It's All Coming Back To Me Now - Brisbane. Then.

Powderfinger: What the hell are they looking at?

Brisbane. Then.

by Matt Bond

Over the last two weeks, we counted down the twenty bestest music makers you can find in Brisbane today, from grungey surf-rockers Go Violets to the astronomic pop of Astrid and The Asteroids, the iconic Bernard Fanning and a whole lot more. There is of course quite a storied history to Brisbane's music scene and I'm totally not going to go into it. Do some research of your own! So I'm not going to go in depth because there's this guy called Bob over at That Striped Sunlight Sound that can teach you a thing or two. I will take this Vintage Thursday opportunity (Jo's on vacay recovery week... it's a thing now) to look at some of the Sunshine State capital's music acts from years gone by I've enjoyed. You've probably enjoyed them too. Let's enjoy them together. Enjoy! 

Custard

One of Brisbane's most loved 90s bands, Custard would be best known for the Hottest 100 hit/educational number 'Girls Like That (Don't Go For Guys Like Us).' Loved around the country for their live shows, light-hearted music and award winning music videos, the band spent a decade entertaining Australian fans before calling it quits. They've played sporadically since 2009 but haven't ruled out making new music. In all honesty though, if Custard taught me anything, it's that the Julio Iglesias just ain't scientific. It's the honesty in the lyrics that really speaks to you. 

Savage Garden

Don't act like you didn't like them too. No one could resist the 'chic a cherry cola' charms of 'I Want You' and you know all the words to 'Truly Madly Deeply.' Yeah, you do. Personally, I was more partial to the pop-rock goodness of 'Break Me Shake Me' and 'To the Moon and Back.' Like you, I hated the song 'Affirmation' and questioned who was buying it and why radio played it a thousand times a day. Possibly the best thing about Savage Garden was their break-up, which saw the non-Darren Hayes one find out via the media. When asked about the duo ever getting back together, Hayes supposedly said, "we are never ever getting back together. Like ever." In all seriousness he actually said, "No, never. I once said I'd only do it if it cured cancer, and that's still how I feel." Savage Garden have reportedly signed on for season 2 of the UK television show, The Big Reunion. Music groups on the show gear up for a comeback show. If this is true, one can assume Savage Garden are about to reveal one of the greatest medical breakthroughs of all time. 

The Go-Betweens

Brisbane loves The Go-Betweens so much, we named a bridge after them! It wasn't until the release of 2005 album Oceans Apart and the track 'Finding You' that 18 year old me heard the band and I quickly became a big fan of the Robert Forster/Grant McLennan team. APRA put together a list of the 30 greatest Australian songs of all time in 2001, with The Go-Betweens' 1983 track 'Cattle and Cane' making the list. 

Powderfinger

Well, duh. Throughout the 90s and 2000s, Powderfinger became arguably Australia's most loved band, with Silverchair being their major rivals for that title. They topped Hottest 100's, won a bucket load of ARIA awards, toured relentlessly and even had a song played on Grey's Anatomy as a dude is executed in a prison. That last one is a personal highlight. The albums Internationalist, Odyssey Number Five and Vulture Street are some of the best to ever be released by an Australian music group. One hopes that if any Brisbane band is ever going to get back together, it's going to be these guys. 

The Veronicas

Oh, The Veronicas. I've yelled at one of you a couple of times in the Valley. I believe I even sang/shouted the lyrics to '4Ever' at you outside The Family, but you just sort of picked up your walking pace. Then I think I saw one of you in front of me in line at the 7-11, but I couldn't really tell and you just bought your stuff and ran out. Those were good times. In other news, I am not stalking either Jess or Lisa from The Veronicas. Now, why have I thrown them in the vintage pile? Because we're just going to pretend they only ever released two albums. Because if that 'Lolita' song is anything to go by, their next album is going to suck and blow. Perhaps they're reworking the entire thing, because how long ago did that 'Lolita' song come out anyway?    

10 and 1 - Australian Albums You Should Hear Before You Die

Murder Ballads. Odyssey Number Five. Frogstomp. Kick. Back In Black. Whispering Jack. Fever. Apocalypso. Eternal Nightcap. Hourly, Daily. The Sound of White. Unit. Walking On A Dream. East. Down The Way. Savage Garden. Barricades and Brickwalls. Gossip. Since I Left You. Innerspeaker.


