! (The Song Formerly Known As)
Regurgitator
This song epitomised the Brisbane music scene of the late 90s, when Brisbane had arguably the strongest local music scene in the country. A band that became popular through their alternative and punk tunes changing it up to do a pop-funk number that is probably their best. – Michael Morgan
Vote for ! (The Song Formerly Known As) here
The Living Kind
Ups and Downs
Paisley jingle-jangle pop gem from the late 80s. I forgot these guys were from Brisbane. They ventured to Melbourne a couple of times when this came out. This song, and their cover of Neil Diamond's Solitary Man, got played a lot on 3RRR at the time. – Mo0kie
An indie track from the classic era of pub rock, street posters and seven-inch singles. Still bright and relevant after all these years. – Jimmy Duncombe
Untouched
The Veronicas
I went on exchange while studying Italian at Griffith Uni in 2009. I stayed in Bologna, Italy, and on the way over on the plane this song was part of the in-flight playlist. I really liked it and continued to listen to it while overseas. Just before coming home to Brisbane, my friends and I went to Lisbon, Portugal, for the weekend and we were at a club in town and this song came on the sound system. The crowd erupted and I was dancing around thinking “Yeah Brisbane!” Super proud that we can do anything! – Simonne Lupinetti
I Sucked a Lot of Cock to Get Where I Am
Regurgitator
We used to sing this in high school when the teachers weren't looking. – Vanessa
Pure 90s nostalgia and naughtiness. – Andrew White
Memories of sunny days on the beach playing this loudly on an old cassette player and upsetting some older folks. – Dylan
Vote for I Sucked a Lot of Cock to Get Where I Am here
Songs of Brisbane. Please explain?
Through September, Guardian Australia is spotlighting Brisbane's groundbreaking music scene – its legacy, its present and its future – and asking our readers to decide: what are the best Brisbane songs of all time?
Why Brisbane? Why not MY city?
When it comes to music, Brisbane has always punched above its weight – from Kev Carmody and the Go-Betweens and the Saints, to Regurgitator, Katie Noonan, DZ Deathrays and beyond.
Each year the country's biggest music conference BigSound descends on the city, and this year Guardian Australia has partnered with them and community station 4ZZZ to launch Songs of Brisbane with a bang.
Don't worry - if it goes well, we might roll it out to other cities too ...
What counts as a Brisbane song?
You can nominate any song by a band that originated or is based in Brisbane – or any song written explicitly about the city.
But how you choose to vote is up to you. Maybe it's a nostalgia thing, a song that makes you think about a certain time. Maybe it's that the way it sounds somehow encapsulates the beat of the city itself. Or maybe it's just a killer tune.
How do I vote?
Head over to our Songs of Brisbane page to scroll through the list of nominated songs and vote for your favourite. You can vote once per device, so please use your vote wisely!
Once you've voted, you'll be able to see who is winning the poll – and you'll get the option to tweet about the song you voted for, using the #SongsofBNE hashtag.
If your favourite song isn't there, you can nominate it yourself by filling out the form on the poll page.
How do I campaign for my favourite song?
If you’re voting for a track which does not have a “picked by” blurb with it, and you’d really like to tell us why this is a great tune that should win, please email us at songsofbrisbane@theguardian.com
When will you announce the winner?
Nominations close on 14 September. Voting ends at midnight on 18 September and the winner will be announced shortly afterwards – along with a playlist that soundtracks the city.
