Let’s take it back to 2009 for a moment. Chances are, unless you’re a wizard or Benjamin Button, you were younger than you are right now. I know I was. Much, much younger. 2009, in Australia, was an endless summer. For a few months anyway. And I had hurried home from Jindabyne (well as much as one can hurry across the Great Dividing Range on a fourteen hour drive) to find out if the new Short Stack video was out yet.
Oh Short Stack. I believe everyone has that one band they liked as a teenager, that they’re never going to stop liking even when they grow up and realise the band sounded terrible. For me, it was Short stack, and the video was called “Princess”.
Lead singer, Shaun Diviney (now known only as “DIVINEY”) has always been clever with his lyrics, but in 2009, the sound was still catching up to the band’s potential, and that’s okay, because most of the listeners were still in the process of becoming the people that they were supposed to be. Princess was a dizzily poppy song, with just enough rawness to scare off the Beiber fan club. It became somewhat anthematic with the lyrics, Tell me anything and anything will be okay With teenagers everywhere quoting the lyrics in their maths books and on their bedroom walls, although I’m not sure they grasped the definition of the song. (Also, I know that’s the second time I’ve called a song an anthem in a few months, but I’m talking about songs I’m passionate about here, so give me a break.)
Yes, like every band with the demographic Short Stack had, they had teenies, but these ones were odd. The misfits, with hairspray and enough eyeliner to write an essay with, and I was one of them. Minus the hairspray and eyeliner.
Short Stack had rocketed to fame on the back of their online series, “Short Stack T.V” which was kind of like a day in the life series, which is all too common now, but at the time, it was an Australian first. Australia fell in love with the stupidity of the fights the boys had, (‘You spelt “Gone” G-O-R-N!’ ‘That’s another way of spelling it!’ –No, Andy, it really isn’t.) The ridiculous puns, (Look everyone, Bradie’s in-bread!) the fart jokes, and the way they constantly tested the boundaries of their managers, crew, and sometimes even their music video director.
The band released their first (official) album, Stack Is The New Black in August 2009 and climbed the ARIA charts, in spite of the fact that everyone had already heard almost all the songs on Myspace. The music videos made to promote this album were all made in fun, even if a “bitching chair” was required for the band to vent about the issues they had with one another. The music video for Princess involved Diviney kissing a bunny. Shimmy A Go Go, which had been released a year earlier, showed the band performing to a group of uninterested “emo” kids who slowly get more and more involved in the performance. Sway Sway Baby parodied Days of Our Lives, and brought the bunny back into the picture, in a cheeky way that only the boys would get away with.
Ladies and Gentleman, the last release off SITNB marked the transition from endearing school-boys to serious musicians. The music video was dark, with montages, hallucinations, and time-lapse cinematography that boosted the band to professionalism beyond their years. In hindsight, I believe it was the video that first made me want to work in film. The song was darker as well, full of metaphors and written in Diviney’s usual style of being so figurative that it’s almost impossible to figure out the meaning of the song. As with most songs though, it reads like a promiscuous relationship.
We’ll hope for love on hotel floors And write a history for teens with dreamer’s truths
It had become clear to everyone, that Short Stack was now entering a transition stage. The transition was well on the way by late 2009 when they first performed their new single “Sweet December” on Australian breakfast show, Sunrise. The song was an instant hit and was released (fittingly) in December 2009. Moving on from their songs about high school and girls, the new single was written about missing that special person whilst on tour, and coming home to see them. For me, heading home from South East Asia that December, I drove my classmates crazy singing it over and over again. It was an eight our flight. My classmates hated me for the entire following year, as did my teacher.
The song itself stayed true to the band’s youth whilst introducing a new rock vibe to the previously pop band. They lyrics painted a picture of young love, and a world that is seemingly against them.
