Well if you haven’t voted … YOU MISSED OUT! Voting ended. But if you were one of the organised, got in early and voted I would love to read your Top 10 list. So as they say in millions of primary school playgrounds ‘I’ll show you mine, if you show me yours’ … here is my list.

My criteria was simple. The bands that mean the most to me, songs that give that “shiver” you should feel when getting kissed by the one you love and the songs that introduced me to the bands that have – saved me, provided the songs to my life and have inspired me to do everything I’ve ever done. Yeah, I made it easy for myself huh?

The Smashing Pumpkins – Mayonaise
Will all the songs from this band to choose, my heart won out. There were votes made for more popular singles through Ozphoria … but I had to vote for this song. This is everything I love about the Smashing Pumpkins, if you EVER need to know why I love this band … listen to this song. The lyrics, the warmth of the guitar, the beauty and anger in Billy’s voice – it is everything about being a teenager discovering music for me.

fool enough to almost be it and cool enough to not quite see it
and old enough to always feel this always old, i’ll always feel this

Oh and yes, the song is meant to be misspelt … all you grammar kings and queens.

Foo Fighters – Everlong
This was a tough choice. I don’t listen to the Foo Fighters that much anymore but I couldn’t look over this song. I’ve often described it as the perfect ‘rock/pop’ song. It just captures your ears with that perfect tempo and lyrical mix. This song just builds perfectly, before climaxing at the right time … yeah I guess this song could be described as like having great sex. 4 mins of great sex.

Pulp – Common People
My introduction to the Brit Pop scene, I remember  falling in love with the lyrics and that sigh Jarvis does. Being amazed this guy could sing and simply tell a story in a song, word for word … it was like a conversation. Since then it has turned into a song I simply adore … and love to dance to. <3 Pulp.

You Am I – If  We Can’t Get it Together
If I had to say in one word why I love this song, it would be because the lyrics. Tim Rogers out did him self with the words in this song, they are so simple yet so powerful. It sums up being in a relationship and just thinking – if we can’t do it now, we’ll never do it. We’ve all been there and this captures it.

To get up the bond for an Inner-West flat - He’d work for anyone if he wasn’t working for Her dad
She’s practicing sayin’ “I’ll do as I will” - ’Cause she don’t know how to tell him that she’s goin’ off the pill
The curtain’s up ’till seven and He’ll talk about her ass - But she clings to his photo like a piece of broken glass
If we can’t get it together today - She looks for his heart while he stares the other way

The Smiths – There is A Light That Never Goes Out
Morrissey you magnificent bastard! This song symbolises everything about being young and wanting to escape your parents house to be with your friends or partner. “Take me anywhere, I don’t care, I don’t care, I don’t care”. Any time I hear this song it takes me back to 2002, driving around with this girl I just met of the internet (that girl I ended up marrying). This will ALWAYS be close to my heart.

The Beatles – Oh! Darling
I had to include a Beatles song – right? It was hard to choose 1 out of the 100′s … but Oh! Darling made it. I just have always loved the powerful performance of this song, it really captures what I love about the entire Abbey Road record. Like I said, this spot could have gone to Don’t Let Me Down, Two of Us, Helter Skelter, Julia, A Day in the Life … shit I could keep going.

The Flaming Lips – Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots Pt.1
I knew these guys as that one hit wonder ‘She Don’t Use Jelly’ band. That was it. Then when Yoshimi started to get played on Triple J my ears pricked up … and they fell in love. This song, this album opened me up to so many new sounds and new bands. It is hard to describe, but I owe this song a lot. At the time I had just met Bree, so while I was falling in love I was also falling in love with new music. I was tempted to vote for Pt.2 also … just got the fun of it.

Joy Division – Love Will Tear Us Apart
The story behind this song always captured my attention when I was younger. I always felt sadden by the news that Ian never knew the success of this song, never knew how many people it would inspire. It is one of those songs that I could just listen to, again, an again … without ever being sick of it. I have many memories dancing to this at Amplifier back in 2000-2003 … you know, before the place went to shit.

The Cure – Lovesong
This was for me, the first of many “our” songs I had with my wife. When I would hear it, I would think of her instantly. The lyrics are simple romantic words, combined with a fantastic bass line that just forces you to dance to. Much like the Beatles it was hard to choose one single The Cure song, but due to the personal connection – Lovesong won, mainly due to the album it is from too.

