Iconic band Beasts Of Bourbon are a part of Australian folklore and have played at every major local festival, from Homebake to the Big Day Out.
Can / Vitamin C
Can always manage to be minimalist, and repetitious, hippy and punk, busy and spacious, simultaneously. As always, Damo Suzuki does a great cut snake impression. The bass and drums provide the hooks, leaving guitars and keyboards to provide atmosphere. It sounds absolutely contemporary but was recorded back in the mid-seventies. It sounds free-form, but is too catchy and irresistible to be so.
Robots In Disguise / DIY
A two-piece electro combo who hilariously have a go at all the indulged Gen Ys out there who think that just because they’ve done it, their ‘art’ needs to be seen by the world. If you don’t believe ‘em, just have a look at how many indie bands are out there with home made covers.
Ladytron / Bluegene
If we must kneel down at the altar of pop we need go no further than this. This typically contemporary take on ‘eighties’ futurism actually relies as much on late seventies and sixities futurism coupled with contemporary technology as the eighties, but is so damn loaded with hooks that we don’t mind if we don’t know whether we’re looking backward or forward.
Miles Davis / New York Girl
Like being immersed into a vat of filthy oozing jungle funk or being instantly transported to a bustling New York street corner. You can play this one along with road works going on outside and their noise just gets sucked up into the music. Best noise eliminator ever!
The Stooges / Raw Power
It starts with a burp and chugs right into one of the most powerful statements in rock history. Iggy free-forms the lyrics, as always, coming up with gem lines like “I get up early and I chase my feet”. Have a listen to the lyrics for this one: they’re absurd, and actually very positive, for a band that is always seen as being nihilistic. The Stooges were THE greatest rock band of all time!
Rolling Stones / Angie
For a few years, these private school boy upstart imperialist running dogs thought they could do anything. Sometimes, like on this song, it was apparent they could. The two Micks did this one sans Keith. Beautiful stings and droning guitars and some of the most evocative lyrics Jagger ever did.
Thelonious Monk / Crepuscule With Nellie/strong>
Crepuscule means twilight and this song was about Monk spending time with his missus when she was recuperating in hospital, I believe. The vibration effect of notes only a semitone apart being played together was exploited to full effect. Monk really plays in the cracks between the white and black notes. A beautiful piece of music.
The Fall / Totally Wired
I absolutely love the Fall and any track would be my fave, but this one actually influenced me a bit with its fractured sound. Post punk is a dodgy proposition but this gives it respectability – if indeed anything Mark E Smith did could be deemed respectable. This song has had a huge influence on my music.
The Ooga Boogas / Kiss Your Rocks Good Bye
I know bands like the Drones and Kill Devil Hills are going for an authentic Aussie sound, and do it brilliantly. But a whole other and equally Australian sound is to be found in the likes of Eddy Current Suppression Ring and these guys. This wig-out has the classic Eddie Cochrane riff misused and perverted for their own foul purposes, and whilst its one of the more serious tracks from their stunning debut, Romance And Adventure, it’s still kind of hilarious.
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