#55

#55. The Bennies - Party Machine (#88, 2015)

12th of 2015

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There's a season 4 episode of Aqua Teen Hunger Force that guest stars Andrew W.K. as himself. Frylock is unwell with what turns out to be cancer, and so Master Shake tries to cheer him but by getting Andrew W.K. to sing a cheerful song. Andrew W.K. doesn't actually have any proper voice lines in the episode, they just play a segment of a song he made for the show called "Party Party Party". It's generally funny in part because it's a real life musician's likeness in the show, but also for how abruptly the song will stop and start during the scene. Most of all though, it just sells the Andrew W.K. persona so well. This is a man whose Spotify top 10 features four different songs with the word 'Party' in the title, and three of them are from the same album. We can degrade a one trick pony but deep down there's a little bit of jealousy in their ability to carve out the niche for themselves.

I wouldn't necessarily say that The Bennies have done the same (although I wrote that opening paragraph before realising their debut album is coincidentally called "Party! Party! Party!". No songs with 'Party' in the title on that). It might just be something they've stumbled into given that "Party Machine" ended up being their most popular song. Before that, they were operating all over the shop. Their own triple j Unearthed page describes them as 'Psychedelic Reggae Ska Doom Metal Punk Rock From Hell', and I'm not sure if I'd necessarily take any of those descriptors away from them. I find myself associating them most with the punk ethos, and what's more punk than not giving a shit and just doing whatever? I can tell you what's less punk, and that's performing at an anti-vax rally hosted by One Nation, which lead singer Anty Horgan was caught doing in 2021. He apologised profusely for it and made it clear to distance himself from the racists, but it's altogether a strange piece of news. It was also not long after this that the band had a big line-up change and now Anty is the only permanent member of the band. The whole thing soured me a bit, but I'm taking some solace that we've not heard anything about this since then so maybe he's in the clear.

For me, a song like "Party Machine" is what the Hottest 100 is all about. You can take some merit in the 'objectively' more agreeable songs (and it's not like I don't vote for them either), but for me, I crave the scrappy quality that punches through good sense. I remember so clearly on the day the countdown aired, I had a bigger feeling of joy hearing this song than I did the song that played right after it, which I'd voted for. Maybe part of that is the fact that I collect these Hottest 100s and so when something like this comes along, it feels like I'm writing it off as a business expense. It's a golden opportunity to ensure I'll always remember it, and it feels like it mattered on some level. The "Somebody That I Used to Know"s and "Party Machine"s of the world both tell an equally important story and I wouldn't want it any other way than to experience both.

In saying all of this, I feel like I'm being a little unfair to "Party Machine" on the surface. It's a song that I don't believe truly works if it isn't as tightly locked as it is. It's why the ska portion of the band is so important because it gives the whole song such a well-oiled template to bounce off. Like I listen to the first verse and the whole thing feels so focused on the interest of selling the idea, and it makes it all the more powerful when the chorus comes crashing in on top of it. It's all simple, direct, and to the point from there. I would never sing along with it, but the gratuitous course language makes it all the better. Just the idea that you need to so brashly declare your partying capabilities to someone who might not believe it. The song's bridge manages to explain the equation like Lyle Lanley explaining how a monorail works. But generally outside of that, the musicianship is so tight that I can't help but give it the extra points that I'd so rarely pay to any similar novelty single. I feel like Playlunch are carving out a similar idea at the moment, and you can go even further back to Area-7, but somewhere in the middle, we had The Bennies to give us a distinctly 2010s version of it.