Australian music appreciation thread!

[Axver]

I have mildly positive memories of Powderfinger's hits on the radio, and one attempt to listen to an album that left so little an impression that I can't recall if I even finished it.

Bono today, if they supported U2, would call them the songwriters of a generation.

 

[kabigon]

Wish You Well by Bernard Fanning is the blandest song I can remember

 

[Kieran McConville]

Is that from his seminal debut solo record Tea and Sympathy (for the Devil)? I think the JJJs might have been pushing it moderately hard back when I still listened to them.

That's the thing with Powderfinger (at least after the late nineties); it's not so much that they were 100% horrible, it's just that they were so forgettable.

 

[dan_smee]

And yet one of their biggest songs was called “On My Mind”...

 

[kabigon]

Is that from his seminal debut solo record Tea and Sympathy (for the Devil)? I think the JJJs might have been pushing it moderately hard back when I still listened to them.

That's the thing with Powderfinger (at least after the late nineties); it's not so much that they were 100% horrible, it's just that they were so forgettable.

I trust you let the text line know what a hot track you thought it was.

 

[Axver]

And yet one of their biggest songs was called “On My Mind”...

There is no recollection of this on my mind.

They did My Happiness and, um... These Days... uh... nope.

 

[MadForIt]

Powderfinger has so many great hits
Better then Silverchair a.k.a. Nirvana wannabes

My Happiness
Sunsets
My kind of Scene
Bless my soul
These Days
Baby I’ve got you on my mind
Burn your name
Since you’ve been gone

Their albums were probably not great but their greatest hits is fantastic

INXS had a few good songs but never really got into them. U2 are just INXS copycats but did that sound better.

Men at Work. 2 hit wonders
Midnight Oil - only know beds are burning

DMA’s must already be in top 10 greatest Aussie bands of all time

 

[intedomine]

Powderfinger peaked around Double Allergic and the big album after that - they became too self-aware after that and MMM really overhyped their middle-of-the-road rockers. They break up was well due.

I've only ever actively listened to "The Years" compilation by INXS - it's stacked with some incredible singles, including songs I'd heard but never knew was them. Some genuine anthems in the catalogue.

Midnight Oil have a lot of treats when you delve deeper into their catalogue as well.

DMAs have a long way to go to be top 10 ?

A shout out, if I may, to Icehouse, my favourite Aussie artist. I absolutely adore Man of Colours and Icehouse (Flowers). And there are a whole heap of hits outside of those albums that are fabulous. I checked them live at The Palms at Crown (was the youngest folk there) and had a blast. Davies is a terrific frontman, and do they tour regularly! They are pretty much a nostalgia act now for drunken oldies, especially given the venues they tend to play, but their output is terrific.

 

[Kieran McConville]

I trust you let the text line know what a hot track you thought it was.

hey, the doctor? this is a long time listener. play more 'wish u well' (sic).

 

[Kieran McConville]

I always had the idea Davies was angling to be some sort of antipodean Bowie. Maybe not in practice, but you get that vibe a bit with late eighties/early nineties Icehouse.

 

[Kieran McConville]

Yeah, Powderfinger probably peaked artistically and in the public mind with that sort of mid-tempo stuff they locked onto around the time of the film Two Hands (think some songs off of that got pretty huge), and the single The Day You Come from a year or two earlier. After that they seemed to pretty much hew to a formula. Sensitive rockers. Polite. Not likely to change the temperature in the room.

And then solo Bernard Fanning was sort of that with the unruly rocking surgically extracted. Considering the then ubiquitous presence of acoustic pap like Angus & Julia Stone etc, it's a wonder he didn't get even bigger in solo capacity.

 

[Axver]

Midnight Oil - only know beds are burning

DMA’s must already be in top 10 greatest Aussie bands of all time

Fucking hell you plonker.

A shout out, if I may, to Icehouse, my favourite Aussie artist. I absolutely adore Man of Colours and Icehouse (Flowers). And there are a whole heap of hits outside of those albums that are fabulous. I checked them live at The Palms at Crown (was the youngest folk there) and had a blast. Davies is a terrific frontman, and do they tour regularly! They are pretty much a nostalgia act now for drunken oldies, especially given the venues they tend to play, but their output is terrific.

