Original video located here. Accessed 22nd February 2022
Song title: Evie (parts 1, 2 and 3)
Artist: Stevie Wright
Year: 1974
Why I like this song:
R.I.P. Stevie Wright
Here's to that pioneering spirit, that knocked down many walls for many more Australian artists
Original video located here. Accessed 17th November 2018
Song title: 2000 Miles
Artist: The Pretenders
Year: 1984
Why I like this song:
Hope you all have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year
Original video located here. Accessed 24th June 2023
Song title: (Its) Never Too Late
Artist: Ed Kuepper
Year: 2015
Why I like this song:
One that snuck in at the end of the year.
I am quite the fan of Ed Kuepper and am always interested in what he does. And this proves that he is still quite capable of pulling out some surprises: It's just him and his guitar and it works wonders. The atmospherics add plenty to the song and I certainly agree with the lyrical sentiments.
Seems there's still life in the old dog yet...
Original video located here. Accessed 27th February 2022
Song title: Redheads, Gold Cards and Long Black Limousines
Artist: Tex Don and Charlie
Year: 1993
Why I like this song:
So I've been listening to the Tex Don and Charlie album Sad But True recently.
Supergroups have a dubious reputation but this is one that genuinely feels like a meeting of minds. It sounds different to what these gentlemen would normally do.
I am in favour of songs that require a certain mood and this is one for summer evenings at dusk, when the sun has gone down and the last rays of sunshine are left.
Also props to having one of the best opening liens I've ever heard.
Song title: Motteke! Sailor Fuku
Artist: Aya Hirano, Emiri Katou, Kaori Fukuhara and Aya Endo
Year: 2007
Why I like this song:
I recall back in 2008, I went to Amaranth - a ball put on by the people behind the Melbourne Anime convention Manifest. And I recall this was played and everyone went nuts.
Recently I watched the anime Lucky Star and was reminded of this infectious gem. I may have talked some anime songs being difficult to resist but this must be the lord high emperor of them all. It must be that energy (fitting that it's based around a cheerleader chant)
Original video located here. Accessed 16th January 2018
Song title: Call My Name
Artist: Mosquito Coast
Year: 2015
Why I like this song:
It's the sound of a young band's first, faltering steps forward.
There's some potential here and I hope it goes somewhere...
Song title: Hero's Come Back!!
Artist: nobodyknows+
Year: 2007
Why I like this song:
Lately I have been watching Naruto - much of which for the first time (words alone can't describe what a godsend streaming has been to view long series).
And this is, hands down, the best opening. Nothing can get one pumped by listening to this.
Original video located here. Accessed 28th October 2015
Song title: Long Loud Hours
Artist: Urthboy with Bertie Blackman
Year: 2015
Why I like this song:
I already knew about the story of the criminal John Killick and Lucy Dudko so imagine my surprise when a song relating that narrative comes along.
For the uninitiated, Killick was in prison when he struck up a bond with Dudko, who he had met previously. She visited him on several occasions before a plan was conceived: She would hijack a tourist helicopter, fly to the prion and airlift him out. And Dudko, who had no criminal background prior, did just that: holding a pilot at gunpoint. Following this, Killick and Dudko went on the run before finally being caught forty-five years later.
Not quite a Bonnie and Clyde situation but a compelling story nonetheless.
So it is interesting for Urthboy to take an empathetic approach, giving his subjects through a humanising perspective. And it works
Original video located here. Accessed 5th October 2016
Song title: Hikaru Naru
Artist: Goose House
Year: 2014
Why I like this song:
I can imagine a lot of people would've tuned into watch Your Lie in April only to be hooked by this winner of an opening theme.
And how could they not? It's such a joyous theme, packed with multiple vocal parts, that is difficult to resist. And who wouldn't want to sing along?
Damn, this thing is lightening in a bottle....
Original video located here. Accessed 25th September 2015
Song title: Ruby Soho
Artist: Rancid
Year: 1995
Why I like this song:
There was no shortage of punk bands in the mid-nineties for a disaffected teen, like myself, could latch onto. Gotta love this one for it's energy and it's vocal activities (particularly those harmonies that close the song).