Manic Street Preachers – If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next
Writing this list, with my reasons Im realising that lyrical content seems to play an important part in what songs I picked. I can definitely say that is one of the main reasons I first got into the Manics through this song and is still one of the main reasons I love the band. Their ability to combine complex, powerful lyrics with beautiful / raw music. With opening lines like this, how could you not love this song.

The future teaches you to be alone – The present to be afraid and cold
So if I can shoot rabbits – Then I can shoot fascists

The songs that *just* didn’t make it.

There were a few songs that just didn’t make it into the list, they were in, they were out … they all got shook about. For whatever reason I needed to picked 10, this was the 10. These were some that missed out:

Ash – Kung Fu, Smashing Pumpkins – 1979, Smashing Pumpkins – Bullet With Butterfly Wings, Smashing Pumpkins – Thirty-Three,  Smashing Pumpkins – Here Is No Why … ok there were a shitload of Smashing Pumpkins songs. Also I couldn’t pick a single David Bowie song, I just couldn’t. Same goes for Ryan Adams – I just couldn’t. Jesus and the Marychain – Just Like Honey, TV on the Radio – Wolf Like Me, Radiohead – Fake Plastic Tree’s, The Stone Roses – She Bangs The Drums, Jeff Buckley – Lover, You Should’ve Come Over, James Brown – Sex Machine, Pearl Jam – Rearviewmirror, Crowded House – Don’t Dream It’s Over, Split Enz – Message to My Girl, Bon Iver – Skinny Love, Buzzcocks – Ever Fallen in Love, The Church – Reptile, Beach Boys – God Only Knows, Violent Femmes – Add It Up, Pixies – Debaser … ok I should stop yeah?

In 2005 some colleagues and I started what was called ‘Song of the Day’. The simple idea was for each person to take it a day at a time and send around their ‘Song of the Day’. The whole idea is to share the music we love, either an artist we all knew, one you just discovered or  a song that would sum up your current mood. Unlike like Fight Club, we could talk about ‘Song of the Day’ club and there was one other rule: Send the song on your day. Between the three of us we enjoyed this process for many months, before one of the ‘Three Amigos’  moved overseas. The time difference caused confusion on what day to send the track through, at this stage three became two. 

Fast forward a few months and the movement evolved into a less time restrictive setup and became what it is now: Song of the Week. Rather than a single song being sent through by one person, it became that everybody involved sent that single song at the end of each week. 

Now after all these years my close musical minded buddy coreyj and I still send through out ‘Song of the Week’ to each other. The song to sum up our working week, sum up our mood, to share that funk/soul/alt country band we discovered. It is all about saying something about your life, through others music. With the track attached and a small reason for why this song was included, you end up with something that you can look forward to at the end of each week.

I really encourage you to find that muscial friend to share your music with, choose a day and share the tunes. We have kept our day as Friday for just over four years now, it is the light at the end of the working week tunnel. The song that gets you in the mood for the weekend, and forget about the week that was. 

For me this has introduced me to many new artists I would have never given the time of day to before. Doing this with somebody who has such a varied musical taste like me has also been just as important. Take last week for example, there was a mixture of Buckshot Lefonque and Bridezilla. Wouldn’t be every week where these tracks would follow each other on a persons playlist right? If you love music for all the right reasons, not just to listen to ‘what is hot right now’ then do this. Music is about more than a catchy beat, its about being the soundtrack to your life. Yes, tell me that sounds ‘wanky’ but it is. People often let music just play in the background, bring it to the front, share it and tell your friends about it. By you sharing what is important to you, you are in turn sharing a part of your life with the people that matter to you.

So as it is Friday, here is this weeks ‘Song of the Week’. A new band I’ve discovered simply through my love of Wolf Parade and the greatest music recommendation site, last.fm. 

Johnny and the Moon - When You’re All Alone

If I have inspired you to join the movement, and share the love, let me know. I would love to hear how it turns out.

Sunky

What radio news introduction contains; a guitar, a drill, the beat from the Prince song ‘Get Off‘, the scratch from NWA’s ‘Fuck the Police‘, sections of the original ABC news music and a few other sound samples?

The answer of course is the Triple J news introduction we’ve all heard a gah-zillion times before. While researching an article for another blog I was reminded of this old audio clip from 2005, the year Triple J celebrated 30 years of broadcasting. Alicia Brown speaks to the people behind putting together this iconic news intro way back in 1991.