When you're talking about the greatest Australian albums of all time, you're guaranteed to bring up some of the celebrated titles above. INXS and Kylie's true US breakthroughs, Silverchair's riotous debut, Nick Cave's tales of love and death. They are truly defining works in Australia's music history and albums that you really should make an effort to hear, as the book I've started re-reading suggests, before you die. Don't stress out too much if you miss out on Hourly, Daily. You'll find a way to get over it in heaven. Or... you'll go to hell and they'll be playing it over and over and over and over again. And again and again and again. Yikes.


Like most 'greatest of all time' lists, you're always going to find a lot of the same albums discussed. With good reason too, they're generally amazing. What this means is that some other incredible pieces of work find themselves without the recognition they deserve, so today, I'll be presenting to you ten album I recommend you give a try before you cark it that only occasionally pop up nowadays (even though the majority are quite new). In 'Straya, cark it mean you dead. There were no typos in that last sentence. Read it as written please and thank you. As is the 10 and 1 rule, I'll leave you with one Aussie album you don't need to listen to in this life or the next or eternal whatever fairytale you believe. Here's some great Aussie music. Enjoy!

THE 10:

From Here To Anywhere

by Sneaky Sound System (2011)

 

"I won't forget the time, when you told me, we could be something, the memory is mine." From the anthemic 'Big' to the hopelessness of 'I Need You So,' the playful 'We Love' and desperate 'Really Want To See You Again;' Sneaky Sound System's latest album, From Here To Anywhere, goes a long way in supporting the theory that Australia is home to the greatest electronic-pop in the world. 

Howling Bells

by Howling Bells (2006)

It's easy to feel that the Howling Bells are underappreciated when you see an act of their caliber performing in Brisbane's Alhambra Lounge. No disrespect to Alhambra, it's a good venue for emerging acts. It teaches them to deal with an unpredictable crowd; half are music fans that came to see the show, half are drunk wankers that have stumbled in off the street thinking it's The Family. For an established act like the Howling Bells that have three critically acclaimed albums to their name? They should at least be at The Zoo, competing with that jerk of a drummer that's busking on the other side of the street. I love you Brisbane and I love the Howling Bells. Let 'Low Happening' take you over before 'A Ballad For The Bleeding Hearts' sends shivers right through your body. 

Farewell Youth

by Matt Walters (2011)

The one-two punch of 'St. Peter's Gate' and 'I Would Die For You' alone makes Farewell Youth an unforgettable listening experience, but there's a lot more to love. Walters has a wonderful way with words that you'll find yourself falling for. The album may close with the cute (and probably pretty gross if you think about it too much) track 'The First Time,' but it'll stay with you for a long time after.

10 and 1 - The Great Australian Songbook?

I did something I don't usually do last week. I walked into the ABC Shop. Now, for those readers who aren't Australian, the ABC Shop isn't a place to buy giant alphabet letters and it isn't the home of television's Grey's Anatomy (the American Brodcasting Company). Nay, it's a place to buy products associated with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. You can find Triple J Hottest 100 CD's, books to bore and a whole bunch of junk not suited to my tastes - like the book on 'Best Australian Floods' I was asked to purchase. While hunting down a book that must be a riveting look at how lots of water can make life suck for people, I stumbled upon The Great Australian Songbook. A mild groan followed by a laugh led to the creation of a game in my mind. Before I could look at the track listing, I had to guess as many of the artists (and songs) as I could that would be deemed 'great' by some random attempting to satisfy every Australian's music tastes. John Farnham ('You're The Voice'), Cold Chisel ('Khe Sanh'), INXS ('Never Tear Us Apart'), AC/DC ('Back In Black'), Kylie Minogue ('Can't Get You Out Of My Head'), Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds ('The Ship Song), Powderfinger ('My Happiness'), Silverchair ('Tomorrow') and The Whitlams ('No Aphrodisiac') were decided upon (in my mind - this is a game against myself... don't act like you don't play games with yourself). It's sort of a 'no-duh' selection of Australian artists and their defining tracks you'd expect to make a list like this. With the exception of AC/DC and The Whitlams, each artist made the list. 'Need You Tonight' made the cut over 'Never Tear Us Apart.' Acceptable. 'Tomorrow' lost to 'Straight Lines.' Not acceptable. The full list, released in November of 2011 includes;

The Easybeats!

