What a difference a death makes. Looking through this week’s charts, speckled dozens of times with the name Michael Jackson, you would never guess that up to just a couple of weeks ago, the man was a magnet for ridicule that could upset compasses a hemisphere away. Now of course, he’s being universally praised as one of the greatest of all time. Given this breakout success, and the music industry’s penchant for blindly copying that which has worked before, you can expect the major labels to do the maths (Public Joke + Death = Megasales) and look around for the next potential humiliated genius to reap profits from. Of course, even multinational corporations can only off so many artists before somebody starts asking questions, so until their lobbying to change the murder laws gets through the senate, labels will just have to make do cashing in on the Discredited Public Joke Band market. Failing that, they’ll be seeking out the hottest new bands that are influenced by acts everyone thought were washed up. To get the ball rolling, I’m drawing an extremely long bow and taking a guess at which unquestionably dodgy bands this week’s entirely credible singles may be influenced by.

SINGLE OF THE WEEK

THE BASICS – Like A Brother

(Independent / MGM)

Ding-a-ding-a-ding-a-dinga-ding-ding. The Basics used to be all about the rock & roll throwback. Their first album hinted that the three pals may have been locked in a underground bomb shelter since the late ‘50s Brendan Fraser-style, with only records from that era to rock out to. The band readily admits this all changed thanks to a tour of Japan – a country where a person could feasibly go for a lifetime without touching a single consumer product that isn’t adorned with either Hello Kitty or Mickey Mouse. While Like A Brother still has links to old school rock, it sounds like it’s been recorded by a cartoon band. The verses are all cool and bass-heavy smooth, like the sort of jazz band Pepe Le Pew might raise an eyebrow to. But when it all kicks together in the lyricless chorus – the horns, the racing guitar, the Aaaah-ahhhh harmonies, and most of all the mad scrambling percussion toppling over itself like Scooby’s feet winding up for pre-getaway sprint – listen long enough and you can’t help but feel a crazy little frog on a motorbike is spiralling around your skull. First with With This Ship (which has a few delectably interesting remixes as B-Sides here), and now with the full-steam-ahead Like A Brother, The Basics have stretched out to give us one of the potentially most exciting Australian albums of the year. And it may all be thanks to Crazy Frog.

KRAM – Blitzkrieg Bop (Hey Ho Let’s Go)

(Universal)

For the purposes of this week’s exercise, which dodgy musical act can we claim everybody’s favourite drumming/singing yeti, Kram, has drawn inspiration from here? Well, given this is a relatively faithful cover of one of the most-loved classics from The Ramones, they’re an obvious go-to ... except for the fact that one of the greatest rock bands of all time don’t have the same public persona problems as the alive MJ did. Ok then, how about we consider Kram’s decision to use a bunch of giggly kids to shout the ‘Hey Ho Let’s Go’ chorus – surely Barnesy’s once prepubescent army the Tin Lids can answer for that. The thing is, the kids make the already happy song even more dizzying fun, like a backyard Yo Gabba Gabba tribute. In that case, let’s go all cynical, back to the fact that Kram’s gone back to release an already well known, iconic song that really didn’t exactly need another version, in the hope of making a commercial mark in an otherwise languishing career. Sound familiar? It’s not the first time he’s gone down this platinum-paved track, and given the success of Black Betty, it’s a wonder he’s waited this long to try it again. Surely a covers record is next. Yep, that’s the next step – Kram becomes the gritty, screaming, lovable, raw-rock Human Nature.

FAIT ACCOMPLI – Ride

(Independent)

I don’t envy the publicist trying to even hypothetically associate Fait Accompli to a Discredited Public Joke Band. Firstly, they’re an entirely independent group, making getting remunerated, even hypothetically, a difficult job. Secondly and more to the point, it’s difficult to make a gut-reaction comparison between Fait Accompli and any other band. It’s not that the Sydney trio’s upbeat four-bar indie tune Ride is so unique that it defies categorisation. Indeed, the chiming then fuzzy guitar pattern is so familiar, it may as well have been taken from the powerpop equivalent to the ABC Songbook that you learnt by rote in primary school. But it’s perhaps this faithfulness to a well-known template, without being derivative of anything specific, that endears the song so quickly. Ride lopes along, swept along in the wake of all that came before it, sunny and happy to let the drums lead it through the verses, before the guitars jump in front and put a pair of cool rockin’ shades on the chorus. It’s an effective mix, though if I have to adhere to this week’s self-imposed gimmick, I’ll give a nod of influence to the sunnies-loving, awkward-dancing, barroom king Huey Lewis, more for his cool-be-stuffed attitude than anything.

[ME] – Westward Backwards

(Independent)

It’s a good week for singles, so it’s taken a fair degree of leniency and flexibility to nail down some of the previous songs to their laughing stock influence, but in the case of Melbourne’s [Me], the job couldn’t be easier. Westward Backwards is like Muse Down Under: The Orchestrock Experience. Not that [Me] revel in the same sort of pompous, smarmy, self-conscious pseudo-undergrad prog that Muse gets us all laughing with – am I right? – but there’s no mistaking the sweeping, operatic-inspired grandeur in Westward Backwards owes something to Matt Bellamy et al. What’s best in this case is that everything that can rub as try-hard or pretentious in the wrong hands (the manufactured majesty, the classical asides, the genre hops and time changes – all those technical bells, whistles and party poppers), here come across as exciting and experimental, instead of self-congratulatory for the sake of it. Between Muse and their inspiration Queen, [Me] sound more like the former, though with more of the rhapsodic effect of the latter. Wait, what’s that discontented mumbling and rotten tomato hurling? Muse aren’t a joke band you say? They’re one of the most popular and influential indie-centric bands of this decade, and I’ve in turn offended the entire Triple J listenership? Gee, this entire premise has turned around on [me] – time to bail out of another Mine’s On The 45.

SIMON TOPPER

Be first to comment on this article

Write Comment
Comments are submitted for possible publication on the condition that they may be edited. Poster's IP addresses are logged.
Name:
Comment:
Code:*