Now I've got a heavy heart

Wrapping up Australian music month with You Am I

A place where nobody dares to go

I can't find any Australian artists for W (or X, obviously), so here's the only U.S. top 40 hit starting with the letter "X" -- a 1980 collaboration between ELO and Lady Olivia, AO, OBE.



This youtube video has been viewed more than three million times, probably because it's the second most awesome video in the history of the internet, with the most awesome is this 1978 medley of "Help Me Rhonda" and "Barbara Ann" by Olivia, Andy Gibb, and ABBA.



This could've only been improved if Andy had invited his brothers. Olivia + ABBA + Bee Gees = total awesomeness to the nth power!

Fruit of the Vines

Do you ever wake up in the middle of the night and wonder what happened to the Vines? They're still around, just like Jet, but "their appeal is growning more selective" as Ian Faith would say.



I saw the Vines opening for Fountains of Wayne at Slim's a few months before they broke. It was clear that they were really talented, and had the right sound at the right time (2002, when the Strokes and the Hives and the rest were taking off) and played an amazing version of "I'm Only Sleeping" that won over even jaded FoW fans like me.

Back then, I thought if the Vines were the future of rock & roll, it was in pretty good hands, but they turned out to be just a tiny blip on the rock & roll continuum. Just like most of the other buzz bands from the early 2000s.

Take back your Ups and Downs

On to the U's. The Ups and Downs and their hit "The Living Kind"



According to their myspace bio, the Ups and Downs took their name from the Flamin' Groovies song "Ups & Downs" (which was actually a Paul Revere & the Raiders song, but whatever). I saw these guys live in Perth in 1987, and remember having to assure some girl at the show that I was fairly sure Tom Petty was not slagging them in his (then current) single "Jammin Me".

She was sure Tom's line about "take back your ups and downs" was about the band Ups and Downs, and wanted to know why he was slagging obscure Australian indie bands. When she heard my American accent, she asked me to explain why Tom Petty felt the need to do something like that. It was an interesting conversation.

By the way, the lead singer of the Ups and Downs was a dead ringer for Tom Petty, both visually and audially. Maybe that girl was right, and Tom felt threatened by the Ups and Downs, and had to call them out before they stole his fame away?

Day Of The Triffids

Now in the last week of August, and I'm probably going to run out of Australian artists before I run out of days. All the way to the T's now.

Here are the Triffids performing "Bury Me Deep In Love" in 1988.



After going through the Triffids reissues on emusic last year, I decided that this was the best song they ever did. How would the late David McComb feel about having his song covered by Kylie?

The Summer Sunnyboys

Continuing with S bands featuring Dom Mariani, the Summer Suns rule, but don't have any videos on youtube, or web penetration beyond myspace and a one sentence AMG bio.

Moving on, alphabetically, here are the Sunnyboys, a great band from Sydney that, to my knowledge, did not feature Dom Mariani as a member at any time.



These Sunnyboys should not be confused with the Sunny Boys, an intriguing Beach Boys tribute band from Italy who will kill hours of internet time on youtube.

At First Sight, Violets Are Blue

Before the Someloves, Dom Mariani was in the the Stems with future Chevelle Richard Lane. This song, "At First Sight", sounded familiar when I heard it on Dom's (highly recommended) Popsided Guitar anthology, but I couldn't remember where I'd heard it before. Turns out the song was featured in Young Einstein, a very silly film with a kick Aus soundtrack featuring Icehouse, Paul Kelly, the Lime Spiders, the Saints, and the Stems.



There's been a Stems revival in the 2000s, with multiple reissues, a couple of their songs on Children of Nuggets, and a 2007 reunion album (Heads Up) that included a U.S. tour that I sadly missed. They're playing their final tour in Australia in October, at least until they reform in the 2010s.