A song a day: The Vines - Get Free

Remember when Aussie bands were going to save rock n’ roll in the early 2000’s? Bwahahahahahaha akdlhgmnklrt ba;ip... Sorry I just collapsed onto my keyboard with laughter. The Vines, Jet and Airborne were the new generation of bands venerated for their rock action and were going to save us from electronica or some such thing. I can’t help but shake my head at the Australian music press who bought into that folly. It is laughable today as it was back then as those bands stole in equal measures from greater bands and gave nothing but competent facsimiles of better songs. Jet’s Are you gonna be my girl? stole its thunder from Lust for Life where Airborne were little more than an AC/DC parody band.


The Vines stole broadly but mostly it was a Cobainian yowl combined with classic indie punk pop. I feel a little sorry for them, they were thrust into the spotlight untested and the lead singer’s Aspergers disorder led to break down and bad performances. I saw them once at the Big Day Out and it was a train wreck. However, I will always pay Get Free because whenever it comes on my ipod, it is a little adrenalin rush of a song. Unoriginal and contrived? Certainly but as a stand alone rock tune to pump your fist to or listen to at the gym (shit, I am getting old), it is perfect. No boy from the western suburbs of Sydney has any right to be singing about ‘moving to California’ but I can forgive it because all the lyrics are gibberish really. Somehow, this song is perfectly dumb but enjoyable nonetheless. Join the dumb fun...

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