Sydney Rocks

Sydney's music scene has gone through many changes over the years, from the rise and fall of the Easybeats, through the riotous triumphs of Midnight Oil and Rose Tattoo, to the hip-hop fusions of Bliss N Eso and the Herd — and this overview of city sounds drawn from more than four decades crackles with creative voltage. John Paul Young steams into "Yesterday's Hero" with a vengeance, INXS charts a unstoppable course through "I Send a Message," the Vines kick the living daylights out of "Get Free" and Silverchair grinds "Tomorrow" to a fine dust. Sydney cornerstone bands come no more solid than the Missing Links . . . in Next Steps.

For the heart, the soul and the balls of Sydney-centric rock look no further than the Missing Links ("Wild About You") those pioneers of feedback who laid the foundations for much of what followed, including the landmark punk-based variations of the Celibate Rifles ("Jesus on T.V."), the Hard-Ons ("The Girl in the Sweater") and the Lime Spiders ("Slave Girl"). On a mellower tip, recent years have delivered the considered, classy indie pop of Sarah Blasko ("Always on This Line") and the polished pop-rock of Thirsty Merc ("Someday, Someday"). In Deep Cuts, we salute the Sydney bands who never stopped trying to break on through to the other side . . . until they disbanded.

Sydney's bold, experimental edge has remained sharp over the years, and in that regard Severed Heads deserves special mention — defunct since 2007 after almost three decades, the outfit left us with "Dead Eyes Opened," which sounded way ahead of its time back in '84 and still bears the sheen of original freshness. Drop City broke up in 2000, and by way of remembrance we give you "The Girl With the Sun in Her Eyes," while Kiss My Poodles Donkey (R.I.P 1994) had several great moments, and one of them was "See My Eye."

The harbour city has come in for a lot of flack in recent years for its inability to sustain a kickin' rock scene — it was telling when the old Stage Door Tavern, the scene of many a memorable gig, became the HQ of the New South Wales Licensing Court, the bureaucratic body responsible for wrapping venues up in red tape . . . and if that's not a slap in the chops from the cruel hand of irony, we don't know what is. But hold your horses, rock lovers: don't defect to Melbourne before you've soaked up Sydney's storied rock history via these stellar Essentials. Wolfmother, Ratcat, the Church, the Herd, Sherbet, Mental As Anything . . . they're all here, at the top of their form, just a click away.