Lessons learnt from AC/DC

My name is Serena Kuhl and I was a teenage bogan

(For non Australian readers, a bogan is kinda like Joe Dirt, but mullets were actually cut that way, not fused to our skulls...)

Yup I had several pairs of black Faberge stretch jeans, not like today's skinny legs jeans, half the kids who wear them at my school can actually fit their hands in their pockets, back in the day stretch jeans were tiiiigght. Recently K Mart has released a range of pre-distressed looking heavy metal t-shirts, looking all retro etc. I owned at least a couple of them in the original 1987 non distressed state. I had so many black band t-shirts I once worked out I could go without washing them for at least a fortnight and still have a clean one to wear to school everyday. It was sad, it was tragic, but thankfully, it is over.

But this legacy has allowed me the rare pleasure of enjoying the wide ranging phenomena of AC/DC cover bands.

I loooooooved AC/DC. I used to draw pictures of them from photos, draw the fly character from the Fly on the Wall album cover everywhere, write the bands name on my bag, my pencil case, my shoes... I had pretty much every album I could get hold of and knew exactly which ones I still had to buy. The somewhere around 88' I kinda just got over it all. And the Nirvana arrived with Smells like Teen Spirit and Kurt Cobain was so much prettier....

Anyway, for those who don't know, there is a lot of people putting out AC/DC covers.

There was of course Celine Dion's effort. (I hate you, please die in a fire now!)

But much more interestingly is the cross genre stuff. Hayseed Dixie do bluegrass renditions. AC/Dshe are an all female tribute band, cock rock without the...phallic symbols?

Nashville Pussy (wotta name! I admit to having several of their albums. anyone who writes a song suspiciously George Thorogood sounding called 'Gonna Hitchhike down to Cincinnati to Kick the Shit out of Your Drunk Daddy' is alright in my book!) seem to like to cover them in weird sleaze rock style

But it gets way weirder. If you have a look at "Highway to Hell" on Itunes you get sum interesting stuff...

"Church Lady plays Organ parodies of AC/DC"

"The Angry Samoans?"

"The Day Glo Abortions" sing 'The Jack' in a pretty bad garage punk band manner. They had an album called "Two Dogs Fucking."

Ex KMFDM (y'know, the drug against war) does "Who made Who?"

The Vitamin String Quartet: Back in Baroque

And Wing....

You don't know who that is? Think back to a South Park episode, where a falsetto voiced frail little Asian lady was put in the ring by the kids in Slyvester Stallone's boxing reality TV show and had the crap beat out of her. Yup, she sings Highway to Hell

This shit makes me happier than it should...really. I can face any day with any amount of shit with this little rendition buzzin in my head.

The Budda Lounge Assembly do meditation music versions of "Back in Black"

But these, these are my favourites. Antiq Corazon de Cuba. I don't know much about salsa music, but there's something huge, over the top and slightly fake sounding about this, as it was partly created by drum tracks or computer. Funnily enough, the kind of straight ahead, no bullshit or pretensions appeal AC/DC had back in the day (sorry kids, I think they're almost caricatures of themselves now. Rock is a young man's game) is actually epitomised by this track!

So today's message, as I haven't anything smart to say about art or stuff is, when you're feeling opressed, confined, embaressed or afraid, get your silk cheongsam on and rock out an AC/DC track in a wavering little old lady voice. Wing does it, to aclaim and fame. What are you doing?