It’s has been over 10 whole years since Sydney’s party starter SPOD released his (self-described) classic LP Taste The Radness. Now to celebrate the anniversary and his impending mid-life crisis, he’s decided to release an updated version of Taste The Radness, titled Taste The Sadness.
Out now via Rice Is Nice, the new LP explores hitting the second half of your existence in full-stride, dislocating your hip in the process and then spending the rest of your days in an extremely comfortable armchair. SPOD gave us a track by track run down of his new album and stories behind each track.
Last Dance (see: Letz Dance!!!)
“This song starts with the sound of the freight trains that go past my house at midnight. The original song, ‘Letz Dance‘ was a call out to get into the partyzone and a tip of the hat to letting everything go. ‘Last Dance’ is telling everyone to come back inside, have a warm drink and hang up the dancing shoes. As you get older, people start dying and moving away, so enjoy your friends whilst they last.”
Totally Sad (see: Totally Rad)
“A plodding waddle through the perilous lives of those guys at school who were the coolest at all the parties who are now just chain smoking with a wife they hate, pushing Happy Meals™ into their shitty kids faces while facebook™ing girls they once got pregnant and still carrying on like turds. Time waits for no one, so learn some bloody lessons and be a good bloke for once ya fuckwit.”
2083 (Cry With Me) (see: 2131 (Ride With Me))
“Time is a harsh beast that if you choose to battle or ignore it, you will come off looking the fool. Dads are men too, but sometimes you just have to take the long way home to get that extra 10 minutes at the TAB before you hit up Babyco for some vessel that summarizes all the terrible choices you’ve made.
French horns, flutes, violins, pianos and the loneliness of an ill-informed man with his best days behind him. This song feels like a twilight cruise through a windy beach in winter. A man might push himself too hard for too long and end up in a freezing Narrabeen carpark in early August with some shirtless Devendra Banhart piece of shit with an oversized bushmans hat and a post-ironic moustache stealing your money for weed.”
Hell No (see: Fuck Yeah!!!)
“A journey through the John Carpenter laden hallways of time, looking at the lands that every young band shall have to traverse when the clock strikes. I think one of the worst things a grown man can do is be the last guy at a party full of kids, and let me tell ya from experience, it’s a hard lesson to learn… This goes out to all the shitheads and deadshits, and that aching need for a lie down on a potent bed of morbid electronic rock.”
Devistated (see: Devistator)
“The original version of this was a high octane romp through the history of breakdancing. These days, I’m a lil older and wiser I have finally come around to the tender touch of Rrrreggae. Y’see, I grew up hating reggae with blind passion, there was something about the way it felt that was just disgusting to me. It was all UB40™ to me, which still makes me feel like I have a flu in my brain. The first seed of redemption was planted in a Grand Royal magazine in the 90s that interviewed Lee Scratch Perry that showed me that Reggae™ isn’t all glossy and there’s a lot of magic in the delayed crust of artists I’d never heard. Then I became friends with Richard In Your Mind, and the rest is history. I basically wrote this for RIYM and it features Richard Cartwright on the non vocodered mic, and it also serves as a love letter to tape delay. I don’t condone drug use, but if you guys like to smoke those things, as Ben Harper would say ‘Burn one up’.”
Fakin’ Party (see: Makin’ Party)
“I have rewritten this song on all but one of my releases, and it’s had several live versions including a single note version I used to do with Black Level Embassy. It’s basically my spirit animal as it was the first properly structured song I ever wrote with my buddy Peejay who was a founding member of SPOD.
This version is a soft and spacious sonic sponge that shall give you a glacial acreage in your soul to wander with your thoughts. I decided to leave the lyrics as is as they signal a time of purity and friendship, a tender time in a young mans life when he finds his true friend & muse of such a pristine integrity to forge their blossoming manhoods, and drink a case of Tooheys Red each night for four years.”
Back In The Summertime (see: Sumatime!!)
“I decided to pick up the pace here a bit and make a bit of a good ol’ shoulder shrugger. It’s got that classic indie rock beat for funkii mums to shop with their cute indie babies at Marrickville Metro to, and is just a bit of good ol’ fun. Remember that? A cheeky look over the shoulder at the good ol’ days. Remember when we used to stand in the Hopetoun in the summer heat drinking Coopers Pale wanting to kiss & watching Sea Life Park? Yeah, the good ol’s, right guys?”
So Lonely (see: On Heat!!)
“So the original of this song was one of my most controversial but somehow I never got in trouble. Some real sexy stuff I wrote on a train as a young man with an early 30s business woman reading over my shoulder. Horny days. I was basically the 2 Live Crew of Epping back in the day.
I decided to take a look at a sad story of a lonely Maths Teacher who’s struggling with his waning youth and finds solace in the tender soul of a young lady who has nothing but the future in her eyes, a large heart and a pure lust for life. He can see his true soul reflecting through her, but realizes that the meat gaol that is the human body refuses to take part in his foolhardy dreams as she has her life to live, as his is fading away. But in the end, it’s just life, so put it inside your belly and live it up.”
Scorpions of Sex (see: Scorpionz of Sexxx)
“This is another song I chose not to rewrite the lyrics as they transpose perfectly to an adult feeling of loss and unrequited love in its passionate retelling of youthful sexual exuberance. The original song is about when I was backpacking through Mexico as a youth and was bitten by a pink scorpion. When I woke up, I had almost superhuman sexual strength, and a new understanding of the human heart. I still hold this intense ability for carnal passion which keeps my body and mind sharp and vital, allowing me to be the ‘number one best at sex’ in my weight and age class every year since. A hauntingly beautiful slowdance with the human heart.”
Electric Hips (see: Electric Lipz)
“Electric Lipz was a hidden track on Taste The Radness and featured me on drums and Peejay on vocals and guitar. We improvised an entire punk album in one day, and this was my favorite song from that unreleased piece of seminal Australian punk history. This version is from the perspective of a guy who’s got a few years under the belt but still likes to have a little bit of fun with a sexy lady, but understands that she’s not interested in his old, disgusting body. So he chooses to have a funky time anyway and confesses that it’s a wife he needs, not some silly young girl.
I co-wrote this version with the one and only Peter Gabriel who many people don’t know that he lives in Australia now. I can’t disclose his address, but lets just say he’s a cool guy who enjoys his garden and getting a little bit funky every now and then.”
Thanks guys, chin up and enjoy yourselves, buy my record and remember that life itself is the perfect gift.
Love from SPOD.”
