The All-Australian Playlist

It was nearly two years ago when I first mentioned my affection for Australian musicians. (By the way, "musician" is often shortened here to "muso"-- another wonderful example of the Aussie tendency to abbreviate words and stick on an "o" as the suffix). Since that first post, I've continued to broaden my education, and I realise that I am now playing Australian music on my iPod at least half the time. I even have an overplayed Aussie highlights playlist, made up of both old and new acts. Here's a sample of that list:

1. Missy Higgins, "Peachy"
2. The Waifs, "Lighthouse"
3. Faker, "This Heart Attack"
4. Silverchair, "Straight Lines"
5. Empire of the Sun, "Walking on a Dream"
6. Katie Noonan, "Blackbird"
7. The Veronicas, "Untouched"
8. Jessica Mauboy, "Been Waiting"
9. Dash and Will, "Out of Control"
10. Josh Pyke, "Make You Happy"
11. Hoodoo Gurus, "Come Anytime"
12. Kate Miller-Heidke, "Caught in the Crowd"
13. Sarah Blasko, "All I Want"
14. Angus and Julius Stone, "The Beast"

On Friday night we got to see Kate Miller-Heidke in concert at the Lyric Theatre in QPAC. I only very recently discovered this incredibly talented muso, who hails from Brisbane and went to school just a short distance from where we are living. Kate's music is best described as eclectic, but it's also thoroughly musical and full of comedy. Her voice is beautiful. Opening for her was Skinny Jean, another band from Brisbane (which has also produced Powderfinger, the Veronicas, Katie Noonan, and Savage Garden, among others), which V. and I quickly became enamoured with. As soon as the monthly cap on our bandwidth is lifted, I plan to buy Skinny Jean's album, as well as one from Hunz, who--you guessed it--are also from Brisbane.

Assuming that my American readers will not have heard most of this music, please check out the video for Miller-Heidke's, "Caught in the Crowd," which won the 2008 International Songwriting Competion, by the way:

Humpin' My Bluey

Will and I were listening to "The Great Australian Songbook" this morning while playing with his trains. This album includes such classics as "Waltzing Matilda," "Tie Me Kangaroo Down Sport," and "Red Back on the Toilet Seat." But I was pleasantly surprised when Track 11 came on--an Aussie version of "I've Been Everywhere." I knew it as an old song, and was most familiar with the Johnny Cash version that features in a Comfort Inn (I think) ad back in the U.S. It goes something like: "Reno, Chicago, Fargo, Minnesota, Buffalo, Toronto, Winslow, Sarasota, Wichita, Tulsa, Ottawa, Oklahoma, Tampa...I've been everywhere, man, I've been everywhere..."

Well, it turns out the Australian version is the original version, as it was written in 1959 by Geoff Mack in New South Wales. It was later rewritten for a North American audience and recorded by Hank Snow in 1962. I had heard it on Telstra television ads prior to today, but just assumed that they were adapting the 'American' version for Australia. How wrong I was! According to this Wikipedia entry, the Australian version starts:

"Well, I was humpin' my bluey on the dusty Oodnadatta Road..."

The place names listed are:

Verse 1

Tullamore, Seymour, Lismore, Mooloolaba, Nambour, Maroochydore,Kilmore, Murwillumbah, Birdsville, Emmaville, Wallaville, Cunnamulla,Condamine, Strathpine, Proserpine, Ulladulla, Darwin, Gin Gin,Deniliquin, Muckadilla, Wallumbilla, Boggabilla, Kumbarilla

Verse 2

Moree, Taree, Jerilderie, Bambaroo, Toowoomba, Gunnedah,Caringbah, Woolloomooloo, Dalveen, Tamborine, Engadine, Jindabyne,Lithgow, Casino, Brigalow, Narromine, Megalong, Wyong, Tuggeranong,Wanganella, Morella, Augathella, Brindabella

Verse 3

Wollongong, Geelong, Kurrajong, Mullumbimby, Mittagong, Molong,Grong Grong, Goondiwindi, Yarra Yarra, Boroondara, Wallangarra,Turramurra, Boggabri, Gundagai, Narrabri, Tibooburra, Gulgong,Adelong, Billabong, Cabramatta, Parramatta, Wangaratta, Coolangatta

Verse 4

Ettalong, Dandenong, Woodenbong, Ballarat, Canberra, Milperra,Unanderra, Captains Flat, Cloncurry, River Murray, Kurri Kurri,Girraween, Terrigal, Stockinbingal, Collaroy, Narrabeen, Bendigo, Dorrigo, Bangalow, Indooroopilly, Kirribilli, Yeerongpilly, Wollondilly

What a silly American I am to think that the Aussies stole something from Johnny Cash! As penance, my goal is to memorise this version. I'll let you know when I do.

