Tag: Music

Respect All Lifeforms is the eighth studio album by Australian alternative rock band Custard “Custard (band)”), released on 22 May 2020 by ABC Music.[1]

The album was preceded by the release of the single “Funky Again”, which was accompanied by a video directed by longtime collaborator Andrew Lancaster.[2]

Source: Respect All Lifeforms by Wikipedia

Gone are the days when the band would painstakingly labour over the creation of the album, the basis for Respect All Lifeforms, was recorded one weekend at Poons Head Studio in Fremantle while the band were in Perth to play a festival. As Dave McCormick explained:

“This album was pretty easy, we were about to fly over to Perth to play a festival, and we went over the day before because we hate the three hour time difference in Perth. You end up feeling like it’s 4am in the morning by the time you play.

“We had a day to kill, and Glenn Thompson booked us a studio in Fremantle, and we went in and we recorded eight songs on the day, and six of them we used on the album, so it was a productive morning.”

…

“We were less prepared than we normally are,” he explains. “Traditionally, Matthew Strong, guitar and I would get together and write, we’d show each other some chord ideas, send it around and everyone would have a listen and have a think about it.

“This session, no one had heard anything that any of us were working on, so it was all ‘first listen’, ‘what can we play?’ I didn’t even know what my songs were, really. I was thinking, ‘Maybe there’s a chorus here, a guitar solo’, but it was all very much a work in progress.

“I think this album is very immediate, and that’s the way I like working now. In the ’90s, we’d spend weeks and weeks on tracking the album, and mixing the album, but I don’t want to do that anymore. I just want to keep it all in a sense of falling forward where no one quite knows what’s happening, and I like that energy.”

Source: Custard: Still Full of Surprises by Tyler Jenke

While Glenn Thompson spoke about the spontaneity associated with learning and recording at the same time.

“We hadn’t played the songs before recording, so it was learning and recording at the same time – which is great. That spontaneity helps to make something interesting.
“We’ve played together for so long that there’s just a feeling, you know the direction in which things are going to go, and you all go in a similar direction at a similar time.”

Source: Custard’s ‘Respect All Lifeforms’ Is One Of The Best Albums Of 2020… Trust by Bronwyn Thompson

Discussing the album with Lindsay McDougall, McCormick explained that what makes a “Custard” song is when a song is played and the band hear it and add their additions in return, the organic interchange.

Respect All Lifeforms feels like a return to the ebbs and flows of We Have the Technology and Loverama. Unlike the last two albums, which opened with slower more somber tracks and a touch of country, this albums kicks off with a bang with ‘Couples Fight’, making something of a statement. The album then bounces around from there. Gone is the lap steel and harmonica. It does not wear the criticism of ‘Adult Contemporary’ made against their last two albums so well.

One interesting aspect about this album is that McCormick, Thompson and Paul Medew each take writing responsibilities. This itself brings a point of difference. With Thompson providing his usual infectious whimsical observations of the world with ‘A Cat Called No’ and ‘Wishing’, Medew providing some pace with ‘Wishing’ and ‘Like People’, while McCormick fills out the rest with his usual mix. They also provide a cover of Camper Van Beethoven’s ‘Taking the Skinheads Bowling’.

It was interesting reading David Lowery’s thoughts on writing ‘Taking the Skinheads Bowling’, in which he described it as “weird non-sensical”.

So it should not surprise you that I never thought  that Take the Skinheads Bowling would become a Hit.  If someone had traveled from the future and told me we would have a hit on our first album I would not have picked this song as being the hit.  Not in a million years.  I would have more likely picked Where the Hell is Bill.

Why?  we regarded Take The Skinheads Bowling as just a weird non-sensical song.  The lyrics were purposely structured so that it would be devoid of meaning.  Each subsequent line would undermine any sort of meaning established by the last line.  It was the early 80’s and all our peers were writing songs that were full of meaning.  It was our way of rebelling.  BTW this is the most important fact about this song.  We wanted the words to lack any coherent meaning.  There is no story or deeper insight that I can give you about this song.

