The WhimWham

Yes, it’s that time of the year again: Rocktober, that most sacred of months, where you slip-on your acid-wash jeans, grab a VB from the fridge and crank-up some Chisel, some Acca-Dacca, some Oils or some even some Crawl. Then you just LET IT ROCK!

For your enjoyment, here are 31 classic rock tracks—one for each day of Rocktober. I’ll be out in my Black Thunder all this month, handing-out Rocktober t-shirts and bumper stickers, so be on the lookout. I’ll also be giving my surf reports to keep you safe in the swell, from the only blog that triples your music: Triple WhimWham.

1. Dire Straits: “Money For Nothing”

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Being born in 1978, I’m pretty much a child of the ’80s. I grew up with the radio playing at every opportunity, loved going to the movies and couldn’t get enough of Star Wars, He-Man and The Muppet Show. (Yes, there was bleed-through from the ’70s, as you’ll soon discover.)

Each week, I’m going to make an effort to present the pop-culture events of a very specific period of time in the ’80s. Today, it’s summer ’79/’80, as seen Down Under.

This was the period when Bon Scott, the lead singer for AC/DC, died of alcohol poisoning; it was also the period when Kingswood Country debuted on Australian TV…

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In June, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers released their 12th studio album, Mojo. I’m a huge Heartbreakers fan and have been for many years, and this album is a real treat.

It’s not as accessible as Petty’s solo Highway Companion from 2006, nor as exhilarating as last year’s Live Anthology, but Mojo is a slow-burner that reveals itself over many listens. First and foremost, it’s a blues experiment: Petty has always been a roots rocker, and this is roots rock taken to its logical conclusion. In a way, it’s the flip-side of the country-inflected Mudcrutch from 2008.

If you’re new to Petty, try his Greatest Hits as a sampler, or Wildflowers if you want a studio album. If you’re more adventurous, pick up The Live Anthology to hear the Heartbreakers at their best.

But if you want to hear veterans shunning autotune and current fads, you can’t beat Mojo.

Here’s a sample…

I’ve  been a DEVO fan for a long time. While they’re known primarily as a novelty one-hit wonder, they actually put out a lot of quality music between 1977 and 1990, including eight studio albums. They’re like Mad Magazine meets The Church of the SubGenius, with a dose of Mystery Science Theater 3000 for good measure. It’s comical performance art, and the joke’s on all of us, including DEVO themselves.

And now they’re back. Something For Everybody was released last month, and it’s their best album since… 1982? 1981? 1980? 1978? It’s hard to say. It’s that good.

This time around, they’re satirising the process of selling-out itself. The album is “88% focus group approved” and even the colour of their hats was (supposedly) chosen by mass consensus. The absurdity of the whole exercise is simply sublime.

Here’s their new song, “Fresh”: