[1][2] According to Australian musicologist, Ian McFarlane, they "took their name from the short-lived French art movement, Fauvism, which was characterised by both its intensity and infatuation with colour.

[1] Their first gig was on 23 July 1988, at a local football club, Cox later recalled "We learnt more about rock 'n' roll in that one night than the entire preceding 20 years.

"[3] McFarlane declared that the group's "early sound was an energetic distillation of garage-punk rock riffs and surreal lyrics.

"[1] In March 1990, the band released their debut five-track extended play, This Mood Has Passed, on Timbertop Records.

[1] In the following year two EPs, both with six-tracks, were issued on Shock Records, The Scissors Within (April) and Tight White Ballhugger (September), each was produced by Robbie Rowlands.

The Fauves played strong material from The Scissors Within and quirky new stuff from latest EP Tight White Ballhugger, including mandolin tempered 'Archimedes' Crown'.

Doomy distorted guitars powered their set, but the Fauves nearly lost their audience with a couple of extended thrash routines which not even the Brady Bunch theme could redeem.

"[5] During a gig at Sydney's Annandale Hotel late in 1992 "they detoured into a freeform noise epic during which Cox washed Newey's hair with Vegemite and shampoo.

"[6] The Age's Craig Mathieson described their support slot on the Church's national tour, "They rehearsed extensively, mindful of the opportunity they had been given.

"[6] It was accompanied by a separate booklet, "22 Reasons Why a Band Shouldn't Put an Album Out in Its First Few Years", written by Newey who provided critical analysis for each track: Mathieson noticed he "ridiculed every song.

It was recorded with longtime collaborator Wayne Connolly, who has worked on five of the band's nine albums, and co-produced by Jim Moginie from Midnight Oil.

[citation needed] After a three-year break the band debuted tracks from their tenth album Japanese Engines on 10 November 2011 in Geelong.

They recorded the album in Indonesia and in the accompanying press, they explained: "Very few Australians have ever been to Bali so we relished the sense of outpost exoticism and a culture completely untouched by Western influence.