Track by Track: Cool Sounds

The new tape by Melbourne pop band Cool Sounds has everything going for it – except good lyrics, writes frontman DAIN LACEY.

[Historical image is withheld pending rights review.]

‘Safe Flight’

This song is lyrically really boring. For a couple weeks I was listening to The Beach Boys and Girls and I thought it would be cool and a bit ironic to sing cringe-y love songs. Looking back, I think I just ruined a song, which is otherwise pretty cool. Our friend Rex made a great clip for this song, which feature some unassuming beachgoers and a cool brown dog.

‘Body in the Woods’

One time a snake fell on my head. After I shook it off, my mum went at it with a shovel. She kept chopping it, but at the wrong end. Eventually there was only the head left but the snake was still alive. That was a moment and an image I will never forget. After Sam Wilkinson finished mixing this, he messaged me asking where he could find the body.

‘666’

I love this song. I think it’s our best musically, though I do struggle a bit getting through the verses lyrics, which are a bit cliché and boring. I wrote this after I got home from Berlin, where my girlfriend lives, and I was having trouble sleeping because she wasn’t there. I worried that this would happen my whole life until one of us eventually moved. The song was originally called ‘666, The Number of The Devil’, but we were concerned that we would stop getting regular airplay on the Christian radio network, so we shortened the title.

‘Ten Thousand Hours’

In the outro to this song I list the movies in the Step Up dance movie series. Everyone in these movies trained really hard, while I mostly just sit around not doing much. I recently found out that Alec Marshall typed out the words to this song for an Internet lyric page. I had no idea Alec could use a computer, but I was very impressed and flattered. Even though Cool Sounds and Hot Palms are enemies, it’s great that we can still respect each other.

‘Noise Complaints’

A version of this song was on the Beko Disques/Peking Tapes Oz Do It Better compilation. Then, it was almost five minutes long and was about an annoying neighbour. Now the song is shorter and better for it, but it probably has some of the worst lyrics I’ve heard. I guess it is about Degrassi, or when I moved to Phillip Island to go to high school and for the first two weeks everyone thought I was cool. That was short-lived.

‘Mining Town’

We made sure to mention Zac Denton [of The Ocean Party and Ciggie Witch] played drums on this song. There was a drum machine going, so all he really did was hit a snare, but he didn’t really bother doing it in time. I was told there was a movie about Tom Cruise growing up in a mining town. I’ve never watched it, but this song is about it. Nick, who has seen the movie, assures me that the song isn’t even remotely true to the plot. Hopefully Tom Cruise isn’t offended.

‘Curtis’

Our friend Curtis, from the band Velcro, left to go to Wagga Wagga for a few days a while back. I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t miss him but I definitely felt weird. This was also the last song that was mixed and soon after Sam Wilkinson had finished the mix and sent it off, his hard drive mysteriously broke. I like to think that the hard drive needed Cool Sounds to function. On the hard drive was also quite a few new Day Ravies songs, which were all lost. Did Cool Sounds destroy the new Day Ravies album?

‘Nice’

I heard that when you are having a baby, you just sit around on the hospital bed and wait until it comes. They don’t allow phones or TV so it’s really boring. When my friends start having babies, I guess I’ll go to the hospital to keep them company, but it might be awkward because we won’t have much in common anymore. It’s nice that we can always reminisce over the times we’ve discharged firearms though.

‘First Daughter’

This song has always been a joke. It is about the Katie Holmes movie by the same name and we never really play it, unless requested by our #1 fans, James and Floyd. Once we had too much to drink at The Public Bar and played this song. I put my guitar down and my friends lifted me in to a small crowd to sing the song. I wish I didn’t do that.

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‘Melbourne Fashion’ is out now on limited cassette and digitally through Whalesmouth. Cool Sounds are playing a three-week residency from tonight at The Catfish in Melbourne, with supports as follows: Big Smoke and Shiny Coin (Sept 4); Ern Malley and Dreamin’ Wild (Sept 11); Orbits and Congratulations Everybody (Sept 18). More info here.