Original video located here. Accessed 23rd September 2015
Song title: Deception Bay
Artist: Boo Seeka
Year: 2015
Why I like this song:
It's proof that sometimes a song can win you over by pure seduction.
It must be in those synths...
Original video located here. Accessed 2nd March 2023
Song title: Peaches
Artist: The Presidents of the United States of America
Year: 1995
Why I like this song:
This was one of my favourite bands when I was in my early teens. Given that grunge was such a humourless genre, that someone would come long and inject some humour into the approach would make many a kid sit up and take notice.
From an adult perspective it's certainly dumb but in a good way.
Song title: The Masterplan
Artist: Oasis
Year: 1995
Why I like this song:
Back in 1995, when Oasis were huge, my sister brought the CD single of Wonderwall - a disc that had this song as a B-Side. And what do you know, i recall her playing this song more than the Wonderwall. And little did I know that we had come across something that many Oasis die-hards swear by: That their B-sides were great songs, often comparable, and even surpassing, the A-sides.
As for the song itself? It's such a rousing number that it is difficult to resist. And no matter how bad things can get it is a firm reminder that tomorrow is another day. Furthermore Noel says it's one of the best song's he's ever written so who am I to argue?
Song title: Want it all Back
Artist: Mai Yamane
Year: 1998
Why I like this song:
It's difficult to pick a song from the Cowboy Bebop soundtrack as one is spoilt for choice, with many great songs covering a variety of genres. But this one stands out for me as a fun number. Mai's angry performance is particularly humorous and its just the thing to chase down a corgi to.
Original video located here. Accessed 4th September 2015
Song title: The Reefer Song
Artist: Mindless Drug Hoover
Year: 1995
Why I like this song:
When I started listening to Triple J in the mid-nineties, it struck me about how much a lot of the songs had content that was worlds apart from commercial radio. Namely cussing and drugs.
And this stood out for me: It's cheerful, immediately catchy, is of a singalong nature and spins a rather amusing narrative. Kind of like an evil twin of something one would hear on Play School...
Original video located here. Accessed 24th August 2015
Song title: Temptation
Artist: New Order
Year: 1982
Why I like this song:
Recently I saw Peter Hook and the Light when they made an appearance in Hobart.
This was an unusual show in that it came in thirds. The first third was all dedicated to Joy Division songs (it should be noted that there was no support act). The second third was playing the New Order album Brotherhood in full. And the third third was playing the New Order album Low-Life in full.
And then there was an encore playing the hits: Thieves Like Us, True Faith, Temptation (above) and Love Will Tear Us Apart.
It was a great show as Peter took the lead vocals and had his son playing second bass. The rest of the band were no slouch although it should be noted that the other three had all played in Monaco. Even David Potts was there which made me wonder why they didn't go the whole hog and include What Do You Want From Me.
Still, it was a great show and I'm glad I went.
Original video located here. Accessed 17th February 2016
Song title: The Shamen
Artist: Majora
Year: 2015
Why I like this song:
Won't say no to an instrumental and this one delivers. Hits like a sledgehammer and I think I like it.
Original video located here. Accessed 15th August 2021
Song title: Natural One
Artist: Folk Implosion
Year: 1995
Why I like this song:
It's something of a lost gem. I don't recall this having any kind of popularity in the mid-nineties but it did stick with me for just being ominous: The bass line, the guitar riff, the freaky lyrics ('There's no telling what we'll do when we're free" and "The World is falling down so it may as well crash with me").
Funny thing, you have so many metal bands trying to sound evil and then you have this doing the same thing but through mood and more subtler methods. And is therefore more successful.
Original video located here. Accessed 14th July 2015
Song title: (He'll Never Be An) Ol' Man River
Artist: TISM
Year: 1995
Why I like this song:
Yesterday, I mentioned about how, at age 14, i was stepping out of the bubble and finding new music beyond it. And, as strange as it may sound, This Is Serious Mum is indeed emblematic of this forging of new frontiers.
