Russell Crowe Has Surprisingly Good Taste In Music

The Internet has broken down a shitload of barriers in the music industry, mostly for the better. Emerging artists can deliver their wares direct to fans, avoiding the rusting mechanisms of major label workflows. This has been further compounded by the growing decline in the old guard of print based, taste making publications.

There are downsides though. Without a favourite magazine or writer, finding a new favourite band requires hours of futile blog-trawling. But there is one man we can still turn to for musical guidance. And that man is Russell Crowe.

As well as being Australia’s greatest acting export (or import), Rusty is a lot of things: Neighbours alumni; IRL rugby magnate; budding director; motherfuckin’ Maximus Desmus Meridius, Commander of the Army of the North, General of the Felix Legions, a loyal servant to my true emperor Markus Aurelius. Father to a murdered son, husband to a murdered wife, and he will have his vengeance.

What you might not know is that Rusty is also a switched-on musical tastemaker, proving to be a veritable Nostradamus when it comes to predicting the next big thing.

Check that out and note the date. Sure last year everybody was riding Tame Impala’s dick with the release of Lonerism, but here is Russell giving the Perth outfit a shout-out soon after their debut LP dropped.

Rusty got to the Tame Impala, underground Melbourne experimentalism party early.

Not only is Russell predicting, or perhaps initiating, the rise of one of 2012’s biggest breakthrough acts; he iconoclastically quotes Australia’s most famed musical journalist (Molly Meldrum) with the line, “do yourself a favour”. It’s a deft stroke of subliminal power play, to say the least.

Proving just how eclectic his impeccable palate is, Russell was all over British singer-songwriter Jessie Ware at the start of 2013. Unable to source a ticket to the sold-out Laneway Festival, he was instead in attendance at her Sydney show.

With Russell’s proven track record of musical appreciation in mind, maybe it’s time we look back on the Thirty Odd Foot Of Grunts body of work and give it another shot, eh?

Just kidding, predicting this week’s winning lotto numbers wouldn’t stop that band from sucking. Sorry Ruz.

Follow Lachlan on Twitter: @lauchlankanoniuk