What we like best is making a big messy racket. I just want it to hit me in the stomach and the butt and the heart. Tim Rogers, voice, guitarAhh Rock and Roll, if youre giving it your all, studio or stage, theres a good chance someone else is getting something out of it too. Its a good feeling. Hail Hail Rock and Roll Andy Kent, bassBeach Boy Brian Wilson might as well have been writing the script for You Am I when he sighed how I just wasnt made for these times. Too Pete Townshend-obsessed for grunge and way too early for the garage rock revival, these local heroes have always been a band out of time. But for Tim Rogers, Andy Kent and Russell Hopkinson (and recent convert, David Lane), rock & roll has never been about bottom lines and career plans its more about asses shaking, the sweat dripping off a satisfied punters brow and a tune thatll stick in your head and maybe bruise your heart along the way. And 10 years down the line, theyve done a lot more than that, thanks very much. The accolades are lofty: theyve claimed seven ARIAs, while three of their albums 1995s Hi Fi Way, 1996s Hourly, Daily and 1998s ..4 Record all hit the charts in the No 1 spot. And their legion of admirers is a whos-who of modern rock icons.There were two key moments in the evolution of You Am I. The first was when a 10-year-old Tim Rogers was forbidden from joining the Kiss Army (in a spooky coincidence, New Zealand-born Kents first rock show was the cartoon rock blood-droolers). The second was when a pre-teen Rogers heard the Stones Start Me Up while strapped into a dentists chair. Hed seen the light on the rock & roll hill.The band learned their trade in the early 1990s sticky carpet scene in Sydney, playing for beers and cheers. As Rogers stated at the time, if you headlined at the Lansdowne and got the Drum [Media] cover, youd made it. They rocked hard and often, and four EPs were banged out 1991s Snake Tide, Goddamm and Cant Get Started (both from 1992) and 1993s Coprolalia. The good word spread and record label talent-spotters started circling.But You Am I whose line-up of Rogers (guitar, voice), Kent (bass) and Hopkinson (drums) firmed in 1993 after a few earlier incarnations (guitarist David Lane joined in 1999) were never going to play the corporate game. Theyd rather talk up obscure Japanese punk bands, or the merits of such perennial outsiders as the Replacements and Nazz, than keep their eye on the charts, bless their maverick hearts. After signing their first proper record deal in 1992, theyve since given a leg up to such worldbeaters as Silverchair, the Strokes and the Vines, and never said a word in anger. If theres still a few hundred faithful in Portland or Glasgow or Bunbury wholl check em out whenever they roll into town, well, You Am I are more than happy to plug in. Even the disappointment of almost making it in the States several times over hasnt wearied them.After millions of miles, thousands of shows, hundreds of hangovers and six incredibly worthy studio albums, their place at the top of the Australian rock pile is beyond doubt. Theyve made their name as a live act of earthquaking ferocity, powered by Hopkinsons thunder of the Gods backbeat, Kents bottomless basslines and Rogers rock & roll preacherman persona, while on record theyve been able to flex both brawn and brain. They can drop a furious soundstorm such as Sound as Ever, riff themselves into a lather with a tune like Rumble and then break hearts with ballads as damned sensitive and frank and boldly autobiographical as Heavy Heart and Damage. And not only can Tim Rogers channel Keith Richards (circa Exile on Main Street, natch), he can deliver an entire album of smart, savvy character studies of Oz suburbia check out 1996s Hourly, Daily. And 1995s Hi Fi Way was one of the few homegrown albums to ever score Rolling Stones perfect five star rating. Yeah, You Am I know their shit.The proof is The Cream and the Crock, a career flashback that samples generously from their albums Sound as Ever, Hi Fi Way, Hourly, Daily, ..4 Record, Dress Me Slowly and Deliverance. Its a sonic signpost for one of the countrys finest rock institutions.With tongue only halfway in cheek, Tim Rogers sees it this way: The Cream and the Crock isnt so much a hits record as a benchmark, a watermark, a landmark audio recording that will set the tone of the genre they lovingly refer to as rock & roll for eons to come.
You Am I are rock & roll true believers. Long may they riff.
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