For me, TISM had a lot of appeal to my developing mind: It was goofy. It was snarky. It had a lot of swearing. It had subjects that you could get away with in songs. It had a wicked social satire.
All of which are ingredients to seduce my sense of mischievousness
Original video located here. Accessed 9th August 2017
Song title: Apple Tree
Artist: Drop City
Year: 1995
Why I like this song:
This song is another in amongst the clutch of new songs i heard during that time in 1996 I decided to expand my musical horizons. As such, i will always associate this song with being fourteen and finding out there was world outside my comfort zone.
As for the song itself, it's very much an exercise in the psychedelic and with a winner of a guitar riff. In fact, i doubt if you could listen to this and not be won over.
Original video located here. Accessed 7th August 2015
Song title: Puppet Theatre
Artist: Claptone with Peter Bjorn and John
Year: 2015
Why I like this song:
Moody indeed. There's a great beat and some spooky vocals from Peter, Bjorn and John. And who says electronic/dance music is all bombast?
Original video located here. Accessed 18th August 2020
Song title: Tonari no Totoro
Artist: Azumi Inoue
Year: 1988
Why I like this song:
You know how last month I mentioned Grave of the Fireflies? Well lets talk about My Neighbour Totoro.
Not much I can say about this one: A delightful theme, maddingly catchy and it really sells it's parent anime.
Original video located here. Accessed 29th July 2015
Song title: Fallen Sun
Artist: Timberwolf
Year: 2015
Why I like this song:
Took me a while to come around on this one: At first it sounds like it's on the same template as Boy and Bear and the Middle East (this song actually shares a member of the latter as producer).
But this has some bite of it's own due to the ghostly mood - must be the vocal harmonies throughout
Original video located here. Accessed 17th July 2015
Song title: Big Me
Artist: Foo Fighters
Year: 1995
Why I like this song:
Is this the moment where the Foo Fighters' brand of guitar pop was at their purest?
Whatever: it still works today and is such a delight to listen to.
Certainly doesn't hurt that the video is hilarious.
Original video located here. Accessed 10th July 2015
Song title: Movin' Up
Artist: Dreamworld
Year: 1996
Why I like this song:
There was no shortage of dance music in the nineties. And certainly no shortage of the bombast that was Eurodance. But this stood out for me at the time due to it's energy and the performance of the singer Bella Morel.
Indeed, it could be argued this song has aged far better than it's contemporaries
Original video located here. Accessed 4th November 2015
Song title: Grave of the Fireflies Main Theme
Artist: Michio Mamiya
Year: 1988
Why I like this song:
Bring on the waterworks..
The movie is one of the most famous tearjerkers of all. And theme certinaly adds to it.
Just listen to it and draw you own conclusions.
Original video located here. Accessed 2nd July 2015
Song title: Carnival
Artist: Natalie Merchant
Year: 1995
Why I like this song:
This song always represented something of a white whale to me. It came out in 1995. I knew of it but I never actually heard it. And when I did so, circa 2009 (!) I came away impressed.
Of course, such a thing would be impossible now because a) the internet age has made things easier to find and b) the level of expectation. But somehow, against the odds, this song came out on top. It's the groove, it's the percussion, it's the guitar, it's the lyrics that convey a feeling of disappointment.
So yeah, cool song
Song title: Homeworld (The Ladder)
Artist: Yes
Year: 1999
Why I like this song:
R.I.P. Chris Squire
Yes I may only know this song through it being the end credits theme to the computer game Homeworld but it was my first exposure to Yes. And damn, did they go all out with this one
Original video located here. Accessed 26th June 2015
Song title: Dynamite
Artist: Asta with Allday
Year: 2015
Why I like this song:
Tasmania represent.
And damn, she's sure selling it.
Original video located here. Accessed 24th June 2015
Song title: Caroline
Artist: Concrete Blonde
Year: 1990
Why I like this song:
Lately I've been listening Concrete Blonde
My first experience with this band was watching the above video on rage sometime in 1990/early 1991. Since then, it seemed to me this band was hailed as alt-rock heroes - at least for a short time. Nevertheless, it seemed that the walls enclosing alternative music were starting to break...
