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Down Under Tunes
by Tom Southam | 27/11/09

Well, it’s the time of year when you start to think that riding your bike again is a good idea. Then you actually get on it, and after what seems like an eternity of discomfort and puffing and panting, you realise you are only twenty minutes down the road and not quite the athlete you were when you made your last inexplicably unsatisfying pedal strokes of the previous season.

This, they say, is the time of year when seasons are won and lost. The really motivated, determined, dedicated riders (who will all be pulling the pin on their seasons in early May), are out already smashing themselves into pieces. Those of us who have a long season planned are carefully guarding our motivational matches, saving them instead for lighting the big victory cigars a lot further down the track. With the idea of getting back on the bike but not overdoing it, I’ve put together a few tunes to make the off-season hours last as long as possible.

I Am… I Said – Neil Diamond
I wouldn’t normally choose Neil Diamond, always falling into the tacky category in my mind. But, almost implausibly, Neil Diamond was the high point of a wonderful evening spent in the company of some good friends from Bendigo. I say evening, it was about half an hour before the sun was about to show on a Sunday morning. After some serious revelry and on returning to a house to keep drinking when all the barmen in town were going to bed, Neil Diamond came onto the iPod. It was then I saw the effect the man could have on some folk. Seeing my mate, the future president of the Sandhurst Club, serenade his wife with the TV remote on what was their wedding anniversary night was both hilarious and brilliant.

I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight – Richard & Linda Thompson
Because sometimes you really have to get away from it all in exactly the style described here.

Head, First, Down – Whitley
Discovering Melbourne has been pretty much the highlight of my life of late. She is a truly wonderful city who can take you out all night and deliver you safely home on a tram at sunrise. I sadly missed this guy, a Melbourne local, playing down the road just after I arrived. As recommended by locals, November in Melbourne, it sounds a bit like this.

We’re Getting A Divorce, You Can Keep The Diner – The Gaslight Anthem
Ok John, so I did choose this one just because of the title, but I can do that right? Right?

A Birthday Present – The Veils
I’m off to see these guys, who have been an on/off curiousity of mine for a few years, in a week or so. I’ll be interested to see what happens, it’s been way too long since I last enjoyed live music.

I Wish It Was Over – Teddy Thompson
A team manager with a taste for alt. country gave me this as an engagement gift, amusingly enough. I like the humour in it.

Mr November – The National
I haven’t listened to these guys for a while, but they play them in the pub next door to my house all the time, thanks to a friend I gave the record to, giving it to another friend who works at the pub. So now I listen over the wall to my own music. I think that’s pretty cool, oh and this song has a cool story behind it, It’s all to do with a baseball player. Sort of.

Someday – Pete Yorn & Scarlet Johansson
I like the fact that this album (The Break Up) is supposed to be listened to as a whole, with one theme following all the way through. Lou Reed always used to try to put his albums together this way, and I think that in these iTunes dominated days, it’s kind of cool. This is the last track from the record and man, is he sounding heartbroken.

Everyone Around You – Mattafix
For some reason I always end up listening to this guy while I’m over in Australia. Some things just work better in certain places and this laid back Massive Attack-esque tune works perfectly just here.

What A Year – Alex Lloyd
I don’t think rock stars should either get fat, or even worse; go on celebrity Masterchef. I painfully discovered on my return to these shores that Alex Lloyd, who used to be one of my favourite Australian artists, has gone and done both. This though, is still a neat little tune.

See this playlist on Last.fm »

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