Somehow I missed this when it came out in February. Presenting Ben Lee’s I Love Pop Music.

For those of you too lazy to watch even 30 seconds of a YouTube video because you’re doing something really important like drinking a chai latte, the lyrics go like this:

I love pop music, this is how we do it
It’s politics you can romance to
I love pop music, sprinkle sugar through it,
Philosophy that you can dance to

Inane, yes, but pretty typical for Ben Lee as anyone who caught his disease would know (not herpes, the song).

No, what sends this song into new unseen realms of awfulness are the spoken word verses:

The price of oil is at an all time high and rising,
Global warming threatens life as we know it on this planet,
And leaders have not committed to a plan of action on renewable energy,
The food crisis is currently affecting a hundred million people world wide.

No, really. Go and watch it. Instead of bringing public attention to these issues (global warming? what’s that?), as well as high-lighting the power of music to achieve things, he’s instead ended up making a mockery of these issues, pop music in general, and himself.

Something I’ve always noticed about Ben Lee is his videos always feature good looking young people who fete him like a god, presumably because no one likes him in real life. This video is no exception. What is the exception are the mindless call-and-response background lyrics. Pay attention to the words in brackets in the next verse:

There are over 6 billion people on this planet and not enough fresh drinking water (we’re in trouble),
Religious intolerance creating geopolitical instability (shine a light),
Politicians battling each other like professional wrestlers (ooh),
Further division is not the answer, division is not the answer

We’re in trouble? Shine a light?

A brief search reveals the album on which this song appears, The Rebirth of Venus, has been panned mercilessly worldwide with a slew of one-star reviews, from Uncut  to Slant magazines. And not just because it contains another song called I’m a Woman, Too.

GrodsReaders, what’s your favourite political song? My vote goes to This World Over by XTC. What’s yours?

Marvel as one YouTube commenter comprehensively pwns another while maturely discussing the merits of a Nirvana song:

I love you, internet.

How is possible that a Michael Jackson impersonator looks stranger than the man himself?

Who is who?

“I believe I am alive today because God saved me for this – to make people happy. I have a message to give, the same as Michael,” he said yesterday.

Yeah, um. Okay.

I first saw this clip back in the late ’90s when Les Claypool was guest programming Rage. If memory serves he said he was flipping through the book of clips to choose his playlist and simply couldn’t not select a song called Beer Sandwich by The Fuck Fucks. Enjoy!

Red Hot Chili Willies!

This week’s clip comes with French subtitles at no extra cost due to the YouTube and copyright Nazis disabling embedding on basically everything.

Ladies and gentlemen, Da Funk by Daft Punk.

Hey Boy, Hey Girl by The Chemical Brothers. London 2001. ‘Nuff said.

In all seriousness, do film clips get any better than ’80s hair (1990 counts as the ’80s), fake rain, bad CG lightning, exploding light bulbs, flying paint, and flapping fish?

Getting in first. Enjoy. (NSFW or Near Kids)

This week’s clip is the awesome Wynona’s Big Brown Beaver by Primus. Unfortunately the YouTube copyright Nazis have disabled embedding on this video so don your latex cowboy suit, follow the link, and rock out.

If you’ve had as shithouse a week as me – and I know that some of you have – you may be interested in viewing the following.

It’s Friday, GrodsFriends. Embrace apathy. Down schooners. Get pissed, destroy. Remember, contra Steve Fielding – alcohol IS a solution.

The rest will wait until Monday, and by then it might not seem that important. Time to clear your minds and diaries of everything except R-O-C-K, mofos.

A brand new feature on GrodsCorp that’s not at all stolen borrowed from anyone else: Film clip for a Sunday.

To kick off this new series, Pack Yr Suitcases by Custard. One of the greatest bands to have ever walked the face of the planet.

In a startling and disturbing display of musical groupthink, a wide range of waministas, leftards and feminazis are putting aside their “well-known” antisemitism (sic.) to attend various iterations of the Leonard Cohen roadshow this weekend.

Lennie pictured after winning Canadian National Lottery

The depressoleftosphere includes, at last count, Toaf, Tobias and myself. (GrodsCorp’s own Bron has told me she can’t afford it, which is even more depressing when you think about it). Representing the radical centre will be Mr. Andrew Bartlett.

I’ll be going to the Bowral show, which is in a vineyard. Unconfirmed speculation suggests that Toaf and I may well convene over a chardonnay at some point to compare notes and Al Gore tattoos.

Three questions:

1. Anyone else going?
2. Anyone planning to post reviews and pix?
3. What is it with teh left and maudlin, Canadian, septuagenarian, zen-Buddhist singer-songwriters?

Tonight at Melbourne Park, Daryl Braithwaite — former frontman of 1970s rock band Sherbet — is performing in the Heineken Beer Garden as part of the Australian Open’s line-up of free entertainment.

If you are planning to attend this event, please note: do not, under any circumstances, carry this image in the back of your mind while Mr Braithwaite is on stage:

Enjoy the show.