CD 1 - LAST CENTURY
1. Rolf Harris - Tie Me Kangaroo Down Sport
2. Midnight Oil - Beds Are Burning
3. Cold Chisel - Khe Sanh
4. INXS - Need You Tonight
5. Men At Work - Down Under
6. The Church - Under The Milky Way
7. Mondo Rock - Come Said The Boy
8. John Farnham - You're The Voice
9. Daddy Cool - Eagle Rock
10. The Easybeats - Friday On My Mind
11. Skyhooks - Living In The 70s
12. Paul Kelly - Dumb Things
13. GANGgajang - Sound Of Then (This Is Australia)
14. Little River Band - Cool Change
15. Olivia Newton-John - I Honestly Love You
16. Australian Crawl - Reckless
17. Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds ft. Kylie Minogue - Where The Wild Roses Grow
18. Icehouse - Great Southern Land
19. You Am I - Heavy Heart
20. Hunters and Collectors - Throw Your Arms Around Me

Kylie!

CD 2 - THIS CENTURY
1. Jet - Are You Gonna Be My Girl?
2. Powderfinger - My Happiness
3. Silverchair - Straight Lines
4. Eskimo Joe - Black Fingernails, Red Wine
5. The Veronicas - 4Ever
6. Kylie Minogue - Can't Get You Out Of My Head
7. Empire Of The Sun - Walking On A Dream
8. The Temper Trap - Sweet Disposition
9. Gotye ft. Kimbra - Someboday That I Used To Know
10. John Butler Trio - Zebra
11. Delta Goodrem - Born To Try
12. Pete Murray - So Beautiful
13. The Middle East - Blood
14. Missy Higgins - Where I Stood
15. Angus and Julia Stone - Big Jet Plane
16. Sarah Blasko - All I Want
17. Alex Lloyd - Amazing
18. Gurrumul - Djarimirri
19. The Living End - Wake Up
20. Wolfmother - Woman


Right, so the biggest challenge for the selectors must have been choosing twenty tracks for this century. Apart from the glaring omissions of AC/DC, The Bee Gees and Crowded House from 'Last Century,' you can't argue too much with the artists and tracks that make up the list. Although I'm not quite sure what a GANGgajang is, but it sounds like it's a lot of fun and slightly illegal. Just kidding, I know their song and I hate it. Yothu Yindi would have been a better choice. Heck, even Tina Arena would have been a better choice. And where is Darryl Braithwaite's 'The Horses' at? Again, I'm joking, but in all seriousness I'm not. Or am I?


What of this century? Yeah... where to begin. I applaud the selection of Missy Higgins' 'Where I Stood' over 'Scar.' Sarah Blasko making the list at all is another feel good moment. For me. The Veronicas' '4 Ever?' As part of the 'great' Australian songbook? 'Black Fingernails, Red Wine?' Yeah. No. I guess I just need some clarification on what makes you worthy of being included in the 'great' Australian songbook. Do you just have to perform a song that either does well on the Hottest 100 or make it big on the charts at home and overseas? Or does the song actually have to be great. Because if so... buh-bye 'Born To Try.' It's impossible to make a list like this that's going to satisfy everyone's tastes. It certainly didn't satisfy mine, but I love Killing Heidi so nobody's saying I'm invincible. I'm sure every Australian has their own Great Australian Songbook that they turn to when they need a little reminder of home. Here's ten songs I'd put in my Great Australian Songbook that didn't make the list above. Songs that would fare well in terms of songwriting if they were to be placed in a songbook. You know? At the very least, they're way better than John Butler Trio's 'Zebra.' Man... that song is gashtacular. As is the rule with the 10 and 1, I'll leave you with one song that should never be considered great and it may or may not even be Australian. No it's not 'Zebra.' I haven't picked it yet, so I'll decide while you look at the songs below. Enjoy!

THE TEN:

Breathe Me

by Sia  

- This Century

No Aprodisiac

by The Whitlams

- Last Century

 

London Still

by The Waifs

- This Century