Back in the old days when people actually frequented record stores, you’d find the savvy music fan trolling the cut-out bins for those cute little babies thrown out with the bathwater. For sometimes as little as a buck or two you could take home the major label flotsam which was put out of print and had the case (or sleeve for you purists) unceremoniously marked like some Hester Prynne of rock and roll. I bring to you here the fruits of my loving labor after countless hours rescuing the cast-offs.
Back in the 1980s Australia was hot. That Crocodile Dundee guy was everywhere and Olivia Newton John was getting physical in her unitard. On the music scene, acts like The Church, Nick Cave, The Hoodoo Gurus and The Divinyls were getting equal time on college radio and it was, like, all blowin’ up huge for the Aussies. Even Tom Cruise had to get his own little piece of Aus by locking up Nicole Kidman.
The Lime Spiders crawled up out of the Sydney scene during the era but had the punk edge of Radio Birdman or The Scientists rather than the poppy frat-friendly lilt of the Go-Betweens. Steeped in psychedelic influences, the band started out doing covers of hits by groups like The Litter, Cream, The Haunted and The Liberty Bell. After years of touring, 1987 finally brought the debut full-length release of The Cave Comes Alive. Behind the strength of singles like “My Favourite Room” the album ran up the college charts in the US and prompted typical rock critic categorizations like, “the Sex Pistols on acid.”
The Cave Comes Alive features some standout original tracks like “Rock Star” which mocks the suffering artist schtick with a chorus spun from threads of The Kinks‘ “All Day and All of the Night”. Classic covers of The Electric Prunes’ “Are You Loving Me More” and The Litters’ “Action Woman” have a newfound urgency leaving behind the laid-back bounciness of the originals in exchange for grit-gargling vocals and windmill power chords.
It’s a solid effort with the cover art alone well worth the purchase. Unfortunately the album is long out of print but most of the cuts are available on the Nine Miles High compilation re-issued by Australia’s Raven Records. The Spiders haven’t released any new material in well over a decade but have been playing gigs in Australia as recently as last December. With the appearance of The Stems at last year’s SXSW there may be a revival afoot in the classic Aussie garage bands. Let’s hope it shakes loose some cobwebs and gets The Spiders back in the limelight.
MP3 :::
Lime Spiders – Action Woman
Lime Spiders – Rock Star