Big Hit

When I first visited Australia in 1975 (I turned 12 during our stay), the biggest record in Oz when we left was "January" by Pilot. Lucky for me, I bought the 45 before we headed home, as this song never made it very big back in the States (although "Magic" was a big hit there). I have only heard it once or twice in the past 30 years. And then along came YouTube, and my discovery today of the very video I remember watching on Aussie TV all those years ago:

Naughty, Naughty

I'm sorry that I have been such a lame blogger lately. I've been trying to focus harder on my work, which means that I suddenly see my life as not very blog-worthy. I will try to jig the balance a bit. In the meantime, enjoy this video from a Brisbane band called Blame Ringo.  It was shot at the famous "zebra crossing" near Abbey Road Studios, where the Beatles posed for their album cover. I made a similar tourist stop (with a silly photo) years ago.

The Stranger

Today I gave a lecture on attachment and relationships in my Social Neuroscience course. I covered a few new studies of the brain areas that appear to be involved when people first fall in love. To point out the challenges inherent in scientific studies of love, I presented the lyrics to "Love as a Stranger" by the Eurythmics, which I have always thought captured the maddening complexities of love very nicely. Picture me standing in front of my class of 110 students while I played a few minutes of the song, revealing the lyrics one line at time:

Love is a stranger
In an open car
To tempt you in
And drive you far away

And I want you
And I want you
And I want you so
It's an obsession

Love is a danger
Of a different kind
To take you away
And leave you far behind

And love love love
Is a dangerous drug
You have to receive it
And you still can't
Get enough of the stuff

It's savage and it's cruel
And it shines like destruction
Comes in like the flood
And it seems like religion
It's noble and it's brutal
It distorts and deranges
And it wrenches you up
And you're left like a zombie

And I want you
And I want you
And I want you so
It's an obsession

It's guilt edged
Glamorous and sleek by design
You know it's jealous by nature
False and unkind
It's hard and restrained
And it's totally cool
It touches and it teases
As you stumble in the debris

And I want you
And I want you
And I want you so
It's an obsession

So, yes, I imposed my love of early '80s music on those poor students today. It was for their own good.

More Aussie Musical Brilliance

Check out this video for "Walking on a Dream," which we have been watching on "Rage" for the past two months. The duo, known as Empire of the Sun, released their first album on Oct. 4th and were featured in an article in The Weekend Australian. The shirtless guy will look familiar to those of you who know PNAU's "Baby."

My Electric Feel

Thanks to a recent Saturday morning viewing of "r a g e", I came across "Electric Feel" by MGMT. The trippy video I saw is available here on YouTube, but for some reason Sony BMG has decided to disable embedding. The video posted below is an older version, possibly made by a fan, but the music is the same.  Listening to it makes me start jumping around the office like a bonobo.



I think I like this one because I was called "Eric the Electric Banana Peel" when I was kid...

Anti Anti-Smoking

I heard a little of Joe Jackson's 1982 hit "Steppin' Out" tonight, followed that up by watching a YouTube broadcast of the original video, and finally ended up looking around Joe's website. "Steppin' Out" was on the "Night and Day" album, which my roommate in college used to play quite a bit, so I remember all those tracks very well. There was always something magical about this song in particular. It has a smooth dance rhythm underneath a series of slow chord changes, creating a hypnotic feeling as you listen to the lyrics. The video itself is a great fantasy about early '80s New York City life:


I remember that Jackson was upset about this video when it came out, and vowed to not make another because he thought such videos unnecessarily associate images with the song that the artist never intended.

Anyway, as I clicked away on his website, I came across a section in which Joe argues against all the "anti-smoking hysteria." On my recent trip to Croatia I was slightly annoyed by all the smoking that was going on during the dinners and coffee breaks, but some of the other people I was with really started moaning loudly about the smoke. It wasn't that long ago that I was frequently standing among smokers (or sitting with my relatives when I was a child) and not really noticing the smoke. I wondered how much my recent reaction was due to years of listening to all these anti-smoking campaigns. Don't get me wrong...I am not an advocate for smoking. But I did find Joe Jackson's pamphlet interesting. He thoughtfully reviews the evidence for the causes of secondhand smoke, as well as the direct and indirect effects of smoking on health. He concludes in a section titled "How to be Healthy:"

I think there are two different approaches to living a healthy life. One is to try very hard to avoid everything which current opinion holds to be bad for you, be guided by ‘experts’ and statistics, feel very guilty about any human imperfection, and generally believe that if you work hard enough, you can achieve invulnerability. This is very American. The other is to enjoy yourself, be reasonably moderate, be sceptical of the ‘experts,’ and let the chips fall where they may. This approach is more European - or used to be. These are broad stereotypes, but they’re both reasonable and most people are drawn more to one than the other. The problem comes when the first group starts to dictate to the second. Especially when there’s no real proof, that either approach works best.

