[coll]: Antipodean Screams Vol. 2
Reviewed by Sadie O, 2/21/08
Garage rock and more garage from from Australia and New Zealand. If you can’t hang with that, that’s too bad, cause it’s what’s for breakfast, baby!
Only one major FCC violation noted – track 17 on Disk 2 – but I couldn’t make a damn bit of sense of about 2/3 of the vocals…
I dug it all the most. Follow the stars…
Disk 1:
1. 2:57 ***big chords, then uptempo bouncy garage rock, nice interplay of simple guitar and keyboards. Fun!
2. 3:07 ***big, chugging hyperspeed 4/4, distressed vocals.
3. 2:23 **midtempo “Can’t Explain” beat, chick vocals.
4. 5:18 **manic drum solo intro, big guitar chords, running bass lines, bit of psychedelic sound. Long guitar solo in center, massive energy, even a horn section. Also, apparently, some very angry elephants.
5. 2:32 ***midtempo Memphis soul strut with fuzzy as hell guitar, cover of the Link Wray tune (not Motorhead, sorry!) Sweet, though!
6. 3:27 ***midtempo fuzz and reverb and echos on the vocals and all sorts of good stuff – some pretty gnarly psychedelia, too.
7. 2:54 **pure punk rock – takes me right back to 1977! Apparently a warning to fellow vampires.
8. 2:10 **sloppy psychedelic garage rock – clearly recorded in someone’s step-mom’s rec room.
9. 0:58 **big beautiful bass-laden guitar sound, almost indistinguishable vocals. Less than a minute long!
10. 1:54 **semi-classic riff that ends periodically for the singer to compare a girl’s tits to various fruits. What’s not to love?
11. 3:25 **simple guitar and attitude intro, then 4/4 garage rock with more attitude. Nice surf-y bridge, rather psychedelic keyboard break. Vocals continue after music fades.
12. 3:03 **uptempo, great guitar sound, lots of fuzz on everything. I think this was recorded under someone’s sink… Hilarious hillbilly “Goddamn” chorus – if you consider that an FCC, don’t play it. Feedback solo!
13. 3:03 **simplistic, adenoidal, incomprehensible, quite lovely. Actually gets really good for the solos in the middle.
14. 2:40 **fuzzy crawl with pretty keyboards and teen angst vocals.
15. 2:40 ***sounds like Hasil Adkins – I mean, EXACTLY.
16. 1:51 **completely hyperactive surfy New Wave instrumental. Drum solo!
17. 3:36 *swaggering midtempo distortion. SERIOUSLY distorted distortion.
18. 1:39 **harmonica intro, then uptempo rock ‘n’ roll.

Disk 2:
1. 4:15 ***4/4 intro, then some kind of mutant Glam rock/60’s hard pop… An epic tale of no love, complete with flashy guitar solo.
2. 1:56 ***hyperactive surf punk with ultra-cheeky female vocals. Do the frug! You know you wanna!
3. 3:56 ****midtempo very basic garage rock with howling, somewhat unusual bridge, harmonica. Fades to bass only, then comes back FIERCE!
4. 2:03 **midtempo basic garage rock with a hint of VU, until you get to the guitar solo.
5. 2:52 **New York Dolls-y, but I can’t make out the lyrics.
6. 2:29 ***simple but nice guitar interplay, rather folky vocal delivery. Maybe early Kinks-ish. Extra star for a completely constipated guitar solo!
7. 1:44 **louder faster shorter! Well, maybe not faster, but definitely loud to the point of distortion.
8. 2:29 ***very jolly syncopated shuffle with very basic instrumentation and apparently recorded in the same rec room as track 8 on disk 1. Really quite funny, if you have the same obnoxious sense of humor I do.
9. 3:32 **yikes! Chugging rhythm riff and piercing lead guitar, lots of fuzz. Vocals are screamed but buried behind a ton of guitars and a smidge of farfisa.
10. 3:15 ***HUGE, stomping, sludgy garage stuff with completely over-the-top screamed vocals. Make sure there’s no oysters around, because they’ll be SO annoyed…
11. 4:23 **a bit downtempo, attitudinal female vocals. Think early Joan Jett or maybe very early Suzi Quatro. Suddenly goes double-speed.
12. 3:06 **fast punk rawk with two vocalists in unison, rather suggestive lyrics. Lots of feedback at end.
13. 2:56 ***midtempo syncopated garage rock, loud to the point of distortion – actually a great sound. Makes yer ears bleed! Who needs trepanation?
14. 3:23 ****more garage rock, but this has lots of cool extra sound from keyboards and horns. Not all necessarily playing on the same page, but thass ok.
15. 2:01 *****adenoidal hyperspeed surf rock with a bit of farfisa and straightforward lyrics about surfin’ ufos – utterly loveable!
16. 3:01 ****somewhat uptempo psychedelic garage somewhere between the Standells and Arthur Lee and Love. Very Summer of Love.
17. 3:15 multiple FCCs – “motherfucker” **slow, fuzzy and rather funky crawl – Cramps-like. Ends with toilet flushing or something.
18. 1:59 ***completely different, chugging punk swamp-grass. Nice slide solo.
19. 1:51 **lovely uptempo syncopated garage-Glam. Tons of swagger.