Cyclone Hits Expo
Choo Dikka Dikka
Recorded live to air on 4ZZZ, this piece showed a side of World Expo 88 that was swept under the rug by Joh’s government. It expressed the rage of the dispossessed who lost their homes due to the redevelopment of the South Bank site. And it’s just bloody hilarious too. – David K
Expo marked my own and Brisbane’s coming of age, but there was a dark side to the rampant development of the formerly neglected South Bank – low-income residents, Indigenous people, and existing businesses were all swept aside in the name of Brisvegas’s coming-out party. This song perfectly captures the minority opinion of the time through its wishful thinking. Musically stripped back, it is the epitome of the Brisbane sound. – Aaron Meadows
Vote for Cyclone Hits Expo here
Songs of Brisbane: I voted for the song Streets of Your Town by The Go-Betweens #SongsofBNE https://t.co/rile4hZ46Y
— AnnastaciaPalaszczuk (@AnnastaciaMP) September 3, 2018
(I’m) Stranded
The Saints
I did not realise that the band I saw in the mid 70s in that tiny house at the beginning of Milton Road would grow to be so influential. I left Brisbane soon after due to the political climate at the time and went to Melbourne. Then one day a couple years later bought a record from a band called the Saints, (I’m) Stranded. I put one and one together and realised the connection. Have been a fan ever since in all their various forms and still go and see the Ain’ts and Ed. (I’m) Stranded has not lost any of its punch 40 years on. The sound of my life. – Paul H
Darra Station, midnight. Quiet isolation and stumbling along dark dead streets. That was Brisbane. – Oxley
Stranded perfectly captures the ennui of living in a small city/big town at the far edge of the planet under Joh Bjelke-Petersen. – Yolanda DeRose
Still want to bounce around a padded cell when I hear this. – Niko
(I’m) Stranded sums up the feeling of the times with the Brisbane punk scene harassed and harangued by the police because of their rebellion against Joh Bjelke-Petersen’s corrupt government and ultra-conservative policies. One of the world’s first punk bands, the Saints captured the desperation, depression and desolation of Brisbane’s outer-suburb teens in three and a half minutes of fury. – Shane Holborn
I first heard this song as a 13-year-old living in the country and it struck such a chord with me. Even at that young age, it made me feel like there was a place for me, people I could relate to who wanted to break free of the constraints of the times. It was the birth of a new era, where everything was up for questioning, in which the old powers and institutions (like Joh and the police force) were brought crashing down and music showed us the power we had to reclaim our world. – Jo
Songs of Brisbane: I voted for These Days by Powderfinger because it is my dad's favourite song, a song always makes me think of him, and a song that makes me cry because my sister and I once discussed funeral songs and this came up and OH GOD #SongsofBNE https://t.co/JaWQ1FnR7G
— Calla Wahlquist (@callapilla) September 5, 2018
Brisbane (Security City)
The Saints
A slow burn of youthful frustration and boredom specific to Brisbane, but also applies to any Australian suburban wasteland where its seems life is elsewhere, and everything seems set up to hold you down. The heat, the cops and especially the “living room isolation”. – Nadia
Vote for Brisbane (Security City) here
Pig City
The Parameters
Surely the quintessential Joh-era Brisbane song. – Hundsgemein
I remember my minor foray into student protest, at a sit-in at the student union office over the eviction of 4ZZZ … with about 20 police cars in the car park, with 4ZZZ playing Pig City. Well, at least I think I remember. A young constable accidentally backed a police car into a parked vehicle, with a hundred or so scruffy students hanging out the windows, jeering, and the top brass looking on. – Lichenthrope
A Matter of Time
Railroad Gin
Perhaps a theme song for Brisbane’s transition through the 1960s, 70s and 80s into the city and music scene that it has become. – RegK33
I guess this song always reminds me so much of Brisbane and of Carol Lloyd herself who was quite an individual. The song to me represented that Brisbane was not just a country town and Queensland was not decades behind the rest of Australia, we were right up there with everyone else. – Alison Alloway
Vote for A Matter of Time here
Songs of Brisbane: I voted for the song Blue Shirt by The Colours #SongsofBNE https://t.co/G1UhbT1lvA
— Andrew Bartlett (@AndrewBartlett) September 3, 2018
West End Girls
Ben Salter
The lyric and melody of the line “take the 199 to the Valley” collapses decades of memories at once into a feeling that transcends time but is quintessentially Brisbane to me. – Rebelbuzz
Sich Offnen
Not From There
It’s a touch incongruous that a song sung almost entirely in German should find itself on a Songs of Brisbane list. But Not From There emerged at a golden era of guitar music for Brisbane and were as much a part of the fabric of Brizvegas as the likes of Screamfeeder. They also appeared on the legendary Homebake 98 CD (it’s a classic, google it). Something about Sich Offnen struck a chord with Australians and it made it onto Triple J’s Hottest 100 in 1998. It didn’t matter that we didn’t know what Heinz was singing about, we could feel it. – Brendan
Without doubt @powderfinger_au ‘My Happiness’ #songsofbne https://t.co/hs6XlUyYr0
— Deb Frecklington MP (@DebFrecklington) September 3, 2018
Brisvegas
John Kennedy
It hints at some sort of crisis but is really about dire public transport options after 11pm on a Saturday. – Michael
Queensland
Evil Eddie
When I was living in London, and feeling homesick, this was the song I would listen to. For me, even though it was released after I left, it reminded me of everything I missed and loved about my hometown. – Davina
Staying Up at Night
Dag
This song and album by Dag is my go-to late-night music vibe. It feels heart-achingly empty and sparse as a Brisbane street at midnight, all lit up and nowhere to go. – Peter Pit of the Pits
