More Radio-Friendly Non-RIAA Tunes

I’m a sucker for the classic, meaty guitar hook, and this tune by Australian singer-songwriter, Andrew Morris has it in spades. “Let it Roll” sounds so much like, um, Freedom Rock music that you just gotta turn it up, man! “Let it Roll” is such a radio-friendly song (it’s gotten quite a bit of air play on radio stations in Australia) that I’m really surprised that it’s not hitting here in the U.S. Sure, the song is derivative, but you gotta admit that it packs a punch right where you expect it. There’s not much to say about this tune other than it’s got “Friday night” written all over it. If you can, crank this one and soon enough you’ll be singing along. (Listen to “Let it Roll” HERE)

And now for something completely different…

GB3 is another Australian act featured on an artist sampler I downloaded from eMusic. And if you’re wondering about the name of the band, their record label bio states:

GB is Glenn Bennie, a driving force behind the Underground Lovers, one of Australia’s most innovative bands of the ’90s. GB3 refers to the collaborative nature of the album – in the studio at any one time were Glenn, his studio off-sider Tim Prince, and a guest vocalist or musician.

Well, the guest vocalist on this tune (“Guillotine” Listen HERE) is Angie Hart — of whom, I know nothing other than her birthday was on 3/8. What I do know is that her dreamy vocal style really lends the right touch of melancholy to the song. I wouldn’t be surprised if some film director uses this song for a “reflective” sequence where the main character is driving and thinking about…stuff. Beyond film soundtracks, however, there’s certainly room for this kind of music on a Hot Adult Contemporary radio format where Dido or Jem are played. So while GB3 are “foreign” to North American ears (because they fall into the “Indie” category by being on Rubber Records), their sound, like Andrew Morris, is ready-made for radio — and that’s not such a bad thing, is it? 🙂

–PK

P.S. I wasn’t able to join in on the fun at this week’s roundtable/The Week In Rock over at Kurt’s Krap, but don’t let that stop you from reading the passionate barbs on the career of Van Halen. But it’s John from Lost in the 80s who had a great opening line when talking about, well, any Van Halen song — but you can certainly add Andrew Morris in that category, too: 

“Hey man! Is that Freedom Rock?”

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