Source: #74 Hits are Black Swans-Take the Skinheads Bowling by David Lowery

This is probably a good way of describing a lot of Custard’s music.

Noel Mengel argues that what makes a Custard album is the ebb and flow throughout.

But what is so enjoyable about Custard’s music is not that it can be defined in any neat way but that it can’t. Pop-rock with guitars it might be, but there is a lot going on that rewards play after play. And it always sounds just like them.

Source: Respect All Lifeforms. Custard by Noel Mengel

He also summarises the album as follows:

A lovers’ tiff, ills ancient and modern, great records past and present, the lengthening shadows of loves, record shops, hangovers: it’s all fuel for Custard.

Source: Respect All Lifeforms. Custard by Noel Mengel

On a side note, the picture on the cover was taken during the recording session in Fremantle of a man called ‘Cowboy John’:

“At this Poons Head Studio in Fremantle, there was this character called Cowboy John who was hanging around the studio,” he recalls. “He looked about, maybe [in his] 60s, and he was known to the studio owner.

“He came into the studio, hung out with us a little bit, and then he bummed some of Matthew’s cigarettes, and then he was gone. And as he left, he said, ‘Respect all lifeforms’, and that was it; he just walked out of the studio. And we just looked at each other and said, ‘That’s the album name, Respect All Lifeforms‘.

“And the studio owner, Rob [Grant], said ‘I’ve got a photo here of Cowboy John playing this monophonic Roland synth thing, and he’s wearing a crown.’ And we said, ‘We need that photo, that has to be the cover of the album.’

“So it was a productive morning. We had the album cover done, we had the title of the album done, and we had six songs recorded.”

Source: Custard: Still Full of Surprises by Tyler Jenke

Tracklist

Couples Fight

The last two albums started off with slower more subdued tracks. Couples Fight feels like something of a statement. It has a Ballroom Blitz feel, before breaking out the synthesiser. I am left wondering about categorising Custard’s songs, I think that this fits into the category of ‘observations’, especially with the line “playing Blood on the Tracks … via bluetooth.” It tells a story, but not a specific story.

Funky Again

I asked AI to create me a song that combines The Cure’s Let’s Go To Bed, Britany Spears’ Toxic and Fatboy Slim’s Weapon of Choice. It responded that the song already exists in the form of Funky Again. After listening to Dave McCormick on Take 5 podcast, I can hear the influence of Britany Spears’ Toxic in this track with some of the guitar lines, while it would be fascinating to hear Funky Again mashed up with Weapon of Choice.

Harrlequin Records

Category: biographical, maybe auto? Love the line, “I’m so dumb, people think that I am smart.” It has the big feel that was a part of the previous album.

A Cat Called No

Glenn Thompson has the ability to write the quirkiest songs with the most infectious harmonies.

Wishing

Paul Medew starts this song hard and drives it all the way through. It has an Elvis Costello feel.

Take the Skinheads Bowling

This is a cover of Camper Van Beethoven’s track. Here is David Lowery discussing the song:

So it should not surprise you that I never thought  that Take the Skinheads Bowling would become a Hit.  If someone had traveled from the future and told me we would have a hit on our first album I would not have picked this song as being the hit.  Not in a million years.  I would have more likely picked Where the Hell is Bill.

Why?  we regarded Take The Skinheads Bowling as just a weird non-sensical song.  The lyrics were purposely structured so that it would be devoid of meaning.  Each subsequent line would undermine any sort of meaning established by the last line.  It was the early 80’s and all our peers were writing songs that were full of meaning.  It was our way of rebelling.  BTW this is the most important fact about this song.  We wanted the words to lack any coherent meaning.  There is no story or deeper insight that I can give you about this song.

Source: #74 Hits are Black Swans-Take the Skinheads Bowling by David Lowery

It was interesting to go back and listen to the original track and another cover by the Manic Street Preachers. I think that Custard capture the quirkiness of the track and really make it there own. I saw that Adalita, Phil Jamieson, Tex Perkins and Tim Rogers are touring The Rolling Stones Sticky FIngers, it made me wonder if McCormick could actually front his own covers band, similar to Billie Joe Armstrong’s The Coverups.

