Friday, 22nd of November, 2002

Graham has responded to Pitchfork’s Top 100 Albums of the 1980s (conspicuously lacking in anything Australian) by proposing a list of Top Australian/NZ Music in the Eighties. Hurrah, so I have jumped on the bandwagon and made some comments on my preferences. I’ve copied them below, and added links and other nice stuff.

I’m doing this on spec, so give me some slack…
I vote for:
Not Drowning, Waving - Claim and Cold and the Crackle.
I can’t choose between these two. A little cheating though; the truly excellent version of Cold and the Crackle came out in 1991 when all their back-catalogue was re-released on CD. The 1987 LP is still fantastic though, and the CD release adds tracks from ’80s EPs anyway. Claim, when re-released, just added a (great) remix of Palau, so it has more of a “claim” to be an ’80s record.

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Tender Prey
His strongest album, IMHO, but From Her To Eternity and Your Funeral My Trial are well up there…

Midnight Oil- Toss-up for me between 10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1 or Red Sails in the Sunset. Both great experimental albums with a lot of strong songs and great sounds.

Severed Heads - City Slab Horror
It’s earlyish but not too early, and has the great “We Have Come To Bless This House”, as well as song titles like “Spasm”, “Spitoon Thud” and “The Bladders of a Thousand Bedoin”. Who could ask for more? [Well there's also of course sample-mangling and big drum machines that fitted fairly well into the genre they called "industrial", but was so far ahead of its time it's still got bite].

The Triffids - Born Sandy Devotional
Yeah whatever to “Wide Open Road”, it’s also got “Tender Is The Night (The Long Fidelity)” which is just gorgeous and heartbreaking. There are plenty of other Triffids albums that would fit the bill too…

Hunters and Collectors - The Jaws of Life
Graham will thank me for including this, and it is their best - experimental, krautrock-esque, with catchy and beautiful songs, and huge amounts of energy. But the self-titled first album is brilliant too (”Skin Of Our Teeth” being indispensible, and let’s not forget “Talking to a Stranger”…!)

The Hummingbirds - loveBUZZ
Yep it’s from the ’80s! 1989 indeed. I couldn’t include my fave (one of) Aussie band The Clouds, as their first EP was 1990, but here’s to the Hummingbirds. I think Va Va Voom (from 1991) is better, as are the later EPs. Some good stuff here.

I’ll bow to gjw’s nominations (see the RAN page) for Birthday Party and the Church. I like both bands, but don’t know them that well. Interestingly, despite my huge love of this stuff (and this applies to Graham too), I finished school in 1991 (just in time to go to the first Big Day Out), and accordingly am far more familiar and fanboyish with ’90s Australian music. Although by the mid-’90s I was thoroughly pissed-off with Triple J pap and was starting to withdraw into the electronica and indie/post-rock scenes… Call me a late-’80s/early-’90s boy.
Also… I’m very lucky to have an uncle (my Dad’s half-sister Kati’s husband Shaun if you must know) who’s ten years older than me (I’m 29 in January) and had this wonderful collection of (vinyl) records which one day he just GAVE to me. Decided he was going to listen to only CDs from then on, and that was it! Old Birthday Party, Nick Cave, Triffids, Laughing Clowns (must listen again!), Foetus(!), and so much more… What awesome taste, what a lucky boy I was. I don’t listen to that stuff nearly enough, but I have obtained a great sense of history therefrom.

By the way, my favourite New Zealand song ever is “Not Given Lightly” by Chris Knox (also of the Tall Dwarfs). And it’s from 1990! Damn damn damn.

I didn’t include, but should have:
Crowded House - Crowded House
I don’t care what anyone else says, it’s their best album by far. When they still had that edge from the Enz.
and thus, while we’re at it:
Split Enz - Too many by far. Whoever tells you you only need their greatest hits is A DAMNED FOOL.
Conflicting Emotions has about half an album’s worth of brilliance, and the rest is pretty good. “Message to My Girl” is a classic. Then, See Ya ‘Round, their sadly neglected post-Tim last album is awesome too! “Breakin’ My Back”, “I Walk Away”, “One Mouth Is Fed”; the whole first side is nascent Crowded House goodness; and the second side has the amazing instrumental “The Lost Cat”, and various other bizarre offerings (the car-starter-motor as beat in “Kia Kaha” is pretty cool for 1984).
I think, though, that Time and Tide gets my top vote, with classic hits like “Dirty Creature” and “Six Months in a Leaky Boat” (complete, here, with Eddie Rayner’s introductory instrumental “Pioneer”, the last chords of which can be heard at the start of other releases of “Six Months”) and heaps of other quirky and brilliant numbers (Neil’s “Take A Walk” in particular).

I’m sure I haven’t covered it all, even if this is just Australian ’80s music! Pitchfork’s aforementioned list, though hugely controversial, has a lot of Great Shit on it too, no doubt. What fun that was! I’ll update if I think of anything else essential.

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