Great Southern Land is one of my favourite songs of all time, an absolutely perfect track that captures a very distinctive Australian vibe - not in the sense of contemporary culture, but the landscape itself.

But the rest of Primitive Man hasn't really grabbed me. Some of it is painfully eighties; Street Cafe sticks out to me despite that. So I haven't checked out any other albums.

 

[Kieran McConville]

If I thought Beds Are Burning was the only song Midnight Oil ever released, I'd probably wonder what the fuss was too.

 

[Axver]

How the hell you could only know Beds Are Burning and not Power and the Passion, Blue Sky Mine, Forgotten Years, The Dead Heart - sound of my childhood, right there.

 

[dan_smee]

DMAs? Top 10? Lol!!!

Bands not mentioned so far better than DMAs:

The Living End
Gyroscope
The Whitlams
Cold Chisel
The Devoted Few
Expatriate
Hunters & Collectors
Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds!!!
Tripod (yep - better band)
Savage Garden (yep - I said it)
Sherbet

Even fucking Eskimo Joe, Kisschasy and End of Fashion are better

Bands who are rated by some, but not as good:

Wolfmother

 

[Axver]

I will never forgive The Whitlams for No Aphrodisiac.

 

[dan_smee]

I will never forgive The Whitlams for No Aphrodisiac.

They can’t help if it was famous. Louis Burdett is a jam. And Torch the Moon is a very underrated album, and Undeniably... is class

Either way, better than DMAs

 

[Axver]

They could've helped it by not making a song so abominably shit in the first place.

I won't touch a second of their music as a consequence.

Still, more deserving of a place in Aussie music rankings than DMAs, who can't even punctuate their own name correctly.

 

[MadForIt]

Growing up in the Uk I wasn’t exposed to much Aussie music other than Kylie!

Only since I moved to NZ I’ve heard more Aussie music and I was 25 then so a lot of these bands were finished by then.

I might have heard of more Midnight Oil songs but can’t name them. Only one from Living End I know is white noise.

Most Kiwi band are rubbish. Haven’t gotten into any outside of Split Enz/CH

 

[dan_smee]

They could've helped it by not making a song so abominably shit in the first place.

I won't touch a second of their music as a consequence.

Eh. It’s is pretty inoffensive. That’s an extreme response. Tim Freedman is a great singer, pianist, usually a very good lyricist. His solo album was utter garbage though.

 

[Axver]

Most Kiwi band are rubbish. Haven’t gotten into any outside of Split Enz/CH

Delete your account.

 

[dan_smee]

Growing up in the Uk I wasn’t exposed to much Aussie music other than Kylie!



Only since I moved to NZ I’ve heard more Aussie music and I was 25 then so a lot of these bands were finished by then.



I might have heard of more Midnight Oil songs but can’t name them. Only one from Living End I know is white noise.



Most Kiwi band are rubbish. Haven’t gotten into any outside of Split Enz/CH

Listen to The Living End’s debut album. Great energy and musicianship. Place yourself in an angry late 90s Australia where John Howard has just won a second term, and the right and left are dividing further than ever over some fairly major issues like industrial relations. There’s anger, passion, frenetic pacing. It is one of the best snapshots of a moment in time I can think of.

Also - for kiwi bands - listen to The D4. Great old school rock and even some 70s punk vibes.

 

[cobl04]

God, the last few pages are why some people, including perhaps even myself at times, think all the music to come out of this country has been shithouse.

I was on my phone earlier, so I want to say that neither Powderfinger nor AC/DC are as awful as I said. Powderfinger is inoffensive pop/rock, and they do have a list of hits that are quite enjoyable, I'd only add The Metre to what's been said so far. AC/DC are AC/DC. Literally all of their songs are the same, but when you're in the right mood, they are a lot of fun.

And Crowded House are Australian. Formed in Melbourne with two-thirds of the founding members from Victoria.

