Sydney calling The Vines spearhead an Aussie Invasion tour with fellow travelers Jet BY SEAN RICHARDSON

It’s been 25 years since the release of AC/DC’s Highway to Hell (Epic), the first American smash by the band who came to define Australian rock. Angus, Malcolm, and the boys have been quiet since joining the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame a year ago this month. But even without them, this is the most exciting time for Australian rock in the US since INXS and Midnight Oil went platinum in the late 1980s. On Tuesday, the Vines are back in stores with their second album, Winning Days (Capitol), and Jet just eclipsed the half-million mark in sales with their current debut, Get Born (Elektra). To celebrate, those two acts are out on the Aussie Invasion Tour 2004, with openers (and countrymen) the Living End and Neon. The show hits Avalon this Friday.

The new Vines single, "Ride," is a worthy successor to their 2002 breakthrough hit, "Get Free." The old hook: "I’m gonna get free/I’m gonna get free/I’m gonna get free/Ride into the sun." The new hook: "Ride with me/Ride with me/Ride with me/Home." Well, they didn’t call their first album Highly Evolved for nothing. Once again, the band conjure everyone from British rock faves Supergrass to Nirvana with their psychedelic harmonies and visceral edge. In particular, frontman Craig Nicholls has Kurt Cobain to thank for the track’s murmured verses and squalling guitar solo. The whole thing is over before the three-minute mark — AC/DC would be proud of its raw power and economy.

Vines drummer Hamish Rosser is in New York City to promote Winning Days when I get him on the phone. He says that "Ride" has been in the band’s repertoire since before the first album came out, but it really took off in the studio when they pared it down with producer Rob Schnapf (Beck, Toadies). "I’ve always loved that song. When Rob came in, we did a few minor adjustments on the arrangement. His way of producing is to get to the point and cut out any unnecessary parts. A lot of songs you hear that are four or five minutes long — often, they don’t need to be that long." The video, directed by the Gondry brothers (White Stripes, Björk), features the band and 25 other nattily attired quartets jamming along in unison, to exhilarating effect.

Two years ago, when they busted out of Sydney with Highly Evolved, the Vines were in the right place at the right time. With the White Stripes and the Strokes bringing hipster retro-rock to the forefront, the Vines — who are more indebted to classic Aussie garage punks Radio Birdman and the Saints than to AC/DC — were greeted with open arms by the US and the international media. After recording their debut in Los Angeles with Schnapf, core members Nicholls and bassist Patrick Matthews recruited Rosser and guitarist Ryan Griffiths and hit the road. Emphasis on the word "hit": as became apparent when Nicholls and Matthews came to blows mid set in December 2002 here at the Middle East, these guys play full-contact rock.

Although a certain degree of debauchery remains a Vines trademark, Rosser hopes the days of fighting on stage are behind them. "That was one of the low points," he admits of the Middle East incident. "Craig hit the microphone stand with his guitar, and the microphone stand smashed into Patrick’s head. It hit him pretty hard, because he had a big lump. He picked up Craig and threw him into the crowd, and then he chased Craig down the street." Rosser chuckles for a second at the memory, then gets serious again. "Having a bunch of time off back in Australia really helped everyone calm down. But doing all the traveling stuff, it might get crazy again — you never know."

With Rosser and Griffiths joining Nicholls and Matthews in the studio, Winning Days is the first Vines album recorded by a full-strength, road-tested unit. The fiery kick of the opening "Ride" carries over to "Animal Machine" and "TV Pro," the next two songs, as well as the fuzzed-out environmentalist closer "Fuck the World." Yes, the band’s Nirvana worship invites mischievous references to mid-1990s Aussie laughing stocks Silverchair, but Nicholls’s hooks are often haphazard and indelible at the same time, which is no easy feat. They also weave several unplugged ballads into the mix, the best of which — "Autumn Shade 2," "Winning Days" — compare favorably with sophisticated Schnapf productions by Saves the Day and Elliott Smith.

