions.
- Interspecies Romance: Shaun and the Bunny in the Princess and Sway, Sway Baby! videos. The Bunny cheats on him with Andy in the latter video.
- Kill It with Fire: The Sweet December video.
- Let's Get Dangerous!: In the video for We Dance To A Different Disco, Honey, the band plus the pale alien are about to leave a building when a group of ninjas turn up. Out of nowhere, the pale alien pulls her robe off and kicks arse.
- Literal Metaphor: The blonde alien from the Planets video has a razor-sharp tongue. Cue lots of blood.
- Literal-Minded: When Short Stack demonstrate the 'birds and the bees', they get rather literal.
- Lyrical Dissonance: It's4U, for a start. "I write your name in bullets/so you're the last thing through my head"...
- One Step Closer: "I got a way with words, and you got away with murder".
- Sway Sway Baby: "Sway sway baby, you're so audio! Kill your boyfriend, we could be together!"
- Metal Scream: Surprisingly enough - Shaun does a few in SOUL, Thick As Thieves and The Mercury
- Murder the Hypotenuse: Sway, Sway Baby! "Kill your boyfriend/We could be together". Right...
- Naughty Nurse Outfit: In "Ladies and Gentlemen"
- No Mouth: The other alien in the Planets video covers her mouth with her hand, only to reveal when she takes her hand away that she has no mouth.
- Non-Appearing Title: Shimmy a Go Go, Bat Country, The Cross, The Cannons, The Thunder
- One-Woman Song: Wendy, Ruby Red
- Performance Video: All of their videos to some extent, but most notably the video for SOUL which is entirely this.
- Phrase Salad Lyrics: Ladies and Gentlemen
- Piss-Take Rap: Ziggy Rap
- Rock Trio
- Rhyming with Itself: The word "one" in Counting the Stars
- Shout-Out: This Is Bat Country is a Shout-Out to Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (Shaun has said that they're fans of the novel.)
- Silly Love Songs: A lot of their songs are this.
- Surreal Music Video: Very much so.
