Chisel - 'The O.T.S./If You Believe in Christmas Trees' (Darla)

Chisel debuted 'The O.T.S.' here which I'm pretty sure appeared on their final album, Set You Free. The sound is essentially the same as on 8 AM All Day, maybe a little bit more crisp, but just as fast and with a nice use of backing vocals. I admit I've never played this more than a few times, so I've never done a deep listen of the lyrics and thus can't tell you any guess to what O.T.S. stands for. It's not the lyrics I'm drawn to here - it's the almost jazzy guitar shards and the elegant rhythm section. Leo has this thing where he plays a nearly ska-like guitar part during verses but not for too long, quickly devolving it into a more jagged riff. It's a pretty unique way of playing guitar and I already expressed my teenage amazement at it on the CD review. The b-side, well, wow! It's a cover of Cardinal's classic 'If You Believe in Christmas Trees', a song which was pretty fresh when this was released (in 1995). I probably never really listened to this back then because it was years later that I discovered Cardinal and I barely remembered this. The cover is fairly straight in tempo and demeanour; Leo's voice matches the same weird affect of Davies, a little bit more intentional than usual, I'd say. The bassline gets a little inventive during the 'polar January' part and there's some backwards sounding stuff on the guitar solo, a nice twisting take on the tune. It's not the most brilliant version of the song (compared to the several on offer by Cardinal and solo Davies) but it's more symbolic, indicating an interest in these sounds outside of the punk/hardcore scene that produced them. So therein lies my sympathies.