Musically 1996 was a year that music was heavily influenced by doing the “Macarena”, 5 tarts called the Spice Girls and getting “Boombastic” with Shaggy. Yes, it was a very, very sad time for music. That is, if you were to remove one incident that eight years on (or the time it takes to become an “overnight sensation”) has grown to become quite significant. It was in 1996 that a group of carpet cleaners and friends managed to put down the vacs for long enough to begin what would in time become one of Australia’s best rock acts.

Dave Larkin, Shan Vanderwert, Pete Satchell and Chris Brodie under the hair metal tinged name of Tempered Kin began gigging around Melbourne. Soon after, realizing their title wasn’t as flash they had envisioned, they switched it to Dallas Crane. They spent the next two years playing gigs and the boys managed to gather up enough of their own money to record their first full length album – “Lent”. With so many influences and styles being crammed into one album critics failed to see the potential of that release.

The band took it in their stride knowing their live performances were going from strength to strength and took their show on the road with another two years of full on gigging with several of Australia’s largest alternative acts You Am I, Regurgitator and Shihad. They also appeared on Triple J’s Five Alive – Live At The Wireless CD, thanks to fan and current Triple J Head Of Programming, Richard Kingsmill.

After touring to the point of exhaustion the band hit the studio for another self funded project with “Twenty Four Seven” being released in late 2000. This album was beyond the expectations of even the most admiring fans. Bluesy romps like “Sit On My Knee” and “Sweet FA” became instant live favourites while “Sold Me” showcased their sublime songwriting skills and “Some Day” meshed their elegant harmonies to form something other worldly.

“Twenty Four Seven” left critics with no doubts about this creation. Beat Magazine named it Album of the Week and In-Press named it the Rock Record Of The Summer. Dallas Crane also won the major prize at the Australian Live Music Awards, which qualified them to hold up the Aussie flag at the International Live Music Conference held in London during February 2002.

After the release of “Twenty Four Seven” the band parted ways with bassist Chris Brodie. With Pat Bourke enlisted the band have maintained a lifestyle packed with tours…..Ryan Adams, The Black Keys, Rocket Science, Dan Brodie And The Broken Arrows and again with You Am I. It was this set of shows that could have been renamed the “DALLAS CRANE ARE THE BEST BAND IN THE COUNTRY” tour, as You Am I front man Tim Rogers would constantly disrupt his performance to extol the virtues of all that is Dallas Crane. Tim, was working on the soundtrack for the movie Dirty Deeds asked the boys to contribute to the soundtrack with a cover of pioneer Aussie punk band The Missing Links’ “Wild About You”.

In 2003 the guys took it all to a new level embarking on the “Dan Does Dallas” tour featuring the likes of old friends Dan Brodie And The Broken Arrows and Dan Kelly And The Alpha Males. Following hot on the heels of this highly successful set of shows they were back on the road again promoting “No Through Road” with the “Fistful Of Dallas” tour featuring possibly the greatest gig posters around. The single itself was distributed as a limited issue 7 inch vinyl release and again, was added to Triple J’s rotation.

With the buzz now a constant the band released “Ladybird” and embarked on another east coast tour. The band finished off 2003 with their appearance at Australia’s premier Oz only music festival – Homebake.

In January of 2004, not long after their blistering set at The Big Day Out, the band signed a recording and publishing deal with Albert’s, home of AC/DC and headed straight to the studio with producer Wayne Connolly (You Am I, Underground Lovers) to record their new album. With a mid July album release and a brand new single “Dirty Hearts” hitting the airways the Dallas Crane story has only just begun.