Looking back, this music holds up pretty well, what with chiming guitars, gothic moods and the presence of Johnette Napolitano. If you told me that this was the bridge that connected the alternative rock of the eighties and the nineties then I would certainly believe it.
Original video located here. Accessed 12th June 2015
Song title: Come On
Artist: Christine Anu
Year: 1995
Why I like this song:
A favourite from my teen years. Because sometimes we all need a song to pick us up and get us through the tough times.
Original video located here. Accessed 3rd November 2017
Song title: Missing
Artist: Everything but the Girl
Year: 1994
Why I like this song:
The song that launched worldwide interest in Everything but the Girl after well over a decade of trying.
This was a huge hit with the dance clubs at the time but it certainly is a strange song to have done so given the heartbreaking nature of the lyrics.
At first glance the lyrics deal with someone dealing (unsuccessfully?) with someone who has disappeared from their lives. Upon closer examination however, that relationship is brought into the question. What was it like? Was it abusive as suggested in the second verse? Why did the other person leave? Where did they go? What was it about this mystery person that brought the narrator back to their old house? Indeed, it's the ambiguous nature, along with the lack of resolution, makes this song so compelling.
Original video located here. Accessed 3rd June 2015
Song title: Cloud Age Symphony
Artist: Shuntaro Okino
Year: 2002
Why I like this song:
A very strange opening for an anime, that being Last Exile, but it certainly sets the mood of travelling through the open sky....
Original video located here. Accessed 25th May 2015
Song title: Go
Artist: Chemical Brothers
Year: 2015
Why I like this song:
Despite being a lifelong fan of the Chemical Brothers, I have been cautious towards their more recent releases as they have come up short. Here, however, it seems Tom and Ed remembered what they do best: Thick bass line, huge beats, many electronic effects and help from Q-Tip. And Michel Gondry.
One gets the feeling Tome and Ed wanted to show this new breed of electronic/dance producers how it's done...
Original video located here. Accessed 4th May 2015
Song title: Stand By Me
Artist: Ben E. King
Year: 1961
Why I like this song:
R.I.P. Ben E King.
I recall hearing this song at a young age and it suck with me ever since. Which is indeed a testament to it's staying power.
One could put this down to the message of togetherness in facing adversity and Ben E King's conviction. But personally, the best part of the song is the instrumental portion in the middle of the song: the strings swell and yet the bass is still holding it's ground. That part has always stood out for me and conveys a message of tenacity through troubled times.
I don't know if that was the intention but that's what I got out of it.
Needless to say, this song has got me through some troubled times and will no doubt continue to do so in the future. And I can only wonder how many people have come up to King over the years and told him how much that song helped them when things were grim.
Original video located here. Accessed 4th May 2015
Song title: Ride on Shooting Star
Artist: The Pillows
Year: 2000
Why I like this song:
Having spent my teens listening to a lot of nineties alternative rock, this song comes across as a nature fit. And despite a language barrier, it rocks just fine to me
Original video located here. Accessed 4th May 2015
Song title: Do You Remember
Artist: Jarryd James
Year: 2015
Why I like this song:
Compelling in it's sense of doom
Original video located here. Accessed 27th April 2015
Song title: Heaven Sent
Artist: Best Coast
Year: 2015
Why I like this song:
As I'm limping further and further into my thirties, it becomes clear that my tastes of music have evolved to a point where what I knew is now looking obsolete, what is trending at the moment is looking alien and I need to step aside for someone younger. Such is the inevitability of aging.
But sometimes a song come along and says: "You're not done yet!" And that's what I get from this song. Yes it may be a resurrection of nineties guitar pop and yes it's aimed at a teenaged crowd but it still has enough punch to make anyone, no matter their age, sit up and take notice.
Yes my time may be disappearing over the horizon but there is still a chance to not go quietly.
And it is one worth seizing.
