Decemberween

It's been a great year. A big thx to all our sponsors and supporters. Special snaps 4 Julie @ Subway and Jason @ Sportsweb for over 30kg's lost + KFC for helping out with Club Now.

Merry Freakin' Christmas, one and all!

Pet Shop Boys (Petshop): Go West

The first thing that springs to mind when anyone mentions the Pet Shop Boys is meeting I had an old school friend, back from London, and him telling me with a smile the size of W.A, “I was in this gay bar and I met Neil Tennant and that other guy.” Despite the manner of their meeting, you can’t deny they’re still relevant. Sure he couldn’t remember Chris Lowe’s name, but he does stand in the back in a ‘dunce hat meets Elton John kind of burqa.’

The Village People cover ‘Go West’ came about after a bungled performance at an AIDS benefit in ’92. Neil couldn’t remember the words to the classic, which brought unexpected laughs to The Haçienda nightclub gig in Manchester. Afterwards they couldn’t help but have another go, hence the single and popular Pet Shop Boys concert closer.

Smashing Pumpkins (The): 1979

Lead singer Billy Corgan says he wrote 1979 about a time somewhere between childhood and adulthood. He recalls a rainy night where he was waiting at the traffic lights in his bombed out car, still at school but with adult responsibilities. He described the feeling as ‘knowing your not quite there’, but success, or failure is just around the corner.

1979 made #12 in the U.S. and spawned a sillborn video where The Smashing Pumpkins play house band at a teen party. A member of the film crew left the tape (which took 3 days to film) on the roof of his car and drove off. Some say as punishment he had to stand in the city centre wearing a sandwich board advertising his incompetence. Either way, the last song to scrape on to ‘Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness’ made the album great.

Powderfinger: Passenger

Powderfinger, so named after the Neil Young song, came together in Brisbane (Australia) in 1989. After 10 years struggling in what lead singer (and more recently: solo artist) Bernard Fanning refers to as the ‘dark times,’ broke through with the album ‘Internationalist’ in 98.

‘Passenger’ was released in ’99 and featured out of tune guitars (by accident,) which guitarist Darren Middleton laughed off in an interview with Massive, saying they had no regrets. The single was nominated for an Aria which it didn’t win, and it only made #30 on the Aussie music charts. What it did do is linger on in radio play lists, where it remains today. How many top 10 songs lack that kind of staying power?

Radiohead: Creep

Back in 1993 I saved all my pocket money and bought the Triple J Hottest 100 on cassette. I’ll never forget the way I felt when I heard this song for the first time.

Thom Yorke wrote ‘Creep’ from Radiohead’s 'Pablo Honey' while he was in college. It’s based on the Albert Hammond song ‘The Air That I Breathe’ and it’s about that deep sinking awkwardness that tells you you’re on the outer. Thom said “There's the beautiful people and then there's the rest of us.” As a small boy, bowl cut equipped with eccentric parents, I totally understood that. Listen to the guitar feedback and the Joy Divsionesque deadpan delivery, can you believe they nailed it in just one take? Why they had to retract the F*bomb I’ll never know, it’s so poignant.

So, if you’re a bit goofy or just a little slow, you’re not alone.

Marcy Playground: Sex And Candy

There’s something about Grunge, lurking in the back of my mind that annoys me. It’s that whole “I’m miserable without my guitar” thing. On balance I’m glad they did because it gave us staying power like Nirvana. Another highlight, although not quite Grunge is Marcy Playground, sporting front man John Wozniak.

‘Sex And Candy’ hammered the U.S. Mod Rock Charts for a record 15 weeks, knocking Oasis’ ‘Wonderwall’ off the top spot. I like the lyrics “…there she was, like double cherry pie, yeah…” It’s got all the mumbling listlessness of it’s daddy genre without the depressing undertones. It’s lounge lazy to their angst. It’s John McCrea and Kurt Cobain’s love child.

Alice Deejay: Better Off Alone

I get happy in my pants every time somebody beats Jay Lo to a music award, which is why, in the late 90’s early 00’s I couldn’t get enough of Amsterdam outfit ‘Alice Deejay.’

The time was one of lifeless 90’s post-synth. The battleground was Eurotrance. Their breakout single ‘Better Off Alone’ went all the way to #2 in the U.K. and #4 in Aus. They even managed a respectable follow up with the single ‘Back In My Life.’ Producers Pronti, Kalmani and DJ Jurgen who made up Alice Deejay took out Best Chart Act defeating (The) Vengaboys, Eiffel 65, DJ Sonik and of course, Jennifer Lopez.

The problem with these dace troop outfits is one of changing trends, rather like everyone having yo-yo’s at school, until I bought one. They burst into the mainstream under the pop umbrella, but seem to get binned after a few singles as just another ‘Doof, Doof.’ So next time you see a dance track has-been in the street, tell them that they’re still welcome on the radio.

Stars On 54: If You Could Read My Mind (Lightfoot)

For the 1998 Mike Myers/Ryan Phillippe movie Studio ’54, 90’s sensations Amber, Ultra Naté and Jocelyn Enriquez came together as the supergroup ‘Stars on 54,’ to thrash ‘If You Could Read My Mind’ by Lightfoot, one more time. I think there are about 100 covers of this particular song and it’s not hard to see why. What baffles me is how such a competent composition didn’t ensure a solid career for Whatsitsfoot. I’ve never hear of him, have you?

Johnny Cash recorded his own monotone rendition shortly before he began pushing up the daisies. Rather than digging it up, let’s spin the new-ish one. If you haven’t seen the movie, it smells a little bit like this.