Infotainment Lifestyle
David Beniuk
Um & Ah through Phantom
Available from Fish Records, order at <http://www.davidbeniuk.com> or send $29 to PO Box 29, Wollongong East 2520
Review by Grace Eliot
Many Green Left Weekly readers will be familiar with the music of David Beniuk through his appearances at human rights and solidarity events, including the Sea of Hands, at May Day and at Green Left Weekly dinners in Sydney and Canberra.
Beniuk and his Infotainment Lifestyle Band performed in April at the Rose of Australia pub in inner-Sydney Erskineville. It was to be the launch of the band's new CD, Infotainment Lifestyle. But the CD was not available because, after two self-released CDs, it had been picked up by indie label, Um & Ah. It is scheduled for release in May.
It is good to see a musical ally attaining wider distribution while still remaining "independent" artistically and politically.
The Infotainment Lifestyle Band (half of its members have the surname Beniuk) has a smooth electrified acoustic sound, varied by skilful fiddle, accordion and keyboard arrangements. Coupled with Beniuk's satirical lyrics, this made for the best bar music I've heard since I saw Peter Hicks perform in Tasmania last year.
If Peter Hicks is Australia's Pete Seeger, then David Beniuk is our Billy Bragg. He offers populist, plugged-in folk. The slyly titled song "North Shore Girls Get Off" sketches the demographic nuances of Sydney's social landscape, through the literary device of public transport.
The title's characters disembark from a commuter train, where they fleetingly encounter their contemporaries from the western suburbs. There is humour embedded in the language of Beniuk's lyrics: "To smash through the class barrier the train must gather speed".
"Beggar Maid" is a stark look at an older woman who feels financially dis-empowered and describes herself as being "One husband away from poverty". The song's female narrator despairs because the younger women with whom she attends university seem to be repeating the mistakes of her generation, ignoring her advice and prematurely abandoning their university careers for marriage and motherhood. This song, set in Wollongong, is a classic Aussie feminist anthem with a bite. Beniuk proves that the male feminist is not a myth.
The wistful "A Woman or a Gentle Man" is an unselfconscious ballad about bisexual life and relationships. It is the most refreshing song on interpersonal themes that I have heard so far this century. I look optimistically forward to cover performances of that one by artists of both genders.
"A Book that Sells" is a musically upbeat satirical narrative about writing a successful novel in one's dole diary.
While the songs in this collection may be less obviously political than Beniuk's earlier releases, they are written from a grassroots level — on public transport, on the dole line, on the frontline of the fight for freedom of sexual/affective expression — and set in our local context.
Beniuk's are thoughtful lyrics, which deserve to be read. They will soon be available from Beniuk's web site at <http://www.davidbeniuk.com>.
[David Beniuk is performing at the Green Left Weekly fundraising dinner at Granville Town Hall in Sydney on June 3. Phone 9635 8449 for details.]