PLAYING
FAVOURITES VOLUME # 1 – Various Artists (Illustrious
Artists)Let’s face it - drummers have the box seat at live gigs. In most bands’ cases, they have the only seat (unless they’re a lounge act or one of those sensitive singer-songwriter set ups where the players
straddle
stools and croon like hippies). Provided the foldback is good, drummers get
to hear and see everything up close and personal, so it follows that they should
be adept at spotting talent on their nights off when they’re mixing it
with the punters in the crowd. Cue Russell Hopkinson, Illustrious Artists mogul and timekeeper for You Am I and a plethora of bands before them. He be the compiler of this handy set. Illustrious Artists is a small but growing Aussie label dedicated to bands that Rusty personally likes (naturally enough). Having been on the receiving end of the odd year’s end swap CD-R from Russell, I can vouch that his tastes range well past the straight-up punk of his earlier musical days in Vicious Circle or the downbeat country-tinged rock of his best known antecedent, Citadel Records act The Bamboos. This is indeed Rusty's mix tape. There’s no South American psych here but “Playing Favourites” manages to touch almost every other base, with a leaning towards guitars, be they heavy and hard or de-tuned.
It's a mighty mix of the obscure and the unusual, as well as the better known. Speaking of the latter, Rusty rates the day The Dirtbombs’ contribution arrived in his snail mailbox as one of his personal highlights of 2003. Fair call. Art Punk is a fair summation of “Walk on Jagged Air”, a fair way removed from this killer band’s usual garage-soul fare but worth waiting for. Mick Collins and Co can do no wrong.
On this evidence, neither can City Lights with “Curse on Everyone (Hey Hey Hey)" apparently the lead track on the Sydney band’s forthcoming debut album and it’s a great charge of boisterous guitar pop.
I'd boxed The Pictures, the Melbourne band led by Rusty's You Am I bandmate Davey Lane, as something of a mod/beat outfit. "Heavy Daze" recalls a Lobby Loyde state of mind - very heavy and very '70s. Great stuff.
If you're looking for slickness, go elsewhere. You're probably not so you'll undoubtedly concur that there's a rough but righteous feel to "The Sad Spring Circus", the home-recorded cut by Swedish band Flight 69. "Jesus Caught The 5.19" has a touch of the Reverend Beat Man about it. The band playing it, The Holy Soul, hails form the northern Sydney suburb of Hornsby (a place more nondescript than my own 'burb). As the Americans say: Go figure.
