After Liege's unsuccessful debut attempt at the Dirty Valda in 2024, where he got stuck in Manangatang for many many days due to some dodgy ankles, better known as 'Manangat-ankle' in the Adventure Dojo, he was back with vengeance in 2025. The sole mission to make it further this time round. With all the Chevron's back home religiously watching his dot as the Sheriff of Manangatang rolled out of town, and the champagne bottle was popped, crisis struck as Liege's combo of choccy milk, Powerade and anti inflams couldn't carry him any more. The Sheriff of Manangatang has upgraded, but not to Attorney General of Adelaide, but just to Mr Mildura Man. See ya in 2026 Bradman...
The concept of music affecting the quality of a ride is by no means a revelation, but your brain travels to strange places when you're pedalling for decent lengths. Somewhere between Manangatang and Mildura, my brain decided that my contribution to the legacy of the Dirty Valda would be musical in nature.
Fellow Valda Alumni, Tin Do mentioned in a response to one of my insta posts that I should do some music reviews. This got me thinking...During my latest attempt at the Valda, I decided to take my Ipod shuffle that was last updated around 10 years ago. I figured this would both save phone battery and make for a suitable, low effort soundtrack for the occasion. I can be pretty lazy at times, so I couldn't really be bothered sorting a suitable, offline playlist. I had far more important things to concern myself with, such as how many pairs of white socks to take.I was going to be stuck with 90 percent, sad white guy guitar music for the duration.
Elliott Smith? Pavement? Interpol? Not exactly audio rays of sunshine.
Granted, not the ideal soundscape to keep the spirits high, but I was ready for a challenge. As covered in my somewhat self indulgent report on my insta stories, everything was right in the world when the anti inflams were peaking and a song played that didn't require the double click of death on the headphone remote. The audio outliers, so to speak. Truth be told, I'm sure I gave myself a mild case of RSI from skipping tracks so frequently, but when a great song did make its way in, it was truly glorious and genuinely improved my mental & physical state. The following is a tracklist of said choice cuts with some ruminations on my relationship with a few of the tracks.
1. Divinyls - Siren ( Never Let you go )The bit where Chrissy does the alphabet bit. Holy Moly.
2. Thalassocracy - Frank BlackAs a teenager in the early 90s, being a fan of the Pixies was almost an obligation, but for some reason I gravitated more so to Frank's solo stuff. I was always pretty pumped whenHeadache,the single off the record, Teenager Of The Year came on Rage at 3 the morning.
3. Kangaroo Pocket - Rozwell Kid"If I did everything that I should, when do I do nothing at all?" Facts.
4. I'm The Man - Anthrax For some reason, back in the very early 90s, I wound up going to a quasi-religious summer camp. Being a non believer, I was bunked up with the other non believers for the duration. We spent a lot of time trading cassette tapes to play on our Sony Walkmen to pass the time in purgatory. One of these cassingles ( remember those? ) was the rap/metal fusion masterpiece - I'm The Man from 1987. The combination of multiple catchy riffs with gutter level humor really resonated with my 11 year old sensibilities. Even at age 45, I still get a kick out of it every time I hear it.
5. Lady Bug ( Disc Mix ) - Bumblebee Unlimited
6. Beautiful Future - Primal Scream
7. Tourette's - Nirvana Truly peak Nirvana. In April of 1994 when Kurt killed himself, it was a serious enough deal that you could legitimately ditch school for the day. A friend of mine would carve a letter of Kurt's name into her arm every anniversary of his passing. I'm pretty sure she only made it to KUR. The 90s were truly a magical time to be alive.
8. The Rat - The Walkmen
9. Burnt - Del The Funky Homosapien"I would if I could, but I can't, so I aint" - genius.
10. Mothersky ( Pilooski Edit ) - CanThe version of this song I have on the shuffle isn't available on spotify, so you just get the original Can version. I saw pilooski DJ at Melbourne's infamous Revolver nightclub around the mid 2000's. The fact that he played this song to a roomful of the loosest people you've ever seen alway blew my mind. As a fledgeling DJ back then, it really opened my eyes as to what you could get away with, with the right dancefloor.
11. Ice Fishing - the Cairo Gang
12. Dead Angels Make Slow Sound - The Detachment Kit
13. Steroids ( Feat Uffie ) - Mr Oizo
14. Rage In The Plague Age - Les Savy Fav
15. Going Nowhere - Regulations.I saw these guys play at the Greenroom in Melbourne back in the early 2000's.They smashed out all of the floating ceiling above the stage. Swedish for Punk AF.
16. Come In Alone - My Bloody Valentine
17. Jellyfish - Ghostface Killah
18. Orion - Metallica
