Dick Diver

Melbourne deep pop thinkers Dick Diver have triumphed in 2013 with second album Calendar Days, the follow-up to 2011 debut New Start Again.

Warm, wide and inviting, Calendar Days is a magnificent Australian pop album, hailed as one of the year's finest to date.

The album's success has seen the band shine at Golden Plains and Brisbane Festival this year, play sold out shows around the nation and bask in the glow of reviews such as "the unexpected Australian break-out record of the year" (Herald Sun), "everyday Australian life made bittersweet and poetic" (Rolling Stone) and "feels like an old friend, the kind that can comfort you through dark times" (Courier Mail).

Formed in 2008, Dick Diver have been special from the outset. Guitarists Rupert Edwards and Alistair McKay, drummer Steph Hughes (Boomgates) and bassist Al Montfort (Total Control, UV Race, Lower Plenty et al), found an immediate chemistry, pitting Rupert and Alistair's bookish proclivities against Steph and Al's casual, scrappy charm.

Their combination of widescreen Australian warmth and irreverent punk edge appeared almost fully formed on 2009 debut EP Arks Up, before 2011 debut album New Start Again made its way onto a swathe of year's end best-of polls.

All their records to date have been recorded by Mikey Young (of Total Control and Eddy Current Suppression Ring) in out of the way locations, including a farmhouse in the Dandenongs and a Philip Island holiday house.

Word about the band is also spreading outside Australian borders. Dick Diver have just shared a vinyl single with one of Montfort's other bands Lower Plenty, as part of the 2013 singles club series for iconic US label Matador.