The Min Min Lights

This is a story song that focuses on ‘Veronica’, but it does not make completely clear why she is crying. This song is story without all the information, instead it is about the emotion.

Talkative Town

Another song by Glenn Thompson. It contains Thompson’s penchant for passing comments on the world around (‘We live up in the trees, Or where they used to be’ and ‘I buy all my stuff with my digital thumbprint’) and society in general (‘I think there’s a more equitable system, I don’t think it’s called capitalism’) all on top of a bed of infectious pop.

Like People

Another song by Paul Medew about a relationship that we are brought in on. Moments are pieced together to place us in the situation of wanting things to change. As with Wishing, the song flies through.

Watcha Waiting For

We are ‘here’, but never quite sure where ‘here’ actually is. The ambiguous nature and slow feel of this song make it feel like it could have been the closing track for the album.

Come Tuesday

Category: (Auto)Biography
Come Tuesday is a reflective track from McCormick about life on the road. It touches upon how ‘come Tuesday’ everything can change. It is a slower more somber track and really closes off the album.

Loverama is the fifth studio album by the Australian band Custard “Custard (band)”). It was released in June 1999 and peaked at number 19 on the ARIA Charts; the band’s highest charting album.

Loverama was the band’s final release for 16 years, until 2015’s Come Back, All Is Forgiven. Some copies came as a two-CD set, with the companion disc called Custaro Musico.

“Girls Like That (Don’t Go For Guys Like Us) “Girls Like That (Don’t Go For Guys Like Us)”)”, “Ringo (I feel Like…)” and “Hit Song” all featured in a Hottest 100, with Girls… in 1998[2] and the other two in 1999.[3]

Source: Loverama by Wikipedia

Recently, when asked about album reviews and music criticism, Caroline Polachek suggested that:

Music criticism is not a review of the album you just made, its a review of your career up to that point. – Caroline Polachek

Source: This Generation’s Caroline Polachek by Switched on Pop

It is a strange experience slowly listening through a bands oeuvre one album at a time, I feel it is impossible by nature of the exercise not to judge each album against the previous. Sometimes I wonder if you start to hear ghosts after awhile. For example, I would find myself making assertions, such as this album is more straight-forward or has a different feel when it comes to instrumentation, only to then question myself as many of the ingredients are present in their earlier work.

It was interesting reading in ‘Preview for Loverama’ in Cuszine 2 that some of these ‘new’ songs were actually old rejects, such as Ringo. This left wondering about the difference made by Magoo as producer. I wondered if that although the same ingredients are present, whether it be distorted guitar, slide guitar, weird effects, quirky lyrics, that it was the placement of the drums and bass in the mix that actually hold these songs together and provide some sort of semblance of continuity? I fear though that if I went back to the past albums I would possibly hear the same pattern, however I feel that with Loverama whenever there is some sort of dalliance with some strange guitar line or even a harmony that it is the rhythm that grounds it all.

The other difference is that although the album is approximately the same length as say We Have the Technology, there are only 13 tracks, while some were instead included on a bonus disc Custaro Musico. I wondered if the extra length allowed the songs more time to hook listeners? Or maybe it is an example of a band that has come to grips with their potential.

Overall, this was the album that really grew on me the more I listened.

