The Triffids were an Australian alternative rock and pop band, formed in Perth in Western Australia in May 1978 with David McComb as singer-songwriter, guitarist, bass guitarist and keyboardist. They achieved negligible success in Australia, but greater success in the UK and in Scandinavia in the 1980s before disbanding in 1989. Some of their best-known songs include "Wide Open Road" (February 1986) and "Bury Me Deep in Love" (October 1987). SBS television featured their 1986 album, Born Sandy Devotional, on the Great Australian Albums series in 2007, and in 2010 it ranked 5th in the book The 100 Best Australian Albums by Toby Creswell, Craig Mathieson and John O'Donnell.
The Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) recognised The Triffids' importance on 1 July 2008 when inducting them into the Hall of Fame. Music historian Ian McFarlane declared:
"The Triffids remain one of Australia's best-loved, post-punk groups [...] McComb was an authoritative singer and accomplished songwriter [...] he infused his melancholy songs with stark yet beautiful and uniquely Australian imagery. Few songwriters managed to capture the feeling of isolation and fatalistic sense of despair of the Australian countryside."
The Triffids and The Go-Betweens (from Brisbane) were two of the most literate and evocative Australian bands of the 1980s,[citation needed] both formed outside the mainstream Sydney-Melbourne pop/rock nexus.