Eh, INXS were OK. "Don't Change" and "What You need" were good songs and that Easybeats cover they did with Jimmy Barnes from Cold Chisel shows that could rock out when the mood struck them.

I always liked them, but I liked them best around the time of this song. (This video is also great.) "What You Need" was a brilliant pop song, but they spent the rest of their career imitating it, which I always found sad because they could have had a really broad spectrum instead of just sticking to that one tried-and-true sound.

Everyone who has snarked about Aussie accents should shut the fuck up after hearing his voice.

Ha! Shut the fuck up after hearing anyone Aussie who's not Steve Irwin or Paul Hogan, you mean.

I saw Dogs In Space again not too long ago. It's a shame he didn't really act in anything else (not that I think he actually did much "acting" in DiS).

Some favourites:
Original Sin
Max Q side project from 1989

I saw this performance live. It's a ballad blah blah, but Never Tear Us Apart is my favourite song for Michael's voice. I've heard it a million times but it still sends chills down my spine, only slightly mollified by the version I received on cassette sung by a guy trying to woo me (NOT a successful tactic, if you were thinking of trying it, particularly if you are flat throughout). Shabooh Shoobah is probably my favourite whole album - INXS rocked pretty hard for a new wave band in the early years. This is the first song of theirs I heard age 7, and I was instantly a fan.

Another great clip, from Dogs In Space - Rooms for the Memory

And Michael looking really cute at the start of DIS (NSFW language) - Hey you, prickface! Are you from the planet poofter, or the planet stupider?

I should probably go and do some work now...

I actually just checked out an INXS greatest hits cd from the library the other day. (I'm a big fan of devil inside)

In obvious-to-me-now matters, it seems that "Need you Tonight" is about a booty call... Totally didn't catch that when I was a kid.

Okay, so what is 'Mediate' about, other than being a showcase for some of the worst rapping this side of Debbie Harry?

box, according to what I've read one of the Farriss brothers was just messing around with 'ate' words when they were all in studio trying to finish Kick, and it just wrote itself, all stream-of-consciousness like, and they left it at that. This is one of the reasons they were kinda off-track with the cue cards in the video and also deliberately left the fuckups in; the whole thing is sort of a metaphorical riff on the whole late-night, zoned-out, stream-of-consciousness effect of a long studio session.

That's kinda neat (and, not for the first time, lfr, I'm surprised at the depth and breadth of your knowledge).

I always thought the off-track-ness of the cue cards was part of the homage-to-'Subterranean-Homesick-Blues' thing.