Loverama

1. “Girls Like That (Don’t Go For Guys Like Us)” 3:11 – The warble bass used throughout this album reminded me of Bowie. Then I went and re-listened to Bowie and I could not hear it. Funny how when you follow up text-to-text connections that they can make a mockery of our memory.
2. “Hit Song” 2:22 – Love the comment in Cuszine 2 “Soon Custard will be writing a song about writing songs that are about songs they are trying to write.”
3. “Monkey” 2:26
4. “The New Matthew” 4:18 – The chorus really makes this song, the harmonies and the way the guitars really fill out. The ending is only track on the album that goes off in a tangent. I was not sure if this saying something like even with all the new quiet ways, the old remains.
5. “Ringo (I Feel Like)” 2:50 – Listening to Ringo, I felt it could have been a Disco Machine song. I was also reminded of Twinkle Digitz’ Blackmail Boogie.
6. “Nervous Breakdance” 3:57 – It is interesting comparing the two versions of this song, this one and the electronic version on Custaro Musico. It highlights how their music could so easily be so different if they had made different choices.
7. “Funny” 1:57 – classic Custard, the song feels over before it has even started
8. “Pluto (Pts. 1 & 2)” 2:55 – This song ebbs and flows throughout, I feel it could sit in a playlist alongside Blur, Parklife era, but then again, I could be wrong.
9. “Almost Like A Song” 3:57 – There is something about the idea of ‘hitting’ you with this song. The wall of distorted guitars and harmonies ‘hit’ you at the same time as the chorus.
10. “Correctional Facility Of Love” 4:12 – I had no idea what this song was about when I first listened to it. I thought it was implying that being in a relationship was akin to being in jail, until I read that it was based on a Four Corner’s program about prisoners who swallowed objects so they had to be sent to hospital to avoid being raped.
11. “Genius” 3:47 – Song by Glenn Thompson.
12. “Kinder Whore” 2:50 – This song is driven by a really strong bass line which I feel prevents it from exploding.
13. “Ladies And Gentlemen” 3:22 – The big dramatic strums have a Pulp feel. Magoo discusses this in Cuszine 2: “The highlight of recording this song was the violin. We decided to try and make the song as dramatic as possible, to suit the lyric. Strings were talked about and Glenn told me about this guy he knew. John Bone was his name. Everyone I spoke to about this guy said he was amazing. It’s pretty strange when people build someone up to be great You get a picture in you’re head that’s pretty hard to match. Anyway he came to do the track. He didn’t really even want to hear the song before he went in to record it. No one mentioned keys or the vibe required. He just did his thing and It was truly amazing.”

Custaro Musico

1. “Umlaut” 2:59
2. “No Te Escribi Ninguna Cancion” 2:18
3. “Pablo Tiene Novia” 1:53
4. “Gato De Nueve Colas” 1:14
5. “Nervoisa Danzarota II” 5:00

Marginalia

Loverama is the fifth studio album by the Australian band Custard “Custard (band)”). It was released in June 1999 and peaked at number 19 on the ARIA Charts; the band’s highest charting album.

Loverama was the band’s final release for 16 years, until 2015’s Come Back, All Is Forgiven. Some copies came as a two-CD set, with the companion disc called Custaro Musico.

“Girls Like That (Don’t Go For Guys Like Us) “Girls Like That (Don’t Go For Guys Like Us)”)”, “Ringo (I feel Like…)” and “Hit Song” all featured in a Hottest 100, with Girls… in 1998[2] and the other two in 1999.[3]

Source: Loverama%20-%20Wikipedia by

Loverama, the fifth studio album by the renowned Australian band Custard, was released on June 14th, 1999, and marked a significant milestone in their career. The record achieved remarkable success, soaring to new heights and reaching a peak of number 19 on the ARIA Charts. It proudly stands as the band’s highest-charting album to date and has become a beloved favourite among fans.

Source: LOVERAMA%20%26%20%20CUSTARO%20MUSICO by

Recorded and produced by Magoo at The Dirty Room in Brisbane and Sing Sing Studios in Melbourne during the optimistic summer of October and November 1998. Assisted at The Dirty Room by Andrew Lancaster. Assisted at Sing Sing by Dave Davis. Mixed at Sing Sing by Magoo with Glenn Thompson and David McCormack. “We Wanna Party” recorded and mixed at 192 Musgrave Rd, Red Hill, Queensland. Artwork by Glenn Thompson withinterference from David McCormack.

Source: LOVERAMA%20%26%20%20CUSTARO%20MUSICO by

If something’s bad, that’s what they meant to do, it’s them having fun.

