
Next up, a short USA tour with God Lives Underwater coinciding with US release of the New EP and Sucked A Lot Of Cock To Get Where I Am on 7" vinyl through SubPop. Tours in Japan & Australia in late 96 with CIV from NYC. Tu Plang released in Thailand, Japan & Europe. Chalked up 2 ARIA Awards in Nov 96... Early 97 back to the USA for SXSW, Austin, Texas and a few extra dates in LA & San Francisco. Tu Plang is released in the USA. Then following up with a tour of Australia with The Fauves & Tomorrow People, before heading back to the USA to do 20 dates with Helmet & The Melvins. Upon return set up the Dirty Room to write/record Unit. First single Everyday Formula released mid 97. Quickly followed up with an attempt to combine theatre with popular music via Handspan & Melbourne Arts Festival performance Raised By Wolves.
Album #2 Unit leaves production line late 97, accompanied by rigorous live presentations of the new product - a large scale Australian tour with Screamfeeder in tow. Black Bugs, single #2 comes out late 97. Jan 98 sees another successful Australian run together with The Prodigy, followed by a string of benefits and media performances in April. The highlight being a 5.00am performance with Midnight Oil in protest at the Jabiluka Uranium mine blockade in the Kakadu. The next single Polyester Girl gets extremely well received going on to sell in excess of 50,000 copies (first Australian gold single). A third tour to Japan where a video for the fourth single! was filmed & the Japanese release of Unit. Followed by the biggest Australian tour yet - The Caveat Emptour with partners in farce TISM & The Fauves. A brief visit to the UK to play the 98 Reading Festival and a couple of sold out London shows coinciding with the UK release of Unit. From there back to Japan for the fourth tour which featured 3 shows in one day in Tokyo (of which, one was with Spiderbait for Snoozer magazine).
Arriving back in Australia to perform at the ARIA Awards and receive a string of awards including Best Australian Album. Following this the album Unit hit triple platinum in Australia (selling in excess of 240,000 copies). Aside from the Livid Festival in Oct 98, followed up with the BIG DAY OUT Australia/NZ tour in Jan 99 (during which Unit went gold in NZ). Since this time the band have made a rare live appearance while working on the third album. Relocating to a house at Watego's Bay in NSW to track the bulk during March & April 99. We now have the album 'Art'.
A departure by drummer Martin during the onslaught of ...art leaves a big aching hole in the group which is later filled by Peter Kostic.












