A crushing 10+ hour drive to another capital city is an Australian music scene necessity, a decent playlist is the only thing keeping your mind off being crammed in a car filled with gear. It will also help frame the trip. Justify going the distance. Put things into perspective. We don’t drive all the time, sometimes flying is the only way, but no one wants our ‘going to the airport’ playlist. Nick (drums) made this playlist, since he’s the driver and gets complete control over music throughout a drive. It’s a great insight into where a person is mentally – going through a jazz phase? Probably contemplating heroin and making ill advised ‘free form’ music. A whole bunch of trap music? Nick’s told me there are “4 discrete phases” in any drive: Departure; Open Road; Approach, then Arrival. A 10 hour playlist is out of our brief, so we’ve kept the overall phases of a drive and condensed the running time to an hourish (a perfect fit for a little Sydney-Wollongong trip).

Departure:

Nick is very big on making a strong first impression. I know he spent ages thinking of what song to start this playlist. During a drive he’ll hold off on starting music for up to an hour, just to make sure the first song is a cracker. A huge mistake is going too hard straight out of the gates, you will experience a shittonne of traffic, the romanticised open road is far far away, you need to go through suburbs of depression first. Take it easy, you’ll get there.

1. John Prine – Illegal Smile
2. Buffalo Springfield – Kind Woman
3. The Byrds – Turn Turn Turn
4. Big Star – My Life is Right

 

Open Road:

This is the part you’ll enjoy. It’s what you’ve been looking forward to. The romantic part. You’re screaming down the highway pushing 100. For better or worse, this is as good as the drive gets. Keep the vibes positive. That will stop doubts creeping in. Doubts that may make you criticise theopen road. Questioning whether it’s actually that great. Of course it is. This is where Bruce Springsteen songs are born.

1. Bruce Springsteen – Born to Run
2. The Rolling Stones – Tumbling Dice
3. Van Morrison – Dweller on the Threshold
4. Everly Brothers – I Wonder If I Care As Much

 

Approach:

This is the cruel tease. You’ve seen the road signs (10 kms left), you’ve done some calculations (still probably going 100km/h), you WILL arrive in 6 minutes. But you won’t. In 6 minutes you need to pick up the phone and start directing. There’s a whole lot of boring city to get through before a venue. It will take longer than you expect. It’s harder to pick a song in this phase with all that negativity creeping in. Open Road was easy, shooting fish in a barrel. This requires skill. When you inevitably take a wrong turn can these songs keep everyone in good spirits? Will they keep people from realising they’ve been in a car for most of the day?

1. New York Dolls – Personality Crisis
2. Neil Young & Crazy Horse – Everybody Knows This is Nowhere (live at the Fillmore East)
3. Grateful Dead – St. Stephen
4. Nazz – Open My Eyes

 

Arrival:

This is what you’ve been aching for. You can see the finish line. Celebratory music. Pat yourself, and all other companions, on the back. Stretch your legs, jerk your back with some gear unloading. Get yourself a drink, figure out what food won’t kill you. Ride that positivity till its time to play. Enjoy yourself. Don’t think about the return journey.

1. Herbie Hancock – I Thought It Was You (edit)
2. Todd Rundgren – I Saw The Light

David Bowie – Young Americans Us The Band is two guys making short and fast songs, kinda garage rock, sort of thrash punk, but mostly short and fast nd distorted. And loud. Singing has been described as melodic yelling, but that makes them sound like a bad metal band, which they’re not, yet. Their EP ‘But Where Do They Go’ isout on NOW through Rice Is Nice. Watch new video for ‘Ghoul’ here

riceisnice.net/us-the-band facebook.com/ustheband666