Music Minute: Formidable Vegetable - Garbage Guts

With a barrowload of rad(ish) tunes sown with seeds of positive change, Formidable Vegetable has arrived on fertile ground, ready to turnip the beets for all the green shoots wanting to make a difference in the world. For the last decade, Formidable Vegetable has delighted audiences around the world with their ecological electro-funk and swing. Their new song “Get a Goat” is the anthem of the future in which eco-friendly animals rule the farm – and the world. It’s the first single from Garbage Guts, a new EP from new children’s music label 8 Pound Gorilla Records.

The multi-layered dance-happy song, produced by Spoonbill in Melbourne, features guest vocals from a goat named Chia. Charlie Mgee, the fearless leader of Formidable Vegetable, was inspired by some real goats when he wrote the song. “These are weird and silly animals, each with their own personalities,” he says. “They’re like the rebels of the animal world.” Goats also add a lot to the health of a farm, by eating invasive plants and adding manure to improve soil health. They fit right into the regenerative theme of Garbage Guts. The first track “We’re All Friends” extols the relationships we have – with people, animals, plants – and even bacteria. An updated version of their hit “No Such Thing as Waste” extols the mindset of “refuse, reduce, repair then reuse” in everyday life. Mcgee originally wrote the song years ago for a class presentation on recycling. “Fonky food” is all about the tasty (and good for you) joys of fermentation, and fear of scary sugar is at the heart of the ska-beat “Shoogieman.” Garbage Guts ends with the song “Our Street,” in which people can get everything they need by reusing what they have and growing their own food: “milk and honey, vegetables, so many tasty treats.” The song is the musical version of a new children's book about the delights of becoming sustainable in “retrosuburbia.” Last fall, Formidable Vegetable became the first signed artists with 8 Pound Gorilla Records. The label re-released their 2016 album Grow Do It for worldwide distribution. Mgee and his partner Brenna Quinlan lead permaculture workshops for students in West Australia. “I'm totally inspired by kids today. They are SO far ahead of most of us when it comes to caring for the planet,” he says. “I've seen five year olds plant their own gardens, raise chickens and carve spoons from bits of wood they've found. I doubt I would've figured that stuff out at their age! Formidable Vegetable has been hailed as “the ultimate concept band” by ABC Radio National in Australia and "so infectious that the most ardent climate skeptic will have trouble staying still" by the Sydney Morning Herald. Their song "You Are What You Eat" was featured at the United Nations in 2015.To reduce their carbon footprint, Formidable Vegetable stopped flying in 2019, and (according to the BBC) was the first band to turn down an opportunity to perform at Glastonbury Festival. As it turned out, they performed the festival virtually when it went all online in 2020. Visit http://www.formidablevegetable.com/ to learn more.