Classics: Let There Be Rock

Original video located here. Accessed 3rd February 2017

Song title: Let There Be Rock

Artist: AC/DC

Year: 1977

Why I like this song:

Its not so much a song as a battle charge. Many may try to do the same but very few can do it.

Nineties Revisited: Lock It

Original video located here. Accessed 13th May 2010

Song title: Lock It

Artist: Falling Joys

Year: 1990

Why I like this song:

Twenty years on and it hasn't aged a day. 
In one fell swoop, Australian popular music enters the nineties. Ahead lies Silverchair, You am I, Spiderbait, Powderfinger and many others but, for me, this was the firing of the starter's gun.

"I really like you!"

Classics: Rocks Off

Original video located here. Accessed 15th March 2010

Song title: Rocks Off

Artist: Rolling Stones

Year: 1972

Why I like this song:

It's only in the past year and a half that I've been getting into the Rolling Stones. And it seems that I have had quite a lot of catching up to do.
And of all the albums I've heard Exile on Main St stood out as my favourite (usurpingly). And it does indeed start with a bang: Everyone is in fine form but what really makes the tune is the horns. 
Pretty much the quintessential Stones track really.

History Lesson: Violent Femmes

Violent Femmes

Original video located here. Accessed 1st February 2024

Being a teenager and being into punk, it was somewhat inevitable that I would stumble across these guys. I could say it was the economy in the playing, the heavy usage of acoustic instrumentation, the use of a hyperactive bass player, the cheekiness and youthful vigour stamped across each and every song and the way this music was written to each and every misfit on the planet. But no, the single most important thing the Violent Femmes was, when my interest in punk music reached it’s peak, was that it’s not about playing short songs, playing really fast or swearing in one’s music. No, it’s about the attitude. It’s one of the keystones of punk music and something that many of punk’s successors have failed to pick up on. Yes all you emo bands I am looking at YOU.

Key Album: Violent Femmes (1982) Essential listening for any teenager that has both ever existed and to come. Funny, angsty, snappy, angry, pathetic and poignant all at the same time. And boy do I love it. It sounds even better live too ;)

History Lesson: Everything But the Girl

Everything But the Girl

Original video located here. Accessed 10th March 2010

It has been said there are two types of teenagers: They are either the homecoming king/queen or they lock themselves in their room and think the world’s insane. And I was the latter. I have mentioned High School was a terrible time for me but listening to music kept me on the rails. At the time I was listening to the Offspring, Green Day and Smashing Pumpkins thus satisfying my teen disgruntlement. But there was also Everything but the Girl who for me represented a different kind of teen angst: It was feelings of being socially awkward, different, unloved and unlovable. Missing was a big hit in the clubs across the world but I found that rather odd seeing as the lyrics dealt with unrequited love, the longing for a lost love and emotional insecurity. Throughout the nineties I was interested in techno music but this was different. And thus I was drawn to it. After all, anyone can do something with any tools – it just takes the brave to do something different.

Key Album: Walking Wounded (1996) A collection of songs of heartbreak and emotion that works no different to me now than it did when I was fourteen. A true gem in every sense of the word.

History Lesson: Smashing Pumpkins

Smashing Pumpkins

Original video located here. Accessed 26th February 2015

They say that every teenager wakes up at one point and realizes that everything they’ve always known to be wrong. This inspires them to buck the system and walk their own path. For me, that moment came when I turned to Triple J and heard Smashing Pumpkins’ 1979 for the first time.

Taking yet another lead from my sister Kate, my brother Cameron and my friends at the time, I made the jump to Triple J. This came at a point where I was disillusioned with music and all that I heard on the radio at the time was absolute rubbish (Take That? Joshua Kadison? Bryan Adams?! Good Lord no!!!). Fortunately my salvation came with Triple J: Finally this was real music, with well-crafted songs played on real guitars, and it rocked hard - without any sense of treacle whatsoever. It also opened up a wealth of material from the previous decade that I had missed out on. It goes to show that the grass is indeed greener on the other side: A philosophy I’ve taken to heart.

So about the Smashing Pumpkins – I got into them thanks to Cameron playing me the excellent Melon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. And this was a treasure trove in itself: The loudest guitars I’ve ever heard competing with some bizarre arrangements ultimately provided me with all the music I had been missing out on for the past decade in a nutshell. After all, any band that samples DOOM can’t be that bad.

Key Album: Siamese Dream (1993) Mellon Collie had the impact but Siamese Dream is still my fav. For me, this album represents the pinnacle of the alt-rock explosion of the early nineties. It rocks hard, it’s got some great songs and stands as the reason why I always hold alternative rock in such high esteem. Favourite Song? Soma. No other song really inspires feelings of smugness.....

History Lesson: Green Day

Green Day

Original video located here. Accessed 5th March 2010

Like Pearl Jam and the Offspring, my interest in Green Day was picked up from my sister who played them on her stereo at the time. But unlike the other two, I picked Green Day first time around. Me a wimp? Perhaps but at this time I was in High School, I was entering my teens and, like many before me, I had discovered Punk Rock. And with Green Day, I discovered a sense of fun and mischievousness that somehow made defiance sound like the best time ever. Plus there was that unabashed glee in finding a swear word in a song.

Key Album: Dookie (1994) It’s always Dookie. It sounded great back then and still does now. I have since looked upon my High School years as being a difficult and painful time of my life (as it always is for many people) but Dookie always made me smile and got me through even the darkest hours.

History Lesson: The Offspring

The Offspring

Original video located here. Accessed 19th February 2021

Again, something I picked up from my sister – being in the room from across the hallway does indeed help. This was truly an evil sound. From my years in High School I figured that Metal was the type tough kids listened to (ie Guns N Roses and Metallica) but this was something different. It was a hurricane that demanded attention, it was loud, imposing and nasty. It was my first taste of punk.

Key Album: Smash (1994). Forget all that wimpy pop-punk rubbish that followed ever after - This is the real deal. Fearsome songs played with the intensity of a metal band, and attitude to match. I recall being frightened by this the first time around but years later I came back to it and was won over. This of course goes to show that things do indeed make sense when one is older.

History Lesson: The Beatles

The Beatles

Original video located here. Accessed 8th February 2019

I suppose it is natural for any child to be disdainful of anything their parents enjoy. Well in my case there may be some truth to that statement but in listening to my parent’s taste in music, I did however pick up a similar admiration for the Beatles. And could I not? In their career, the Beatles did so much that it is near impossible for anyone to not find something to love. I may have a lot to thank my parents for but getting me into the Beatles is in the top regions of the list (also, I recall fondly my brother and myself singing many Beatles songs across several bushwalks and driving my Dad nuts).

My interest in the many forms of Rock may have stemmed from the Hoodoo Gurus but it is through the Beatles that I have expanded that appreciation across a wider spectrum. This wasn’t just everything being attempted and making it work, it wasn't the rules of pop music being written out, it was how genre didn't matter and good music can exist wherever you find it. This is a philosophy I have kept with me ever since.

Key Album: Rubber Soul (1965) Listening to Rubber Soul I have always been intrigued by the simplicity of it. Sparse arrangements , the prominence of acoustic instruments and unusual experimentation with exotic instruments. Indeed, this love is best exemplified with Norwegian Wood. I remember being young and felt drawn to it, wanting to hear more, to see where it was going, and this narrative John was pulling off (it was only years later that I realised what was going on).