I think I'll go have another Diet Coke and ponder the evidence.

Happiness

I am a bit burdened with all sorts of work-related responsibilities right now, including writing programs for my four honours students in a new language (Revolution).  While I'm programming, I find that listening to Groove Armada or Goldfrapp really helps.  Here's a new one from Goldfrapp for your viewing and listening pleasure.  I've been hooked on this one since seeing the video Saturday morning on "Rage:"

 

The Aussie Music Scene

Helen Reddy, The Bee Gees, Olivia Newton-John, The Little River Band, Air Supply, Men at Work, Split Enz (and later Crowded House), INXS, Midnight Oil—these are all great Aussie acts that I listened to in the ‘70s and ‘80s in America. And some of these people are still around. Peter Garrett, the lead singer of Midnight Oil, will likely be the new Environment Minister in Canberra next month. Colin Hay, front man for Men at Work (you remember, "Who Can it Be Now?" and "Down Under," don't you?), will be playing in Brisbane next week. Olivia seems to be on the cover of some woman's magazine every month. Crowded House reunited and toured Australia this year, and Nick Finn performed an acoustic show on TV recently. And although my current music listening habits largely feature the music of my youth, I consider myself fairly knowledgeable about current music (I love “Thout Shalt Always Kill” by dan le sac VS Scroobius Pip, for example).

Well, moving to Australia has reintroduced me to the greatness of the Australian music scene. Most of the top bands here reportedly have had modest success back in the States, but I hadn’t heard of most of them before July: Powderfinger, Silverchair, Missy Higgins, Sarah Blasko, The John Butler Trio, Rogue Traders (who have a lead singer who is too beautiful!), The Waifs, Sneaky Sound System, Ben Lee, and Damien Leith. Even a recent inductee to the ARIA Hall of Fame, Nick Cave, barely registered in my consciousness in the past decade, and that’s probably because I had heard him on previous trips to Oz. As I mentioned in an earlier post, my favourite show on the ABC is “Spicks and Specks,” which is an incredibly cool music trivia game. Their guest panelists are frequently Australian musicians from the past 30 years who are completely unknown to me. Next week, Australian Crawl's former singer, James Reyne, will be on. Who's that? And I certainly can’t answer most of the Australian music trivia questions, such as “What was the name of the second Hoodoo Gurus album?” It’s really quite amazing that, despite the globalisation of American music, there is still so much great original music coming out of this relatively small country. I'm looking forward to getting to know it better. I just wish I had more time to listen to Triple J...

A recent act from Brisbane, The Veronicas, are 23-year-old twins who now live in Los Angeles (as do many of the other acts listed above). Their new song, “Hook Me Up,” is so catchy that I had to feature it here:

Someone Else's Happy Ending

Last year, thanks to Adam Curry’s Daily Source Code podcast, I discovered the music of Mike Viola and the Candy Butchers. If you like great pop music, you really ought to give “Hang on Mike” a try. One song in particular gets played at least once a week on my iPod—”What to Do With Michael.” It’s an autobiographical song about Viola’s real-life romance with a woman he met in Paris after his first wife died of cancer. She was studying abroad and he was on tour, so they had to say goodbye until they met up again in New York, where they watched “The Spirit of St. Louis” in Bryant Park on their first date. They’ve been together ever since, as Viola sings:

Now my friend, they are inseparable
She even gets that boy to go to the gym
Now if you don’t think that’s love, you must by cynical
Or maybe man, you’re just dreaming in French, yeah

‘Cause she knows what to do with Michael
She knows how to make him feel
That he’s the one, he’s his mother’s son, not like anyone
He just needed time to heal
Well that’s right, he just needed time to heal

My affection for this song is partly due to my being able to relate to parts of their story, but I think it’s also one of the most romantic songs I have heard in a while. I wondered what happened to these two (the album came out in ‘04), and I was later pleased to see that Mike Viola posted an entry on his website about his life with his wife and daughter, Isabel, including the picture below. See, you love cynics, happy endings still happen all the time!Note: This is a modified verion of an entry I made at mog.com blog last June.