INXS - We Are the Vegetables on the Moon

What with Beck covering the whole of the Kick album and then Courtney Barnett recently doing the same it maybe the case that INXS have been and are more influential than many might think - especially for those that got into Kick and then travelled back in time through their back catalogue. INXS began life as the The Farriss Brothers back in 1977 the year of the the Punk explosion in the UK and the same year The Specials formed  They are described as coming from the "Aussie pub circuit" where they performed cover versions but these covers were from the likes of Steely Dan and obscure Brian Eno songs and they were also doing their own songs which were a pretty unique mix of punk, ska and new wave synth sounds with added sax.

Below is a playlist of most of their debut album from 1980 along with with some great non album tracks and a couple of live tracks that show what a great live act they were at the time and it is all generally bonkers but brilliant.Then there are two versions of  tracks from their second LP - Barbarian and Stay Young which they re-recorded in 1992 and Barbarian especially shows what a great Rock n' Roll band they still could be and also shows what could have been. They are all taken from the brilliant Stay Young compilation which compiles and remastered everything they released with their first record company.  I would recommend their less bonkers second LP Underneath the Colours -  remastered from Stay Young and their third Shabooh Shoobah from late 82 which is, I think, their best LP and included below is a great early live and much less polished version of The One Thing from that LP. But by 1984 the 80's had caught up with them and although they would manage the odd great track and write some great tunes as, Beck and Courtney Barnett have shown, time has not been kind on much of the rest of their output. I think they had the one true Rock n' Roll star from the 80's but they were a Rock n' Roll band that would have been more suited to any other decade from the 60's onwards.

Michael Hutchence did manage some rather interesting work outside of the band - in 1984 he starred in Dogs in Space a film about the late 70's Aussie punk scene that INXS came from and on the playlist below are the two songs he contributed to the soundtrack working with Ollie Olsen and both would not be out of place on a King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard LP and they are cover of tracks by The Ears -  Sam Sejavka, the lead singer, is who the Hutchene character is based on and you can check out the originals here. 

He would go onto to work with Ollie Olsen again producing the Max Q and LP in 1989 which I think is his best work post 82. Finally there is Speed Kills, a track he did for a soundtrack  with Don Walker of Cold Chisel in 1982 which sounds completely out of time for the time, but would not be be released today.

The playlist was originally in Groovesshark but that service expired on 1 May 2015 so now it is brought to you via the SCM Music player . Using Ubend URLs. Sadly the great live version of The One Thing from the Stay Young compilation is not on Ubend and also the version of the excellent Reckless Ways is not as great as the Moontan Double J Concert version on the compilation.

On a Mobile? - click "View web version" below and/or change your browser settings to Desktop and you might be able to play the playlist.