[4] He bought his first guitar, "an acoustic steel string thing", for A$14 and taught himself to play "Black Night" and "Tobacco Road".

[5] At the age of 19 he was a member of Troubled Waters, a cabaret covers band playing in a Fremantle strip club.

[8][9] The line up of Salmon, Baker, Byrne and Radalj recorded their debut single, "Frantic Romantic", which appeared in June that year.

[9] In December 1979 and in February and March 1980, as a member of The Scientists, Salmon toured the eastern states of Australia and they appeared on TV pop music series, Countdown.

[11] In September 1981 Salmon and Sujdovic, with Rixon on drums and Tony Thewlis (ex-Helicopters) on guitar, reformed The Scientists and moved to Sydney.

[8][9][12] McFarlane noted that the Sydney line up had "dropped the melodic, punky power pop of old for a more malevolent, psychedelic-tinged neo-rock'n'roll".

[14][15] Everett True writing for The Guardian in 2011 disputed that Seattle was the origin of the genre, "[t]here's more of an argument to be had for grunge beginning in Australia with the Scientists and their scrawny punk ilk".

[11] Also in 1990 Salmon issued his debut solo single, "Lightning Scary",[2] which appeared on the Surrealists third album, Essence, in September of the following year.

[8][11][16] In 1993 after touring Australia and Europe with Beasts of Bourbon Salmon, Hooper and Pola left the group to concentrate on the Surrealists.

[16] In July 1994 Salmon issued an album, Hey Believer, with backing band STM (Sexually Transmitted Music) featuring Warren Ellis on violin and Jim White on drums (both future Dirty Three members), and Andrew Entsch on double bass.

According to McFarlane, the single had an "electronic undertow balanced by an irresistible melody"; while the album was an "eclectic, diverse and challenging mix of electronica, breezy pop, throbbing bass, washes of guitar and keyboards, and dance floor grooves".

[23] In June 2004 Salmon was inducted into the West Australian Music Industry Association's newly established Hall of Fame.

[24][25] Darling Downs' second album, From one to Another, appeared on 15 October 2007, which Michael Berick of Allmusic found was "mining a spare, simple acoustic Americana sound that basically consists of Peno's rural twang and Salmon's picking on a banjo or guitar".

The band included Clare Moore and Michael Stranges on drums; and Dave Graney, Ash Naylor, Penny Ikinger, Matt Walker and Anton Ruddick on guitar.

[27] I-94 Bar's reviewer T J Honeysuckle was impressed by "a crack team of Melbourne based musicians kicking it out, letting it out of their systems, with an air of abandonment and glee permeating each and every track".

[27] Fellow reviewer at the website Patrick Emery felt it was "a grab bag of neo-70s riffs, screeching vocals (albeit computer generated) and iconic rock theatrics".

[27] In August 2011 Kim Salmon wrote an article, "Spare a Dollar for the Maker, Music Doesn't Play Itself", for The Age, to raise awareness of the financial problems of local musicians with live venues closing and being underpaid.

[28] In July 2013 Dan Cass of The Guardian described Salmon providing guitar tuition, "[h]e shows me licks, and explains the basics of musical theory".

[31] In 2010 The Surrealists line up of Salmon, Stu Thomas and Phil Collings on drums, released a studio album, Grand Unifying Theory.

[32] Ned Raggett of Allmusic found "it's more focused on the sharply brawling side of his work than some of the quieter recent efforts, this is still an album that showcases tense moments and arrangements throughout".

[22][33] Aaron Curran for Mess+Noise noted that it "harkens back to the lost opportunities of youth, but in a fond and measured way filled with peaceful resignation rather than caustic regret".

[38] Salmon, Fearon and Brett Woodward formed Bloody Stupid Productions which provided a music video for "Lightning Scary".

[41] Kim Salmon is credited with: guitars (lead, slide, acoustic, bass), vocals, banjo, zither, jaw-harp, percussion, producer, audio mastering.