Really?! I actually didn't know this. I guess we just always focus on Neil being a Kiwi.

Powderfinger has so many great hits
Better then Silverchair a.k.a. Nirvana wannabes

My Happiness
Sunsets
My kind of Scene
Bless my soul
These Days
Baby I’ve got you on my mind
Burn your name
Since you’ve been gone

Their albums were probably not great but their greatest hits is fantastic

INXS had a few good songs but never really got into them. U2 are just INXS copycats but did that sound better.

Men at Work. 2 hit wonders
Midnight Oil - only know beds are burning

DMA’s must already be in top 10 greatest Aussie bands of all time

This is a terrible fucking post my dude.

DMAs? Top 10? Lol!!!

Bands not mentioned so far better than DMAs:

The Living End
Gyroscope
The Whitlams
Cold Chisel
The Devoted Few
Expatriate
Hunters & Collectors
Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds!!!
Tripod (yep - better band)
Savage Garden (yep - I said it)
Sherbet

Even fucking Eskimo Joe, Kisschasy and End of Fashion are better

Bands who are rated by some, but not as good:

Wolfmother

Even this list is not that good!! Nick Cave yes. Cold Chisel are hugely underrated and disserved because of their bogan fanbase.

 

[Kieran McConville]

The Triffids - also better than DMAs.

Man, remember when Eskimo Joe (who I don't hate, but don't love either) stopped being a novelty indie band and became the new Powderfinger? Or maybe they were the proto-Tame-Impala. They were *massive* for about 14 months, then just disappeared. It's a poisoned chalice, I tell you.

Jimmy Barnes' later career colours a lot of how Cold Chisel are perceived too, I suspect. But they were really solid. I'm not even a big fan, but they were undeniably the producers of some great work.

 

[cobl04]

madforit literally sounds like the archetypal Triple M listener.

 

[Kieran McConville]

I didn't actually mind No Aphrodisiac in 1997. In fact I'd go further and say I really liked it. I wouldn't now, I don't think, but something about it at the time really connected with me (this was around the same time Jeff Buckley's posthumous 'Everybody Here Wants You' was all over the radio too). In fact, I bought and really disliked the album it came off, so that was the beginning and end of The Whitlams for me. But that single, yes.

 

[Kieran McConville]

I remember back when JJJ still wasn't too bad, the afternoon show guys for a few years had a running Triple M parody 'Coma FM'.

"Go on... stick your head in a com-aaaaaaaaa..."

 

[kabigon]

The Triffids - also better than DMAs.

Man, remember when Eskimo Joe (who I don't hate, but don't love either) stopped being a novelty indie band and became the new Powderfinger? Or maybe they were the proto-Tame-Impala. They were *massive* for about 14 months, then just disappeared. It's a poisoned chalice, I tell you.

Jimmy Barnes' later career colours a lot of how Cold Chisel are perceived too, I suspect. But they were really solid. I'm not even a big fan, but they were undeniably the producers of some great work.

Eskimo Joe are either Black Fingernails Red Wine or 'did Rage just mis-title who that band was?'

 

[Axver]

Really?! I actually didn't know this. I guess we just always focus on Neil being a Kiwi.

Nick Seymour is from Benalla and and Paul Hester was born in Melbourne, spent his teens in the Dandenongs. They originally formed as The Mullanes in Melbourne after Split Enz broke up; Neil and Paul wanted to keep playing together, met Nick, and also brought in Craig Hooper (from Dubbo). Hooper left just before they changed the name to Crowded House and recorded the debut; it's why Recurring Dream, the song, is not on the debut album, because Hooper gets a co-writing credit on it.

So, Split Enz are absolutely 100% a Kiwi band, the name change from "Split Ends" is a whopping big clue, but Crowded House are more a Melbourne band than many that we unquestioningly call Melbourne bands!

The Triffids - also better than DMAs.

To add to my comment on Great Southern Land earlier, the only other song for me that rivals it in capturing that distinctive feel of Australia as a continent and landscape, bottling it in sonic form, is Wide Open Road.

 

[kabigon]

Anything other than Down Under.