University survival Playlist

Thu 16th Feb, 2012 in Features

O Week: A time for keggers, toga parties, egging the Dean’s car and working out whether you are more Alpha Delta Gamma than Alpha Sigma Phi. Well, maybe not. Nonetheless the first week of Uni Orientation does get under way in Australia this month, and while first year uni goers may not be stealing mascots and doing nudie runs, they will have the chance to see a lot of bands and break-free of those high school musical shackles once and for all.

There are a stack of O Week gigs happening around the country over the next month, and to celebrate all things Uni/college/tafe/avoiding-the-real-world-for-as-long-as-possible we are running a series of post-school life music features. This week we asked a bunch of Aussie bands to tell us what one song best summed up their uni experience…even if a couple of them didn’t quite last the difference.

FasterLouder O Week Playlist

Josh Pyke – El Schorcho by Weezer

My first Uni friend, Dave, played in a band that my band used to do gigs with and party with afterward. I had been pretty heavy into metal and straight up punk throughout high school, but one night after a gig he put on Weezer and when El Scorcho started with that skewed guitar riff, and Rivers Cuomo whined “God damn you half Japanese girls….” my mind was blown. I assumed it was sung with irony, but Rivers was just mental enough to be dead serious, and that made the song even more awesome. I have so many blurry post school memories of that song, and it will always remind me of my brief and ill fated time at university.

Eagle and The Worm – Hot For Teacher by Van Halen

I went to music school. To study “Jazz Performance”...might sound daggy to peeps out there, but I was 18 years old and like a sponge for ideas and music. Loved it. Me and my bass playing pal Yuri used to wag class so we could max out in the student lounge with a six pack and listen to Van Halen 1984. Van Halen was more Yuri’s thing at the time, but since those days hanging with Yuri, I’m a massive Halen and D.L.R fan, and Hot For Teacher always brings back sweet memories of skipping jazz history and listening to hair-rock instead.

N’Fa – Drinking In LA by Bran Van 3000

Well, not that I bothered spending much time at Uni, my time hanging there (mostly just to hang with friends, tune girls, and philosophise on the future) were fun times. None of us knew what we were doing really, or why, or if we really wanted to do what we were thinking we should do. But the future was bright, and ours to be had. Almost all things before our time really meant nothing, and the world had finally begun with us.

Thing is, apart from our few multi-talking friends who could juggle books, sports, creativity, and drinking – most of us just did nothing. We’d always leave it till tomorrow if we could.And talk about how good tomorrow will be.

One day I hear a song on the radio, pretty sure it was on JJJ, and it made me think quite hard about myself, and my friends, and I began to find direction within.The song was about doing nothing; People aged 26 years old doing nothing worthwhile, just talking to the talk.

I loved music, was already making music, but decided that by the time I was 26, I’d have it made, and I’d have it all figured out. Well, a bunch of years later, at 26O I did almost have it made, and thought I had it figured out. But, I didn’t. And although I had had some great musical and social success, and seen the world a couple times over, I found myself hung over in the chateau marmot, asking myself “What the hell am i doing drinking in LA at 26?!”