The city lights were fading, I saw her on the pavement. Dressed in black and writing wrongs, The station played our favourite song
After taking a ridiculously long time to release anything at all after a whirlwind 2009, The band finally released the first EP of their second album, titled This Is Bat Country –In honour of Diviney’s love of Hunter S. Thompson’s work. The first single, Planets announced that Short Stack had well and truly arrived in all their glory. Everything had improved, especially the vocals, which were beginning to drive people insane because they sounded kind of whiney before Diviney and back up vocalist and bassist Andy Clemmensen took some actual singing lessons. Planets was well and truly a love song, although Diviney tried to disguise it as a letter to the fans when they first released it, and everyone knew that was not the case. Either way, it was a much better love song than any that they had written in the past, and it had come a long way from the days of regretting not “bonking” in a lonely park. Planets had the rock sound, combined with everything a song needs to stick in your head, with guitar riffs that insist on being noticed, and lyrics to get the younger fans excited, like the infamous “Boom Boom Baby”
The video, directed (as with most Short Stack music videos) by Dan Reisinger portrays a girl being interrogated by a deceptively human looking alien, who has a tongue that literally cuts like a knife. The band is searching for something at a party, and it gives the video a very eerie feel. In the end of the video, Diviney locates a Geisha with no mouth, which is evidently what the alien is searching for as well, and they try to leave but are caught by guards. The ending of this video leads into the video for the next single, We Dance To A Different Disco, Honey.
I should mention at this point that the band was beginning to make ridiculously long names for things just to be obnoxious, because whislt their sound was progressing, and Diviney was maturing, step brothers, Clemmensen and Bradie Webb (drummer) were still enjoying their youth, at least in the public eye. This included re-igniting fights over playstation games from when they were ten years old. I digress.
Disco Honey has gang vocals that make everything else in the genre sound insignificant. From the very start of the song, the booming chorus of “This ain’t no goddam disco” demands attention from anyone within earshot and the opening lyrics hold them captive. The song gives off a strong sense of anarchy, or atheism to say the least. The lyrics play on the catholic confession, although I don’t think many of the fans actually picked up on this. The song is about going your own way and not caring about what everyone else thinks of you. A tired theme, I’m sure, but by this point in their career, Short Stack had figured out how to do things differently so that people would listen.
We dance alone tonight because We dance to a different disco honey
At the time of the release, Clemmensen had come under fire from the public and from music television station, Channel V for plagiarism. He had, of course, been adequately disciplined for the copy and paste review (which he had asked a friend to write for him because he was stressed and rushing around on tour, bless him) but because from the start, the controversy was dealt with in public, the entire band came under fire, mostly Clemmensen. It wasn’t enough for the holier than thou teenagers of Australia to tell him all those nasty things that teenagers say to hardworking musicians nowadays, but the television station also decided to attack the band, although they maintain it was all in good humour.
Because of this, WDTADDH took on a new meaning, and when they sung it, it felt like they were giving all these people the one finger salute. And why shouldn’t they? The whole situation could have been dealt with in private, and even the song asks for forgiveness in the first two lines.
Forgive me for I have sinned And I don’t believe in you so…
I suppose it’s a very unrepentant apology.
Eventually however, the whole ordeal rolled over and the time came to release This Is Bat Country.
The progression was incredible. This time, everything had matured, including the lyrics. From beginning to end, the songs rolled into each other, whilst still being different enough from one another to avoid boredom. The album wasn’t just songs, it included short intervals to string the tracks together, and the result was amazing. The whole album tells a story.
Following the success, the band launched a month long tour of Australia, (Which being a tour of Australia involved only doing shows on the week-end and flying everywhere) supported by good friends Heroes For Hire and new to the scene band, Because They Can. Straight after the tour, they began working on their documentary, which was released in November and promised even more great music.
Alas, it wasn’t to be. All good things come to an end. After wrapping up the recording of their last album, which they called Art Vandelay because they never thought of a decent name, the band went quiet for a few weeks… And weeks turned into months, until one day, they said they had an announcement.
Everyone expected a tour, or at least an album. It must have been the cruellest way to announce their break up that anyone could possibly think of. I see that as the defining day when I went from being a child to an adult. Everyone knows that these things, these bands that start out when we’re sixteen are best kept in our memories. But every now and then, I see the occasional tweet.
Are you out there? Are you anywhere? Just say goodbye Just like in my nightmare. Are you lost without me? Are you better off dead? You should keep it all here, In the back of my head.
Katy Heath
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