SYN Media

From first gigs to first make-out sessions, episode 1 of Friday Night Fidelity was the soundtrack of your music life. Tonight’s show featured a huge range of musical firsts, featuring suggestions from Fidelity listeners as well as some of Jake’s very own. This is an episode about your stories, and how music has shaped your life.

Missed hearing this episode live? Listed below is each of the musical firsts featured in Episode 1 of Friday Night Fidelity in detail. Scroll down to see the full playlist, or click here to stream each track on Spotify.

(Responses have been edited for clarity)

Home – LCD Soundsystem

Admittedly, I cheated a bit here. I knew that whichever song I played first on this week’s show would be just that – a first. “So,” I thought, “why not start off Friday Night Fidelity with a song that was meant to be a last?” The closing track from the band’s 2010 album ‘This Is Happening‘ was long assumed to be the last ever LCD Soundsystem tune – and to be fair, they did go out in style. Nonetheless, the group reunited in 2016, releasing ‘American Dream‘ and playing a set at Melbourne’s Margaret Court Arena in 2017. -Jake

Forever Young – Youth Group

(AUS)

I remember most things about this story: going to the store, picking up the CD with the distinct yellow turtle-on-black cover design, and wondering as a 6 year old just what “as heard on the hit series The O.C.” meant. It was the first single I’d ever buy, and the meaning I take from the title track has grown along with me. No longer bonded to the innocence and naivety of childhood, Forever Young is – to Adult Jake – a melancholic anthem of a less complicated time in our lives. -Jake

Unashamed Desire – Missy Higgins

(AUS)

First single I bought to listen to on my iPod. -Anon.
(Okay but for real, when’s the last time you bought a single for your iPod?)

Outside of Me – Killing Heidi

(AUS)

Killing Heidi‘s Ella Hooper flicked the switch alongside the station’s President, Craig Twitt, to launch the newly full-time community radio station – known then as SYN FM – at 12pm on January 28th, 2003. Was this an excuse to play a Killing Heidi track on Friday Night Fidelity? Possibly, but did I go to the effort to dig up a photo from the launch? You bet. -Jake

Unforgettable – Sia

(AUS)

This was the first song I sent my boyfriend as a cheese-y ‘I love you’ thing – we have now been dating for almost 2 years. -Holly

Hero/Heroine – Boys Like Girls

I made out for the first time, with my first “serious boyfriend” to this song in Year 9. Hearing it takes me back through the weird emo/pop punk mist of being 14 and everything just being SO INTENSE AND DRAMATIC. -Anon

Just A Song About Ping Pong – Operator Please

(AUS)

This is the first music video I remember, and certainly the first one I remember liking. I associate this with pure absurdity – the bright colours and the ‘rejected superheroes’ aesthetic rendered otherwise forgettable Saturday morning music TV shows unforgettable in my mind. Well worth watching the video – click here! -Jake

History Eraser – Courtney Barnett

(AUS)

A track from my first show on The Awkward Stage, which is memorable for a number of reasons. Firstly, because none of us can remember the name of the first song we actually played that week, and secondly, because our SYN trainer decided that an anxious 13 year old should push the buttons for the first show. No, you’re not allowed to hear the audio. -Jake

Buy Me A Pony – Spiderbait

(AUS)

Spiderbait was my first ever gig – a free show at Federation Square in 2005 – and I had to include a song by them because you always remember your first gig.I still have the poster for it in my room. -Anon

Ten Tonne Skeleton – Royal Blood

A track from the band’s 2015 debut album, the first vinyl record I purchased, and still the only one I own. In my head, I’m much more of an audiophile than I actually am, but despite growing up in the era of CDs and digital music I don’t mind the novelty of vinyl. Please send me vinyl. -Jake

Weekend – Flume (feat. Moses Sumney)

(AUS)

First song to ever make me cry just because it has the sad piano bit in it. -Anon

Laura – Bat for Lashes

Sad mode: activate. As the first song that made me cry, I distinctly remember writing an essay on this track for school – not that I can find it now, of course. Natasha’s vocals cannot be described by mere mortals; I recommend listening to this track with a box of tissues nearby. -Jake

A World Alone – Lorde

I am forever grateful to inhabit the same world as Lorde, and even more grateful to have experienced her Melodrama World Tour in November 2017. For a number of reasons, 2017 was a year that was personally testing, but hearing her belt this song out with support from a hugely vocal crowd at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl was the first time I knew things would, after all, be okay. Also, I needed to end the show on a happier note -Jake