Original video located here. Accessed 12th August 2016
Song title: Idol Talk
Artist: Akino Arai
Year: 1994
Why I like this song:
Ah, Macross. One of my favourite anime IPs. Where fighter jets, giant robots and killer music are merged together to deliver the goods.
And to me, Macross Plus is the best of the lot.
So yeah before there was Hatsune Miku, there was Sharon Apple. And as Macross Plus was based around a virtual idol, it is expected that we have a plethora of pop songs. And this pretty much a pastiche of the pop songs of the time.
Clearly someone had been listening to their Madonna records...
Original video located here. Accessed 3rd April 2015
Song title: Lean On
Artist: Major Lazer and DJ Snake with MO
Year: 2015
Why I like this song:
I will admit that I am disillusioned with a lot of modern electronic dance music: Too much screeching and it all seems a race to see who can be the loudest. This however, is an exception.
It may have the bombast of modern dance music but it seems more seductive. Like it wants to get you onto the dance floor instead of shouting demands to you do so.
See? Subtly works.
Original video located here. Accessed 27th March 2015
Song title: Superhero
Artist: Faith No More
Year: 2015
Why I like this song:
Now this is how you do a comeback.
Comes charging out with both the metal roar and the lunacy that's expected of Faith No More. Its like they never left.
"Ain't no grave gonna hold this body down!"
Original video located here. Accessed 1st November 2021
Song title: Lonely in Gorgeous
Artist: Tommy February6
Year: 2005
Why I like this song:
Its the opening to the anime Paradise Kiss and, like a lot of anime opening, sets the mood from the word go.
Personally I find this song appealing in it's eccentric nature.
Original video located here. Accessed 25th February 2015
Song title: Young
Artist: Vallis Alps
Year: 2015
Why I like this song:
Disjointed beats and atmospheric synths make for a hypnotic listen.
Is this the Australian answer to London Grammar? Who cares: This is great.
Original video located here. Accessed 9th February 2015
Song title: What's the Frequency Kenneth?
Artist: R.E.M.
Year: 1994
Why I like this song:
When you need a new method to reach a younger audience....
They say revivals happen in chunks of twenty years. That being said I have spent the past few years digging up music from the early nineties and finding it much to my liking. I've discovered gems that I never knew existed (Sugar), I've come to see acts I knew of in a different light (Lemonheads, KLF, L7 and Wonderstuff) and I've come to enjoy acts I never thought I would (Aphex Twin). Indeed, it's great to go back and discover stuff that passed me by the first time around and seeing that it does indeed hold up two decades later.
However, this year is 2015: And going by the logic of the twenty-year revival thing, it was in the mid-nineties (1996 to be precise) that I started listening to Triple J and ended my music exile. What this means is that the unfamiliar is now starting to become familiar. The sense of exploration is now replaced with the sense of coming back to ground I once traversed.
In that sense, perhaps it is time I stopped being so disillusioned with modern pop/rock music and started living in the present....
Song title: Swordland
Artist: Yuki Kajiura
Year: 2013
Why I like this song:
Recently I've been watching the anime Sword Art Online.
I am well aware that a lot of people don't like this anime and I can understand their viewpoint. But I have enjoyed this anime a lot - and I will admit that Kirito and Asuna are a couple worth shipping.
What is of note is that this by Yuki Kajiura - the same composer who gave us .hack//SIGN - thus suggesting she does great for anime where people are trapped in a MMORPGur. And whilst she may be applying the same tricks here, they are ramped up to something more energetic and foreboding.
Its just the thing for doing a World of Warcraft dungeon. Or any RPG dungeon for that matter.
Original video located here. Accessed 5th January 2015
Song title: Sore ga ai deshou
Artist: Mikuni Shimokawa
Year: 2003
Why I like this song:
It's a very pretty love song that is completely ill-fitting for such a demented comedy that is Full Metal Panic Fumoffu
Original video located here. Accessed 5th January 2015
Song title: Where Boys Fear to Tread
Artist: Smashing Pumpkins
Year: 1995
Why I like this song:
Mellon Collie was a defining album of my teen years and, twenty years later, this still rocks hard