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Spod are an Australian indie, electro band, often styled as SPOD, which formed in 1995. It is also the pseudonym of the band's mainstay member, Brent Griffin, whether he is performing solo or with other members. They have released two albums, ''Taste the Radness'' (2003) and ''Superfrenz'' (September 2008).


History

Spod were formed in Sydney as an indie, electro duo, first named Jizm, by Brent Griffin (later a.k.a. Spod) on guitar and keyboards, and Mike Rickards. They had attended the same secondary school. Griffin was a public servant in the New South Wales' Premier's Department and Rickards was a university student and sportsman. Griffin and Richards shared a passion for Ween's " Push th' Little Daisies" (1993), Griffin later recalled, "we both confessed that we loved this 'Push Th' Little Daisies' song to each other – quite sheepishly, as everyone else reacted terribly to that news. From that moment, we clicked into a high gear, decided to borrow a four track from his uni, started looping Beastie Boys beats on my CD player." In 1995 the duo changed their name to Spod, as an
acronym An acronym is a word or name formed from the initial components of a longer name or phrase. Acronyms are usually formed from the initial letters of words, as in ''NATO'' (''North Atlantic Treaty Organization''), but sometimes use syllables, as ...
for either Special Projects Organisational Division, Spinning Pizzas of Death, or Scorpion Powers of Destruction. Their recorded output was limited to home-made cassette tapes. In 1999
Andy Clockwise Andy Clockwise (born Andy Kelly) is an Australian-born musician, performer, writer, producer, and multi-instrumentalist currently residing in Los Angeles. Born in Sydney to an artistic family, Clockwise's music has been compared to LCD Soundsy ...
joined on drums and guitar and Rickards left. Griffin related how "I played some two piece shows with Andy, but put it on a back burner till I decided to keep writing songs by myself at Andy's insistence. This is what drove me to move into the solo version of SPOD. Mike and Andy were my biggest influences in making me want to create music the way I do." On 5 October 2002 Spod headlined a concert at Thurles Castle in Chippendale. The drunk and the legless, a four-piece guitar-based rock group from Newtown, supported them. In September 2003 the group released their first album, ''Taste the Radness'', via
Architecture Label Architecture Label is an independent record label based in Sydney, Australia. It is managed by Stefan Zagorski and is the Australian label for Death Cab for Cutie. Artists with releases on Architecture * Belles Will Ring * Bit By Bats * De ...
/Spod Music and distributed by Shock Records. Griffin explained the concept of Radness, "It's the beatz, it's the melodies, it's eternity, it's the diamonds that pour from rainbow drenched cloudz that house armies of unicornz that sing songz of luv and triumph, woe and hizeartbreak, p and tha izarty." Jody Macgregor of
AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databa ...
observed that its "mixture of electroclash, rock, and juvenilia found an audience, helped by energetic and anarchic live shows featuring the rest of the enigmatically named band." ''Taste the Radness'' included input from Spod's backup vocalists, dancers and choreographers, Krylon and A-Blade (collectively, the Scorpionz of Sex), specifically on the track, "2131 Ride Wit Me". This song was included on a 2004 edition of Australian ''
Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first known for its ...
''s cover CD ''New Sounds''. Following its release, Spod toured extensively, including a position on the Sydney leg of
Big Day Out The Big Day Out (BDO) was an annual music festival that was held in five Australian cities: Sydney, Melbourne, Gold Coast, Adelaide, and Perth, as well as Auckland, New Zealand. The festival was held during summer, typically in January of eac ...
in 2004. As the year progressed, Spod began to augment his live line-up with members of the metal band, Black Level Embassy. This live set-up led to the release of an extended play, ''Eternal Championz'', in September 2004. The EP included metal re-workings of their tracks, "Country of Sweden", "Secks Party 4 Eva" and "Makin' Party". "Nerdz" was played extensively on local radio stations, such as
FBi Radio FBi (call sign: 2FBI) station is an independent, not-for-profit community radio in Sydney, Australia. FBi places a heavy emphasis on local emerging music: it has a policy that at least 50 per cent of its music content is to be Australian, of wh ...
. The EP was recorded in the home of
Regurgitator Regurgitator are an Australian rock band from Brisbane, Queensland, formed in late 1993 by Quan Yeomans on lead vocals, guitar and keyboards; Ben Ely on bass guitar, keyboards and vocals; and Martin Lee on drums. Their debut studio album, '' ...
's
Quan Yeomans Quan Yeomans (born 12 December 1972) is an Australian musician best known as the frontman of the band Regurgitator. Early years Yeomans was born in Sydney to a fifth-generation Australian father, Neville, and his mother Lien, a well-known Vi ...
. Spod and Regurgitator collaborated on joint gigs in 2004 (advertised as "ReSPODutator") and they were recorded as part of Regurgitator's project, Band in the Bubble, during that year. In March 2007 Spod played at the annual South by Southwest festival, in
Austin, Texas Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the seat and largest city of Travis County, with portions extending into Hays and Williamson counties. Incorporated on December 27, 1839, it is the 11th-most-populous city ...
, It was the group's first performance outside Australia. Also in that year Spod and Yeomans formed a side project, Blox, which issued a six-track EP, ''Quan and Spod Present Blox'' (8 October 2007).Blox Discography on spakatak.com
/ref> Back in Sydney, Griffin was relocating to a new home when his laptop and two hard drives were damaged, "shattering his work and his dreams." He had been working on material for Spod's second album, ''Superfrenz'' (September 2008). Dom Alessio of ''Mess+Noise'' described how " estarted picking through the musical remains, discarding some songs, canvassing old and newly-created ones, and set about re-recording his whole album all over again." Alessio felt, " tis ultimately a positive party album. From the playful 'Cats!' to the hip-hop drum machine onslaught of 'Time Maggots Eating the Flesh of Destiny'. Griffin’s aim is to make you forget about the darker side of life and simply have fun." ''Polaroids of Androids'' Jonny attended ''Superfrenz'' album launch where, " ismusic sounds damn fine on record, but it is still in a live setting that it comes alive, strips down to its boxer shorts (or Ruggers) and throws streamers everywhere in a celebration of 'who gives a fuck-ness'." During 2010 Griffin joined Richard in Your Mind alongside Richard Cartwright, Jordy Lane, Pat Torres and Conrad Richters, which recorded the group's second album, ''My Volcano'' (September 2010). ''
BMA Magazine ''BMA Magazine'' is an Australia street press and music magazine focusing on popular music, concerts, live events and popular culture in Canberra and surrounding areas. It is published fortnightly. Profile BMA is an initialism for Bands M ...
''s Katy Hall opined, "their unique blend of surf-pop and psychedelic lo-fi marks an important revival, one that not only seems to have gained gigantic momentum in recent times, but also one that clears through the often obscure genre-mixing styles of other bands of the moment." Spod reissued their first album as 'Taste the Radness: the 10 Years of Radness Edition'' in August 2013, with bonus material on a second disc. The following year, Spod released ''Taste the Sadness'' (2014), an album that took the songs of ''Taste the Radness'' and reinvented them from the perspective of a person having a
midlife crisis A midlife crisis is a transition of identity and self-confidence that can occur in middle-aged individuals, typically 40 to 60 years old. The phenomenon is described as a psychological crisis brought about by events that highlight a person's grow ...
. Whereas the original album celebrated youthful partying and sexual excess, the updated album was about being weighed-down by the baggage of adulthood: mundane jobs, parenting, mediocre relationships. The Guardian's A.H. Cayley described ''Taste the Sadness'' as: Jasmine Crittenden of ''Concrete Playground'' noticed, "SPOD's getting old. And slightly blue on occasion. And he's not afraid to admit it. Back in the early noughties, he thought that happiness was all about aiming champagne corks at innocent bystanders, tossing streamers around and cranking the odd slow-grind. But the combo just isn't cutting the mustard these days." She felt the album, "tells the story of rushing headfirst into the autumn of existence as though you were still a spring chicken, only to dislocate your hip and find yourself in an ultra cosy armchair. From that vantage point, you spend your time telling the world how much better everything was when you were able to enjoy it more." It was issued via Rice Is Nice Records and according to ''FasterLouder''s Darren Levin, " ehas decided to quit being a 'computer deadshit' and record a real-life album with real-life instruments in a real-life studio with real-life producer Owen Penglis (The Straight Arrows)." Spod issued a single, "Boys Night", in December 2016.


