Dom Mariani - Popsided Guitar: Anthology 1984-2004 [2CD Set] (2005/2011)

The Stems, the Stonefish, the Someloves, DM3, the Majestic Kelp: five easy steps on Dom Mariani's endless quest for the ultimate, radiosized guitar pop masterpiece.

Popsided Guitar is Dom's first career overview, a 2CD sprawl that handpicks 38 of the brightest jewels from a pop craftsman who has long defined a certain uncompromising passion in the Australian rock underground.

His work is a distillation of rock'n'roll energy, sunstreaked melodies, ringing guitar work and headlock chorus hooks, fine-tuned with alchemical precision over 20 years of performance.

"These bands represent a progression with the same goal, really," says the Perth-based, internationally revered singer, songwriter and master rock guitarist. "I always wanted to write great pop tunes in a rock'n'roll context, record them the best way I could and have a band do justice to them on stage."

Yeah, he's always made it sound that easy. Like the most memorable tunes on the Top 40 radio he grew up with, Dom's greatest songs exude an effortless, timeless lustre that masks a true attention to detail:

Check the cascading brilliance of DM3's Foolish; the '60s jangle of the Stems' At First Sight; the impeccable pop glow of the Someloves' Melt or Know You Now; the wry, retro-twang of classic surf instrumental by the Stonefish and the loungy soundtracks of Majestic Kelp... different strings, same impeccably strung bow.

Decades before Jet, the Hives and the Strokes, he also drew inspiration from the esoteric US garage punk scene of the '60s ... one he revisited last August when Little Steven Van Zandt asked the Stems to play his Underground Garage Rock Festival in New York. The Stooges, New York Dolls, Bo Diddley and Nancy Sinatra were among the other invited legends.

Long a regular drawcard on the rock stages of Europe and Scandinavia, it was Dom's latest quiet achievement on the international stage. In a sense, his more modest profile back home suits a temperament more attuned to the ongoing pursuit of pop perfection than the distractions of stardom.

Then again, Popsided Guitar could change all that. From the euphoric rush of Sunshine's Glove to the ominous melancholy of Something Heavy; the old school organ vibe of For Always to the brassy swing of Homespun Blues (from his 2004 solo album Homespun Blues and Greens), these are songs internally wired to light up a room ... For Always.