Source: Custard%20-%20Loverama%20(album%20review%20)%20%7C%20Sputnikmusic by

I think that this could probably read as “if something seems bad.” I think that you have two choices with Custard, you either accept them and their music and come to respect it for what it is or you do not.

“I was happy to do something that wasn’t as throwaway as some of the other ones [songs on earlier albums],” McCormack said, although he was aware his intentions might not land in the same way for listeners.

“I’m sure everyone else would think it’s an overtly happy and quirky Custard record. But I think for us, we could listen to it and go, ‘ah yeah that’s right, that was fucked when that happened.'”

Source: Classic%20Album%3A%20Custard%20%E2%80%93%20Loverama%20-%20ABC%20listen by

[Correctional Facility of Love] was inspired by a three-part ABC documentary series that revealed the stories of prisoners who would swallow contraptions made with rubber bands and paperclips that would cause terrible internal injuries so they would be taken to hospital, and in doing so, avoid being raped.

As chilling and horrific as that sounds, the fact that people are in a position of having to contemplate such actions is even more disturbing and makes one stop to reflect, something that McCormack explains that the band was ready to explore on Loverama.

Source: Classic%20Album%3A%20Custard%20%E2%80%93%20Loverama%20-%20ABC%20listen by

“It’s that whole realisation that people like The Go-Betweens can have on you,” he said. “On the balance of things, no one wants to hear a happy throwaway song. I don’t really. I wanna hear a sad, melancholy song that you could listen to a few times. That’s something we came to realise and therefore that’s what we wanted to do.”

Source: Classic%20Album%3A%20Custard%20%E2%80%93%20Loverama%20-%20ABC%20listen by

It would seem that there was a choice to include some of their quirky tracks as a bonus disc.

So, my verdict is that Custard’s Wisenheimer is a pretty good album. It’s not great and it doesn’t really capture my imagination in any significant way, but it is quite a bit of fun to let play while I’m driving about the town or doing the housework. It has some rather good tracks on it and it has quite a few rather average tracks, but it doesn’t really have any bad tracks, which is a nice upside. The song-writing is decent and the musicians are competent, but it’s really nothing to write home about, and the scope of music is comfortably broad, but nothing particularly challenging or intriguing. Really this album is just a nicely comfortable piece of work. It doesn’t break any boundaries, but it’s good enough.

Source: Wisenheimer – Custard by Lachlan J

This is something that the band’s manager, Dave Brown, touches on in Andrew Stafford’s Pig City, arguing that Apartment was released too early:

Custard had met keyboard player and producer Eric Feldman while touring in support of another of McCormack’s heroes, former Pixie Frank Black. Feldman had a long list of credits and contacts, and Frank Black himself had been impressed enough by Custard to loan McCormack three of his guitars for the recording of what was to become Wisenheimer. If the album lacked its predecessor’s rambling charm, it also contained some brilliant material (the woozy, beautiful art-rock of Columbus is perhaps Custard’s greatest moment).

The obvious standout, Apartment, was the first single. It was a disappointing choice for Dave Brown, who reasoned that by leading with their best punch, excellent follow-up singles such as Lucky Star and Sunset Strip were rendered anti-climactic after the album’s release in late 1995. Dave Brown:

It’s always my bitch that they released Apartment at the wrong time, and that was the difference between Wisenheimer being a successful album versus a really successful album. It was the first single and it was too good for that, without a doubt in the world. It should have been released second or third; I think that gets proven every time.

Source: Pig City by Andrew Stafford

Comparing the album with Wahooti Fandango, I kept on thinking that having one producer for the whole album, Eric Drew Feldman, made it more consistent, but I feel that is possibly in the ear of the beholder. Maybe, Wisenheimer is less contrasting than Wahooti Fandango, but each track still jumps around between genres, whether it be the angular rock guitar one minute with GooFinder, to leaning back into the country origins with Leisuremaster. There are also strange interludes and extras, such as the saxophone led jam of Cut Lunch or the the excerpt about gold at the end of I Love Television that reminded me of Jim Carey’s monologues on The Weeknd’s Dawn FM.

