Just nowSat 26 Jul 2025 at 2:03am

#80: Empire of the Sun — We Are The People (2008)

3m agoSat 26 Jul 2025 at 2:00am

Your #90 — #81

20 song down! 80 to go! How are we feeling?

(triple j)

5m agoSat 26 Jul 2025 at 1:58am

If you bake, I’ll give all my eggs to you

You Am I’s Berlin Chair is one of my favourite songs of all time. At Double J we named it our favourite Australian song of the 90s, and I wrote this at the time:

There have been thousands of words written about this humble two-and-a-half minute rocker from You Am I’s debut album, but no one has ever been able to truly capture what makes it so special.

Maybe that’s the best thing about Berlin Chair. In a way, it defies description. It bears little resemblance to any other song. It isn’t traditionally catchy, yet it won’t leave your head from the moment you hear those first lines.

Tim Rogers doesn’t try and play an endearing protagonist. He paints a picture of a cold, self-obsessed, disconnected man, yearning for love but unwilling to give much back. It’s an honest examination of the flaws of the modern man.

It’s the ultimate example of a song that makes the complex seem simple. The emotionally wrought seem unperturbed. And it’ll leave us clamouring to find ultimately insufficient words to explain its great power and beauty for many decades to come.

5m agoSat 26 Jul 2025 at 1:58am

#81: You Am I — Berlin Chair (1993)

11m agoSat 26 Jul 2025 at 1:52am

#82: Peking Duk — High [Ft. Nicole Millar] (2014)15m agoSat 26 Jul 2025 at 1:48amA deserved placement from the Gobs

The Go-Betweens are national treasures. They have a bridge named after them in the greatest city in the world, they have influenced every cool indie band you can think of, and they just sound quintessentially Australian.

Streets Of Your Town needed to be in this list, and it deserved its spot at #84 (should’ve been higher etc.)

Read more about their esteemed career here:

16m agoSat 26 Jul 2025 at 1:47am

#83: Ben Lee — Cigarettes Will Kill You (1998)

My first vote in the countdown!! Rise up, Ben Lee gang 💪

20m agoSat 26 Jul 2025 at 1:43am

#84: The Go-Betweens — Streets Of Your Town (1988)

I’m coming to you live from within spitting distance of The Go Between bridge in Brisbane – feeling pretty darn proud of my town right now!

23m agoSat 26 Jul 2025 at 1:40am

Speaking of covers…

Justice for ‘Delete’! It felt for a long time like it was the signature DMA’S song, originally coming in at #48 in the 2014 countdown.

Until, that is, they covered Cher’s ‘Believe’ for triple j’s Like A Version, which skyrocketed their profile and saw them top 2023’s Hottest 100 of Like A Versions. Will that make an appearance today? We’ll have to wait and see.

Read more here:

24m agoSat 26 Jul 2025 at 1:39am

To cover or not to cover

Should Black Betty really be considered an Australian song? Its a great cover but is it considered Aussie.

– Dave

Thanks for your question, Dave!

Here’s the rule around covers today:

If a song has been significantly reworked (edited/remixed/re-recorded) after its initial release, the reworked song is eligible. 

So, yes Black Betty is a cover BUT Spiderbait’s cover is radically different from the original which is why it got into the countdown.

The total blanket ban is on Like A Version covers!

27m agoSat 26 Jul 2025 at 1:36am

#85: DMA’S — Delete (2016)

29m agoSat 26 Jul 2025 at 1:34am

Reckon we’ll hear from Gotye again?

Surely not. Wally didn’t have any other songs did he?

Here’s a great little clip of him playing Heart’s A Mess on JTV back in 2007.

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32m agoSat 26 Jul 2025 at 1:31am

#86: Gotye — Hearts a Mess (2006)

34m agoSat 26 Jul 2025 at 1:29am

Keep those comments coming!

I was supposed to be going out exercising but I’m staying home, dancing in the kitchen with the kids. What a great day!

– Helen, WA

I already get the feeling older long time JJJ listeners are going to be much happier today than some of the younger listeners! So epic already. – Cam Sharpe

Thank you; loving the live updates (and extra snippets of information). – Mel

We’re reading all of them and are LOVING hearing your thoughts about today’s countdown!

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39m agoSat 26 Jul 2025 at 1:24am

#87: Gang Of Youths — The Deepest Sighs, The Frankest Shadows (2017)

40m agoSat 26 Jul 2025 at 1:23am

Want to know more about ‘Chateau’?

Angus & Julia Stone did a great episode of Linda Marigliano’s segment in 2018 unpacking this beauty.

43m agoSat 26 Jul 2025 at 1:20am

#88: Angus & Julia Stone — Chateau (2017)46m agoSat 26 Jul 2025 at 1:17amWhat Black Betty meant to Spiderbait

When we spoke to Spiderbait about their ARIA chart-topping version of Black Betty a few years back, they admitted how important the song was to their career.

“It came at a point when our career was a little bit unknown, we weren’t quite sure whether we were going to continue,” Kram said.

Read more below.

47m agoSat 26 Jul 2025 at 1:16am

#89: Amyl and The Sniffers — Hertz (2021)

51m agoSat 26 Jul 2025 at 1:12am

#90: Spiderbait — Black Betty (2004)