Tumbleweed were formed in October 1990 in Tarrawanna, a northern suburb of the sea-side city of Wollongong after the demise of The Proton Energy Pills.
[1][2] The new line up issued a second single, "Stoned"/"Holy Moses", in December 1991 and that month they supported United States grunge group, Nirvana on their Australian tour.
[1] The band were signed to the Polydor label by Craig Kamber and they recorded their second album, Galactaphonic, with Paul McKercher producing.
As well as the band's formative influences, Galactophonic also revealed a debt to the likes of Monster Magnet, The Stooges, Sonic Youth and even The Beatles".
At the end of the year Hausmeister was replaced on guitar by Dave Achille (ex-Full Tab) and O'Brien by Nik Reith (of The Celibate Rifles) on drums.
[1] Lewis combined with Kram (drummer in Spiderbait) to form Hot Rollers which issued a self-titled album in July.
Jason Curley and Reith joined Brother Brick with Stewart Cunningham (ex-Proton Energy Pills) on guitar, and toured Australia.
In July 2009 the early line up of Jay and Lenny Curley, Hausmeister, Lewis, and O'Brien reformed and appeared at the Homebake festival in December.
[9] They played at the Sydney and Melbourne Big Day Out venues in January 2010,[10] and followed in November by issuing a 2×CD compilation album, The Waterfront Years 1992–94, of their early work.
[11] I-94's resident reviewer, The Barman, noted the release was "an obvious idea that it's a wonder no-one issued this before" and he felt that the term 'stoner music' was "an inadequate and ordinary label, and [the band] are simply riff-heavy rock and roll, with a rhythm section grounded in something more dynamic and bluesy than straight-up 4/4 or boogie.
[14] Pete Laurie of The Music website found "isn't about reinventing the wheel, but it never sounds like a lazy rehash of the good old days either".
[15] Lewis explained to The Age's Martin Boulton "We got to a point after the re-formation where we decided not to put an end date on it [...] we said we can't keep playing that same period [of songs] for the rest of our lives [...] While we love it and we know our fans love it … in order to be a relevant, creative unit [and] for our own personal satisfaction more than anything, we've got to try writing again and doing something new together and that's been really interesting and amazing".
[17] On 26 August 2014, the band announced, via their Facebook page, that Jason Curley had died suddenly at his home the previous day from an alcohol-related illness at the age of 42.