Discography


Albums

* ''
Taste the Radness Spod are an Australian indie, electro band, often styled as SPOD, which formed in 1995. It is also the pseudonym of the band's mainstay member, Brent Griffin, whether he is performing solo or with other members. They have released two albums, ' ...
'' (29 September 2003) –
Architecture Label Architecture Label is an independent record label based in Sydney, Australia. It is managed by Stefan Zagorski and is the Australian label for Death Cab for Cutie. Artists with releases on Architecture * Belles Will Ring * Bit By Bats * De ...
/ Shock Records ** ''Taste the Radness: the 10 Years of Radness Edition'' (expanded version, 22 August 2013) – Rice Is Nice Records * ''Superfrenz'' (22 September 2008) – Rice Is Nice/
MGM Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded on April 17, 1924 a ...
(MGM V102) * ''Taste the Sadness'' (22 August 2014) – Rice Is Nice * ''Adult Fantasy'' (19 July 2019) – Rice Is Nice


Extended plays

* ''Eternal Championz'' (September 2004) – Shock Records * ''Quan and Spod Present Blox'' (by Blox) (6 October 2007) – Valve Records * ''Animals'' (1 June 2008) –
Rice Is Nice Rice Is Nice is an independent record label based in Sydney and Melbourne, Australia that takes its name from Welsh post-hardcore band Mclusky's 2000 single "Rice Is Nice". The label aims to promote artists that are unique and whose music w ...
''Rolling Stone'' September 2008 review (p.101) (RIN001)


Singles

* "Couple of Drinks" (11 September 2012) –
Rice Is Nice Rice Is Nice is an independent record label based in Sydney and Melbourne, Australia that takes its name from Welsh post-hardcore band Mclusky's 2000 single "Rice Is Nice". The label aims to promote artists that are unique and whose music w ...
* "Boys Night" (16 December 2016) – Rice is Nice *''Becomes a Wife'' (19 July 2019)- Rice is Nice


References


External links

* *
Interview with Brent Griffin (Spod) on Depth Perception podcast
(2014)
Interview with Brent Griffin (Spod) on HearSej podcast
(2017) {{Authority control Australian indie rock groups