m~u~s~u~c

# Australiana

1. Really struggling to enjoy listening to music at the moment, but those I’m Talking songs and this keep popping into my head.

   Learning How To Swim seems to only be on the B-side of the seven inch version of Absolutely. There’s another live version that’s on a VHS, and that one’s been put on Youtube, but I like this one better, maybe just ‘cause of the singer’s voice being a bit rougher.

   Couldn’t find this to download, so this is my rip. The record player seems to be playing things a little bit slowly again, the disc’s a bit noisey, and some part of the chain is causing this to get a bit clipped, but better than nothin’.

2. Mostly I’m just surprised I hadn’t heard any of these before.

3. Not a Tatsu cover. But still has a kinda interesting vibe.

4. This is alright too.

5. Never heard this before, just come up in Youtube recs. Never heard of them before either, but recognise Kate Cebrano Ceberano.

   There’s a bunch of pointless remixes on that same Youtube channel.

6. Keep getting this (and this version) stuck in my head. People talking about coffee is the most boring thing to me, and I still like this.

7. Remembered this song last year, but I guess I didn’t post it here. Never seen this Hey Hey clip before. Features bird-style dancing

8. Always liked that Heaven song, but not much else. This is alright.

   Had to look up the lyric from the chorus, it’s:

   ‘Cause I’m absolutely
   Absolutely sure
   Of a great thing
   etc.

9. Thought I posted this one another time, but maybe it was amongst the stuff that went missing.

   Kinda find it annoying as much as I kinda like it.

11. This one’s so ubiquitous I don’t even know if I like it or not. I think I assumed it was American or something.

12. Oh, he’s from Dragon. They’re one of those bands where I couldn’t tell you one of their songs, but when I look them up I’ve heard of heaps of them.

    Sometimes I sing this to myself, because it’s important to remember not to go out in the pouring rain.

13. This too. I think this’s the same version that’s on the single, but we’ll see. It’s off a live album she released, hopefully the rest is as good as this.

    ---

    Update: Different version!

14. Come across this looking through cheap singles on Discogs. Dunno why he’s giving the finger at the start.

15. I thought I liked more of her songs, but mostly it’s just this one.

16. I guess these are now just songs that get stuck in my head sometimes. A bunch of her songs do :( Token Angels, The Day You Went Away, Woman’s Gotta Have It, but I don’t think it’s really worth posting them.

    Meant to look up how she ended up collaborating with Hiroshi Sato on Awakening, but I don’t like that album anyway (and turns out they just met in LA, some time before she moved to Australia).

17. I’ve decided to have a fave Cold Chisel song.

18. Guess I’ve already posted Take Me Back and Run To Paradise, so here’s something that’s not actually daggy.

19. Welcome to dagtown.

20. Anyway, the actual reason I logged in is to clear out some tabs of daggy Australiana I’ve had waiting for months.

    I’ve been trying to do some Summer compilations, but none of them are working right. I thought of these songs again: Lots of popular 80s Australian music reminds me of orange skies on Summer nights.

    I hate the name Mondo Rock so much. And I say this guy solo at a festival once and he was a massive wanker.

21. There was also a Nick Cave version of Cosmic Dancer playing when the documentary subject was close to passing away. Devastating, but such a great fit for a person who seemed to have such a full life of good and bad. It’s stuck with me all day.

    Picked this live version with Warren Ellis to share. I used to listen to The Bad Seeds and Dirty Three a lot when I was in my 20s. It’s nice to connect with something by them both again.

    Never gave T-Rex much time before, but what a lyric.

22. Was a good doco on SBS last night called The Cleaning Company, about a trauma cleaning business and its owner.

    There was a conversation with one of the regular clients and they mentioned they had a band and played a little bit of a song.

    Odd Bods? The Odd Bods? Oddbods Band?

23. Found this via a version of To Love Somebody with him, Marcia Hines, Brian Cadd, and Max Merritt. Had never heard of him before, but he’s got a great voice. This song doesn’t show it off so much, but you do get some of the rich Tom Jones kind of quality his voice can have. Still, a fun song.

24. Oh yeah, I remember this playing at a party last year and getting it stuck in my head too. Forgot it was by them too.

25. I don’t know how this got into my head, but I’ve been unable to get it out for a few days now. Got a real nighttime back of car energy.

    Ended up making a page on my wiki for song titles about boys.

