poison to the mind

IT’S CHRISTMAS!

But first, multiculturalism:

Beck - Little Drum Machine Boy
for those of you who feel the Hanukkah Funk.

AND NOW!

Doris Day - The Christmas Song
Chestnuts roasting, and all that.

Doris Day - Winter Wonderland
Okay, so here in the real world, we’re a month into summer, but let’s indulge cultural dominance, eh? IN THE SPIRIT OF CHRISTMAS.

John Denver & the Muppets - Twelve Days of Christmas
Actually is John Denver on this? Well, it’s from that record, you know the one. My bodge Korean-licensed CD version doesn’t have any credits or anything and I didn’t listen to this before putting it up. There’s loads of Muppets, I can tell you that.

Dr Teeth & The Electric Mayhem - Little Saint Nick
This one I can credit properly due to fond memories of the gatefold vinyl edition as a nipper. Look out for Animal.

Gene Autry - 32 Feet & 8 Little Tails
AGH RUN it’s a HIDEOUS MONSTER oh wait.

Gene Autry - The Story Of The Nativity
Never mind the narrative quality, feel the length! 13 minutes + of children being indoctrinated into The Amazing Robe-Man.

Fat Les - Naughty Christmas (Goblin In The Office)
Let’s hope this doesn’t bring back bad memories. Except of Keith Allen.

Sonic Youth - Santa Doesn’t Cop out On Dope
But can we take their word for it? I mean, it’s only one night a year the dude’s really got to hold it together and punch the timecard, who knows how he squanders the rest of the year?

So, a few months ago I did a post about singer/songwriter Greta Gertler, showcasing loads of new & unreleased songs, that could well have been an entry on Womenfolk. What we’re gonna do right here is go back - way back - and then come forwards a bit. The recordings today are all from a 2001 gig, but the songs mostly date back to the mid-’90s and her chamber-pop group Peccadillo - there’s lots of light-hearted humour, examination of human mating rituals, bemoaning of acid trips gone wrong and silly innuendos. Plus the odd spot of sensitive introspection.

Greta Gertler (& ¾ of Peccadillo), live at the Harbourside Brasserie:

Football Song
- Possibly the first instance in popular song of musicians and rugby players being likened.
Wedding Song
- Can you spot the occasional pattern to the song naming?
I’m Not A Lizard
Fishy Song
- If you like to hear pretty girls shouting “SEX!”, this is the one song you should download.
Dwell
- This song had its lyrics changed and point removed by A Successful Musician a couple of years later, and became the biggest Australian radio hit of the year. And look! Here’s one about the previous time he did it:
I Heard Your Song On The Radio

And here’s the one newer song in the batch, written after Greta’s move to New York and performed in the “solo” set of that night’s show. She’d just won an unsigned artist songwriting prize thingy for it at the time. Aw.
Everyone Wants To Adore You

Greta’s in Sydney this week, playing one show at the Vanguard on Sunday night. Go along for dinner, buy a CD or three.

Everyone loves The Go! Team, right? Hyped-up sample-clashing fizzy-pop TV-theme happy funtime music, etc etc - you’re on the internet, you know the drill. So I really, really wanted to love them live (they’re the only foreign band I’ve gone to see all year, actually), and they certainly seemed to be putting their side of the effort into it: a crowd of people running around, swapping instruments, jumping up and down and shouting… but in Sydney, the mix was so dead that in order to get excited, I had to ignore what was actually coming out of the speakers and dance to the platonic ideal of the song inside my head.

Retrospective forgiveness: thanks to my tax dollars, one of their Melbourne shows was recorded a few days later and broadcast the next month on yoof network Triple J, whereupon I was able to confirm that indeed they should have sounded totally ace. And now so can you! The whole broadcast edit (about half an hour of the show) is streaming on the JJJ website, and for re-listening pleasure, here’s a few of the non-LP songs they played on the tour:

The Go! Team - We Just Won’t Be Defeated (live in Melbourne)
- from the limited edition Australian tour EP/less-limited bonus disc on the tour-coinciding reissue of the album

The Go! Team - The Ice Storm (live in Melbourne)
- originally a bonus track on the Japanese version of their album, but also on the EP/bonus disc as above

The Go! Team - Untitled New Song (live in Melbourne)
- not on the tour EP, BUT! while Ninja makes a big deal about the song being untitled and asking for suggestions, the chorus asks “Are You Ready For More?”.. which happens to be the title of the EP. Hmm.

Buy:
You can get the two-disc version of Thunder Lightning Strike for $26 (it’s cheaper in shops than direct from the label), or Are You Ready For More by itself for $12. (For some reason, Shock have the wrong sleeve up on the site, so I’m giving you the real one here, stolen from Sanity).

You can support JJJ by paying taxes and voting against John Howard.