"I don’t think it’s that much lighter than the previous album," Rosser contends. " ‘Fuck the World’ and ‘Animal Machine’ are some of the heaviest ones we’ve done. I think it’s more an album of extremes. We’re trying to show all the different sides of the band. I would have had more heavy songs on the album if it were up to me, but Rob likes albums that play well from the first track to the last. That’s how we ended up with ‘Rainfall,’ which wasn’t one we were always thinking of putting on there. He was like, ‘We need a song like that, because we haven’t got an upbeat, happy song.’ "

The Vines tracked Winning Days at Bearsville Studios in upstate New York’s bucolic Catskill Mountains, where they landed at the conclusion of their world tour, without even bothering to go home first. "We were living in this house on the property — we could walk barefoot to the studio if we wanted to. I didn’t even drink for a month when I got there. I mean, there’s only two bars in Woodstock. If we had made it in a bigger city, I’m sure we would have done a lot more drinking. It was the ideal environment, because we had nothing else to do but make music."

THE VINES SHARE their Aussie management team with Jet, who are currently enjoying the retro-rock explosion’s biggest US crossover hit to date with "Are You Gonna Be My Girl" — #44 and rising on the Billboard Hot 100 at press time. Cynics have been quick to point out that the groove is a copy of the Strokes copying "Lust for Life," and that frontman Nic Cester seems to have borrowed his banshee wail from Jack White. Still, the group attack with a lustful abandon that makes it easy to give in to the hackneyed rush of the chorus: "I know we ain’t got/Much to say/Before I let you get away/Are you gonna be my girl." The video is a classy black-and-white soundstage performance, with the occasional curvy silhouette joining them on stage to shake it. Only the shadow dancers appear in the iPod TV commercial that features the song — the guys in the band sit that one out.

Regardless of how acceptable the practice has become in recent years, selling your very first single to Madison Avenue isn’t the best way to establish rock cred. In that respect, Jet have an even longer road ahead of them than the Vines, but at least the ad had its desired effect. The band are the brainchild of Nic Cester and his brother Chris (drums), a pair whose ear for tradition might as well be modeled on that of fellow pop brotherhoods the Black Crowes and Oasis. Formed in Melbourne, they recorded Get Born in LA with producer Dave Sardy, who was due for this kind of breakthrough after working on a fine string of modest hits by the likes of Marilyn Manson and Bush.

When it comes to airplay, Jet have outperformed media darlings like the Darkness and the Strokes by making an album that sounds like the work of a scruffy bunch of Rolling Stones populists. On the second single, "Cold Hard B****," the band lay claim to their heritage and pull out the ultimate secret weapon: AC/DC. "Gotta leave town/Got another appointment/Spent all my rent/Girl, you know I enjoyed it," howls Nic at the outset as a razor-sharp Malcolm Young blooze riff prods him along. He lets out a Roger Daltrey scream at the bridge, and producer Sardy’s hard-rock experience pays off big time on the bottom end. With a pedigree like that, it’s no surprise the track just started racing up the mainstream-rock charts — i.e., the house where Nickelback live, and where multi-platinum discs are earned.

Like a less punk analogue of Winning Days, Get Born has its share of closing-time ballads to go along with the delirious rockers. "Look What You’ve Done" is the plaintive Beatles, "Move On" is the countrified Stones, "Timothy" is the lysergic Pink Floyd — respectable homages all, but with an academic undercurrent that suggests School of Rock discovering marijuana on the first day of junior high. The best slow dance on the disc is the piano-driven "Radio Song" ("This won’t be played on your radio tonight"), which crackles to life on the chorus and ends with a sarcastic "na-na na" sing-along. Hipsters are justified in scoffing at Jet for their lack of originality, but the band’s authenticity deserves the props it’s getting from meat-and-potatoes rock fans in the US.

The Aussie Invasion Tour 2004 features performances by the Vines, Jet, the Living End, and Neon this Friday, March 19, at Avalon, 15 Lansdowne Street in Boston; call (617) 262-2424.