The Middle East was a band based in Townsville in Queensland, Australia. Forming in 2005, the group played locally and completed several East Coast tours of mainly festivals throughout Australia. The band name has no particular significance - it was coined for a show poster of the then temporary project, after co-frontman Rohin Jones watched a documentary on Yasser Arafat.

In early 2008 the band released an album called The Recordings of The Middle East before splitting up. Eight months after this decision was made, band members reconvened and later re-released an abridged version of the debut album, The Recordings of the Middle East as an EP in May 2009 through Spunk Records in Australia. This EP was released in North America on 27 October 2009.