Album Notes

Pray TV's landmark 1992 album. Brooding melodic indie pop full of references to Joy Division, Husker Du, Sonic Youth and My Bloody Valentine. Nominated for an Aussie ARIA award. "..a devilishly clever and initially sombre opus in the Joy Division tradition" - Rolling Stone

"Absolutely thunderous guitar, Aftermath is a pretty marvellous song, alternately quietly powerful passages with more patches of rousing exhilarating axework" - Alternative Press 1994

"Pray TV comes out of nowhere with determined rock shaded by goth influence and big choruses that dwarf the last 10 years of US college rock" - New York Press 1993

"Check out Pray TV..it certainly sounds like Wasteland (Radioactive Records) has a monster on its hands" - Gavin Report 1993

"The bands second album Paydirt is hardly troubled with the narrowed buzzsaw dynamic associated with early Husker Du, preferring a more languid bittersweetness to seep through their wingtipped grunge, a leftover influence from Joy Divisions bass led sobriety, leaving space for Aidan Hallorans doleful, suppressed vocals to metaphorically hang themselves. Paydirt is prime dark introverted mania" - CMJ Report 1993

"Neater than god" - Melody Maker 1992

"Like Husker Du at their best: melancholic, melodic songs done with rough noisy sound. Simply beautiful" - Ratbeat, Finland

"Good enough title for this as it's the best thing these guys have done by yards. They said they liked Died Pretty, and they've learnt the idea of making their songs ebb and flow in much the same way. This one has a pack of tracks that tend to start slow, build to maniacal crescendos, and then smolder back down to embers once again. If they don't do that, they start in a burst of flame and then collapse into a slow burn. The moody vocals riding over the top give it a Joy Division-ish sort of feel, and unlike a lot of other bands that use JD as a reference point, Pray TV remember that the predominant backing for Joy Division was guitars and they blaze away in good style with simple but tasty chord changes. Really fine." - NOISE FOR HEROES MAGAZINE

'Pay Dirt bubbles along with interesting ideas...take 'Aftermath', a devilishly clever and initially sombre opus in the Joy Division tradition. It builds inexorably until you notice it's gone from moribund to thumping.....their music is an amalgam of the thrashy and languid, often unnervingly subdued - there are a few explosions, and we're never let off the hook' - Rolling Stone

Pray TV, from Melbourne Australia, released many albums and single from 1988 to 1997. They received their moment in the spotlight in 1993 when in the infamous post-Nirvana signing frenzy of the early 90’s, they were snapped up by Radioactive Records in the USA (home of Live, Shirley Manson, The Ramones, etc) and released the Aftermath EP. The band had albums produced by Ed Kuepper (Aussie legend from the Saints) and Andy MacPherson (Teenage Fanclub, Frank Black) with releases in USA, Japan, Germany and Spain. Pigeonholed as indie rock–pop along the lines of Joy Divison, Psychedelic Furs, My Bloody valentine and the like, the band played gigs with Smashing pumpkins, Live, A House, Ed Kuepper, Midway Still, Bailter Space, Jean Paul Satre Experience, The Bats and many more.