    Been listening to lots of Australian stuff from the 80s and 90s for the last couple of months.

26. This was in the recs. when I was looking up the Same Old Scene video, put me in one of those 80s edgy night moods

27. Been listening to Wink a bit, which’s got this Kylie song stuck in my head (see: 愛が止まらない (Turn It Into Love) ~ Wink). I’ve grabbed a few Kylie albums now…

    The song was written by Stock Aitken Waterman, who I’m realising are behind a few other songs I like.

    ---

    As an aside, I want to get away from relying on Youtube, so I’m going to be uploading audio (and videos where warranted) directly.

28. 
    

    I’ve been listening to a bunch of new stuff, but have totally gotten out of the habit of posting things here. I guess that’s because I still haven’t caught-up with the posts I managed to backup from Tumblr, so it doesn’t feel like it’s entirely a functioning space yet.

    But anyway; I particularly wanted to make a note of some Australian rap stuff! Found a bunch of really rad drill when catching up on local grime. Seems like it’s real popular on Youtube at the moment, but I still wanted to document me finding it. So here’re a few videos jammed into one post :)

    Kinda hard to pick a fave by Onefour, but slightly confident in this one. They’ve all got real nice bouncy beats and great bars.

    
    

    I love this so much!

    Not actually his best bars, but—no spoilers!

    Also guy in the YT comments suggested this be the next Eurovision entry and that’s the best idea I’ve ever heard.

    
    

    Last two are both from western Sydney, so here’s something from Western Melbourne.

    
    

    Now something from West QLD.

    
    

    And back to Sydney for a song that’s hard not to keep on repeat. Only one he’s released so far.

31. Slowly getting through the process of moving this blog from my partial backups to here, and going through old posts is putting me on lots of familiar paths!

    But today I’ve found myself digging in a book looking for the names of people from the Little Bands scene to try help with a thing on Discogs, and remembering Louis Tillett and Wet Taxis. Back when I first read that book there was no Youtube, and it wasn’t always easy to find whatever CD or record you wanted (though there was starting to be some renewed interest in that kinda era of Australian music) so I was never able to hear much, even though he sounded interesting, and you’d see things on Rage sometimes.

    Anyway, I’ll post some of that in a sec, but this popped in on my searches, so here’s a sun-tinged fuzzy MBV kinda thing from a band I’d sometimes see on Rage, but never got a record of. This kinda sunny, poppy, miserableness is something… I guess I can enjoy with a little nostalgia still :)

32. Primitive Calculators hosted Rage last night, and it was a pretty odd mix of songs. I don’t know if I’ve heard Midnight Man before, but it’s sleazey, worrying, quiet and sexy.

    Flash and the Pan was a musical project by the great Australian songwriting team Harry Vanda and George Young (of the Easybeats).

33. They didn’t do much else as good as this cover of (the Thane Russal version of) Security. Like too many Australian bands of this era they have a few really nice songs and a lot of pish and half ruined tracks. Shape I’m In, and All I Wanna Do are good though.

34. Oh no. This is turning into Ultimate Aussie Beer Mate Songs Volume 4. I need a palette cleanser.

35. What the fuck am I doing?

36. This reminds me of working in factories.

37. Wow. This is some garbage.

38. This song reminds me of netball.

39. This was where I was going before I took that dull interview + Underground Lovers detour.

40. Church Guy mentioned them in some hokey interview, and I kinda like this disco/ish song.

    Oh, they have a song called Rushall Station. Rushall Station certainly deserves a song. Probably a better one, though.

41. Oh right. They did this one, and that chocolate bar one.

    They kind of seem like Boys Next Door + Pub Rock + Modern Lovers, or something.

42. I think I always assumed The Church was some kind of half-arsed goth band, and never paid much attention. Even their familiar songs aren’t associated with them in my head—until now.

    I knew the Augie March cover of this, but didn’t think much of it. I think much more of this version (and not much of Augie March anymore, for no related reason).

43. I’m not adverse to cutesy Oceanic schlager, but not so keen on most of the Mentals contributions. This is okay though, though I was expecting a bit more from the actual jingle. Could be a nice cover if that part was replaced.

45. I’ve always liked this one.

46. I guess I’ve never listened to this properly. Didn’t realise it is about drinking, and not nipples or Asian people (phew).

47. More tragic than I remember. I think Mental as Anything are one of those bands I’ve heard on the radio a bunch, but never really listened to.