Blue Ruin

Blue Ruin were an Australian blues rock band, which started as Scrap Museum in 1984. Their third studio album, I'm Gonna Smile (December 1990), was nominated for Best Independent Release at the ARIA Music Awards of 1991. The group had released three other studio albums, Such Sweet Thunder (January 1986), Flame (May 1987) and Tattoo Tears (1993), before disbanding in 1995. Mainstay members were Ian "Quincy" McLean on lead vocals and Mulaim Vela on lead guitar. History Blue Ruin started as a blues rock quartet, Scrap Museum, in 1984 in Melbourne by singer Ian "Quincy" McLean, guitarist Mulaim Vela, bassist Adam Learner and drummer Frank Borg. McLean and Vela had attended Camberwell High School; they began song writing together in 1981. The group issued a single, "Say Die", in that year via the Rampant Records label. They supported local gigs by the Dead Kennedys, and Iggy Pop. Ex-the Birthday Party drummer Phill Calvert replaced Borg and they changed their name to Blue Ruin in 1985. That name references a variety of bathtub gin. Such Sweet Thunder (January 1986), their first studio album, was recorded over three days with Tony Cohen producing and engineering. Patrick Donovan of The Age, in February 2006, described how, "their raw, dark and menacing debut [album] was an intimidating and intoxicating brew... it continues to rumble and tap into dark corners of the psyche with each listen."