The Vines are an Australian group fronted by Craig Nicholls, who wrote "Get Free," their most popular song. Nicholls explained the meaning to Interview magazine: "'Get Free' is about doing what you want. It's a combination of strength and pain, fear and excitement. 'Getting free' can mean anything, like sleeping in until three in the afternoon every day if that's what you want - that's getting free. For me, though, getting free is in the music."
The frantic energy and raw sound of "Get Free," from their debut album, Highly Evolved, helped establish The Vines as part of the garage rock revival of the early 2000s, which included The Strokes, The White Stripes, and another Australian band, Jet. The Vines were a little different because they got loads of press as soon as Highly Evolved came out. Rolling Stone and the British music mag NME both ran cover stories, with NME hyping them as the new Nirvana.
Of course, they didn't live up to these lofty expectations, but many listeners thoroughly enjoyed the Highly Evolved album. The second Vines album, Winning Days in 2004, didn't do as well, but Craig Nicholls kept the band going with various lineups and maintained a solid following (mostly in Australia) for years, outlasting most of the bands from that garage rock revival.
The video was directed by Roman Coppola, the son of film director Francis Ford Coppola (
The Godfather,
Apocalypse Now). It was shot in an aircraft hangar at Chandler Valley Center Studios in Burbank, California, and shows the band performing as a lightning storm comes through, an apt metaphor for their dangerous energy. Other videos Coppola directed include "
Last Nite" by The Strokes and "
Lump" by The Presidents of the United States of America.
The Vines performed "Get Free" at the 2002 MTV Video Music Awards as part of a "garage rock battle of the bands" segment where they took on The Hives.
Live performances of "Get Free" became notorious for Craig Nicholls' unpredictable and often destructive behavior on stage. During shows, he was known to scream incoherently instead of singing the lyrics, destroy his own and other band members' equipment, and toss himself around on stage without regard for his safely. As drummer Hamish Rosser described, "When I saw him go bonkers the first time, it was kind of frightening. I thought that he was either going to hurt himself or hurt someone else or even jump out a window."
These volatile performances of "Get Free" and other songs contributed to The Vines' reputation as an intense live act, but also led to increasing concern about Nicholls' mental state and ability to cope with the pressures of fame. The band's touring career was eventually curtailed after Nicholls was diagnosed with Asperger syndrome in 2004.
The band played "Get Free" on various TV shows to promote the song, often with unpredictable results. When they
played it on The Late Show with David Letterman, Craig Nicholls smashed his guitar into the drum kit, tumbled over an amp, and writhed around on the floor, mumbling into the microphone "I think they're troubled teens," Letterman quipped.
They didn't even make air on Jay Leno's show - Nicholls had a similar fit during the soundcheck, so their performance was canceled.
The Vines charted several songs in Australia and the UK, but "Get Free" is the only one that made the US Hot 100, bubbling under at #122. It was, however, the most-added track on US radio for the week of May 19, 2002.
"Get Free" is rather efficient, clocking in at just 2:05. The lead single from the album, "Highly Evolved," runs just 1:34.
