sonic punk

The other day a uni friend of mine mentioned that The Sonics were one of his favourite bands. Cool, I know them, I thought to myself. They’re like the Kinks but American. Apparently not. My friend described them as one of the earliest punk bands. The Sonics I know were around in the early to mid 60s and punk only gained momentum in the 70s. I must be thinking of the wrong band, silly me!

Later that night I trawled through the long-forgotten depths of my ipod and sure enough I came across a handful of Sonics songs. If these were records they’d be dusty but since we’re talking digital files here, I only hypothetically blew the dust off before giving them a spin. As the high energy yet simple guitar riffs peppered with rockin’ sax and crazy vocal screams bombarded my headphones, I realised that with rock ‘n’ roll classics like Louie Louie, Have Love Will Travel, Roll Over Beethoven and Good Golly Miss Molly, it’s no wonder I considered them nothing more than another rock ‘n’ roll band.

music meets fashion

Melbourne Spring Fashion Week showcases the best of Australian fashion but also, as I discovered last week, some great Aussie music. Check out what I wrote about the fashion for online magazine Upstart but remember, I was also there for the music.

smells like a tried and true winner

The crowd of Sunday shoppers were nudging around me as I bent over the bargain table. My fingers rifled through plastic CD cases, a blur of colours and names. Bright stickers declared “I’m cheap, buy me now!”

Amongst the gaudy album covers of pop princesses and a bevy of commercially failing one-hit-wonder bands I notice a familiar cover. A diamond in the rough.

With a name so nonchalant it is almost modest, Nevermind was my – and a whole generation’s – introduction to grunge music.

Lisa Mitchell at The Corner

As the red velvet curtain opens, an elf-like girl skips into view banging a tambourine. Other band members, bounding around, limbs flailing, follow her. Multi-coloured globes, brown fabric gum trees and a string of bright triangle flags adorn the stage. I feel like I am at a medieval fair.