With the length of tracks, I feel that you never really get to settle as a listener. Even the slower tracks fly on by.  Or maybe like a box of Roses chocolates, this is an album for those who just like eating chocolates, no matter the flavour, but would possibly frustrate those who just like this flavour or that. I wonder this maybe what Damian Cowell was touching upon when he spoke about Custard and anchovies. All in all, it was one of those albums that really benefited from multiple plays.

On a side note, the one thing that I am left intrigued by is how they presented this tapestry of sounds live? The sound often contrasts between a wall of sound and more subtle sounds. When I saw McCormick live playing acoustically, it felt like the tracks were chosen because they fitted the bill, with the only track that felt like it did not fit was Girls, but nobody cared. However, thinking about it now, I wonder if McCormick / Custard could in fact play a number of different sets that would cater for different audiences? I have searched YouTube in the vain hope of finding an old concert, but all I can find is them performing Apartment.

There is something joyfully chaotic about this album, where various ideas are pasted together to somehow find some semblance of coherence. Although drums, bass and guitar are always central, there are also a plethora of other instruments that fill out the sound, whether it be piano, keyboard, slide guitar and trumpet.

One of the things that stood out listening to the album is that it feels like each song is somehow in contrast with itself. For example, with Teensville, it is the country verse contrasted with pop-punk choruses. With Aloha Tambourinist it is the distorted guitars wanting to exploded contrasted with the pedal steel guitar. With Pack Yr Suitcases the odd time signature is contrasted with the wacky whistles and sounds. With Dix TV, the solid bass line driving the song is contrasted by the distorted wah wah guitar. With Alone, the uplifting music is contrasted by the celebration of being alone. With Looking for Someone the pop sentiment is contrasted with the noise in the interlude. With Say it the angular guitars are contrasted with the more acoustic sounds of the trumpet and piano, only to end with some strange mock announcement. With Melody the songs opening wall of sound soon gives way to country rock that has Tom Petty feel. With Fantastic Plastic, the song feels like it gets faster and faster, before abruptly finishing. With Singlette, a slick groove contrasted by the chorus. With If Yr Famous And You Know It, Sack Yr Band there is a contrast between the serious and light-hearted at the same time. With Universal Vibration the distorted guitar is again in contrast with the clean piano. With Badloving, the low chords contrast with high licks. This balance maybe the case with a lot of music, or somewhat contrived, but it feels more pronounced with Custard. I like how this is capture on Wikipedia:

Drawing on a vast array of influences (from the art-rock of Pere Ubu, Devo and Sonic Youth to country ballads and big band swing), Custard’s casual, whimsical approach to their own music often masks the degree of craft underlying songs.[2]

Source: Wahooti%20Fandango%20-%20Wikipedia by

I will leave the final comment to the only review I could find for this album:

These guys always seemed to be having a ball, but in a laidback, whacky uncle sort of way. The songs either rush at you smiling gleefully, or just sit around spinning slightly confusing tales that make you giggle (or shake your head in embarrassment). Imagine Pavement channeling Jonathan Richman.

Source: 198.%20Custard%20%E2%80%93%20%E2%80%9CWahooti%20Fandango%E2%80%9D by @DrSamma

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Track list

1. “Teensville” 1:27
2. “Aloha Tambourinist” 2:25
3. “Pack Yr Suitcases” 2:16
4. “Dix TV” 4:10
5. “Alone” 2:43
6. “Looking For Someone” 2:22
7. “Say It” 3:04
8. “Melody” 2:19
9. “Fantastic Plastic” 1:02
10. “Singlette” 3:06
11. “If Yr Famous And You Know It, Sack Yr Band” 2:38
12. “Bye Bye Birdie” 2:21
13. “Universal Vibration” 1:48
14. “Badloving” 3:38
15. “The Wahooti Fandango” 3:03