The Sand Pebbles copped their name from a 1966 Steve McQueen film. They write for television in Australia. They're songs are sprinkled with cinema references. Tarantula! asked three members of the Sand Pebbles - Ben Michael, Chris Hollow and Andrew Tanner - to place the songs off their 2002 album 'Eastern Terrace' in a cinematic context.

'My Sensation' is a slow, seductive slice of psychedelic soul that trips from here to the 24th Century. The song’s lyrics mention co-writer Dylan Tawse’s resemblance to English actor Paul McGann ('Withnail & I', 'The Monocled Mutineer').

AT: "‘Harold & Maude’ - romantic, in a cute and weird kind of way."

CH: ‘My Sensation’ is the song that comes onto the radio when Bill Murray wakes up each morning for 'Groundhog Day'!

A cover of Julian Cope’s slightly wired, nicely crazed track from his 1989 ‘Skellington’ album.

BMX: "The original 'Scarface' where Tony and his sister take up arms against the cops for a final showdown."

AT: "'Taxi Driver' - threatening, in a violent and weird kind of way."

‘Moving Too Fast’ squeezes Aristotle’s three act structure into five and a half minutes of song.

BMX: "'Less Than Zero'. Sexy young drug heads getting it on and then fading away."

AT: "Anything by Kurasawa"

A short electronic excursion - ‘One Time at Sundown’ was used as the St. Kilda Film Festival theme song in 1997.

BMX: "An ad for soft drink."

AT: "Any slo-mo fight scene from Peckinpah or Scorsese."

A panoramic instrumental inspired by Tom Verlaine's 'Warm & Cool' album that has drawn many comparisons to Spanish director Ennio Morricone.

BMX: "'The Club'. The montage building up to a final glorious victory."

AT: "Some weird shit from Herzog."

A desert baked song that has lyrics lifted from bassist Chris Hollow's 'Neighbours' scripts. The opening lines set the scene and the tone, ‘Yes, I’m dirty on this town, the feeling’s mutual I’m sure.’

BMX: "'Midnight Cowboy' - Joe Buck has had his dreams crushed, but still hopes for something special from the big city."

AT: "Someone else said it - Pat Garrett & Billy The Kid."
_{Dylan as Alias in 'Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid'}

‘The Sundowner’ is the most obvious cinema soundscape on ‘Eastern Terrace’. It was also the name of a 1960 film starring Robert Mitchum, Deborah Kerr and Chips Rafferty.

BMX: "'2001: A Space Odyssey' - space walking, free falling, finally Hal cutting off your oxygen and getting released into deep space!"

AT: "Magnificent Seven"

‘Charmed’ is a song that mixes Aaron Spelling’s coven with talk of genetic engineering and the Germinator – the two subjects fitting together very snugly. The song opens with a snippet of conversation from the TV show…
Boyfriend: "…if I hadn’t sold out to the molecular biology program at Stanford…"
Piper: "So you can make Peking duck and clone D.N.A."
Boyfriend: "The duck’s harder…"

BMX: "An Alyssa Milano only episode of 'Charmed', she's in tears at one point over having to spilt up with the guitar player from the Sand Pebbles - he leaves her with this song to take with her (cut to a sad, desperate man...ie. Me!)

AT: "Andy Warhol’s 'Flesh'?"

This pared down version of ‘Moving Too Fast’ is called the Director’s Cut and succeeds in being the first director’s cut to be shorter than the original.

BMX: "The end of 'Two Lane Black Top' as Laurie Bird drives off on the motorcycle."

AT: "Wonderland".

_{Two Lane Blacktop}