FRONTED BY THE HUGELY CHARISMATIC MICHAEL HUTCHENCE, AUSTRALIAN SIX-PIECE INXS ROSE TO WORLD DOMINATION WITH A PUNCHY BLEND OF NEW WAVE, FUNK AND DANCE-ROCK THAT WAS TAILOR-MADE FOR STADIUMS
JON O’BRIEN
ALBUM BY ALBUM
Initially known as The Farriss Brothers, followed by The Vegetables, INXS thankfully settled on their more familiar guise in time for their eponymous 1980 debut album. They also wisely swerved first manager Gary Morris’ suggestion to pursue the Christian market that was beginning to take shape in their native Australia, a direction which would have inevitably robbed the country of its most lascivious rock god.
Instead, drummer Jon Farriss, his multi-instrumentalist siblings Tim and Andrew, guitarist Kirk Pengilly, bassist Garry Gary Beers and frontman Michael Hutchence opted for a less holy blend of post-punk, New Wave and ska which sounded positively soaked in Castlemaine XXXX. That’s little surprise when you learn its 10 tracks were recorded in the midnight hours, allowing the sextet to continue building a presence on the Sydney live circuit (and stick within the slim $10,000 budget handed out by fledgling label Deluxe Records).
Indeed, there’s little of the gloss that by the end of the same decade would help INXS sell out stadiums far beyond Antipodean waters. Co-produced with Duncan McGuire of 70s jazz fusion outfit Ayers Rock, this LP is raw, raucous and ramshackle stuff which recalls the likes of Men At Work, Midnight Oil and every other band that rose through the no-holds-barred Aussie pub scene. In a fair summary, Hutchence himself later described it as “naïve, kinda cute” and the sign of “young guys struggling for a sound.”
You could argue that the group were struggling for words, too. INXS contains some of their dodgiest lyrics from “I’ve got a place with a view, you can see all the cars, hello cars!” on the propulsive closer Wishy Washy or the clumsy come-on in Roller Skating (“City lights turning green to red/ I know I can’t see her/ All I want to do is take her to bed”). Hutchence, who spends most of the record yelping and hollering, comes across less of a smooth lothario and more of an excitable dork. The allbum does boast at least a couple of tunes that would merit a place on an INXS Best Of. The Joe Jacksonesque opener On A Bus, for example, and Just Keep Walking, the angry young man anthem which became their first Top 40 back home. But it’s one of those records which was no doubt more fun to make than it is to listen to.
INXS Released 1980 Label Deluxe
