"I like your heart but there's no room in it for me."
The various music scenes dealing in neo-psychedelia that mushroomed (pun intended) during the late seventies and early eighties in the U.S., U.K., Australia, New Zealand and elsewhere were all as equally influenced by Punk as they were by the psychedelic sixties. So while the influence of bands such as The Byrds, The Doors, and The Velvet Underground was ubiquitous throughout the various scenes, Nuggets-era Garage-Rock was just as influential, as its rawer sound and D.I.Y. ethos suggested an obvious parallel with (and perhaps original influence on) Punk. One of the most admired of these Garage-Rock revivalists were The Lime Spiders. Allegedly named after an Australian tropical drink, the band was formed in Sydney by Mick Blood and Darryl Mather, and their sound was equal parts Punk aggression and Nuggets-style psych-pop. The Lime Spiders spent the first six years of their existence undergoing sporadic line-up changes while occasionally issuing brilliantly unhinged singles, and they did not get around to recording an album until 1987's The Cave Comes Alive!, which has, over the decades, become a full-fledged cult-classic. While the sound of the album was once described in Rolling Stone as "The Sex Pistols on acid," when placed in the larger context of The Lime Spiders' discography, their debut LP indicates a band transitioning away from some of the Garage-Rock elements of their earlier work by integrating subtle pop and conventional hard-rock touches into the arrangements (this would become much more pronounced on their final two albums, Volatile and Beethoven's Fist). Nevertheless, The Cave Comes Alive! still demonstrates plenty of Punk attitude and psychedelic overtones, and includes covers of garage-psych legends The Electric Prunes and The Litter. What is most striking about the album is its wealth of great original songs, such as lead track and single "My Favorite Room," which begins inauspiciously with a progression of overly polished, almost-metal sounding guitar chords but quickly moves in a more familiar Garage-Rock direction when Mick Blood's vocals enter the mix. The wonderfully anarchic cover of The Litter's "Action Woman" is much more reminiscent of The Lime Spiders' earlier work, as it features one of Blood's best graveled vocal turns on the album and a more dynamic, Punk-based arrangement; in doing so, it arguably bests the original. The Cave Comes Alive! suggested that great things lay ahead for The Lime Spiders, but similar to the band they toured with in 1987, The Cult, with each successive album, they lapsed into a more conventional, and thus faceless, hard rock approach; nevertheless, their debut is a Garage-Rock classic and well-deserving of its hallowed status.
The Cave Comes Alive! (1987 Virgin CDV-2457)
1. My Favourite Room (3:49)
2. Are You Loving Me More (2:46)
3. Ignor My (2:24)
4. Studio Ramblings I (0:26)
5. NSU (2:32)
6. Just One Solution (2:56)
7. Blood from a Stone (3:47)
8. Just One Solution (Reprise) (1:46)
9. Action Woman (2:40)
10. Studio Ramblings II (0:16)
11. Rock Star (3:11)
12. Jessica (3:41)
13. Space Cadet (3:30)
14. Studio Ramblings III (0:26)
15. Theory of Thira (3:42)
The Lime Spiders (7' Vinyl Promo EP)
1. Space Cadet (Live) (3:21)
2. Just One Solution (Live) (2:40)
3. Action Woman (Live) (2:35)
4. Stone Free (Live) (3:08)
Been watching the video you posted and looks like a very interesting band, I didn't know them.
ReplyDeleteThanks!
great write-up voixautre... the drink is green fizzy drink (probably lime soda you'd call it over there?) with a scoop of ice cream in it - when the ice cream hits the drink it goes crazy - all fizzy and creamy at the same time. very apt name!
ReplyDeleteProf. Thanks for this one I've been looking for it forever in LL form, now I have the 2 best LS lp's
ReplyDeletemade. Cool thx again.
Thanks! I have this sense that college radio was playing their music and because it was college radio they would never say who the bands were.
ReplyDeleteSo now I know it was the Lime Spiders!! Sorry the caffeine hasn't kicked in.
ReplyDeleteThanks a lot voixautre. Saludos.
ReplyDeleteDave, I have another Lime Spiders post in the works. I also posted their swansong on sradams777's blog: http://sradams777.blogspot.com/2011/06/lime-spiders-beethovens-fist-1990.html
ReplyDeletebedlam, thanks. That sounds like an interesting drink. The yank version of this is far less interesting: rootbeer and a scoop of vanilla icecream
ReplyDeletesradams777, it was my pleasure. The CD cost me an arm and a leg, but it needed to be available in lossless. I posted the third Lime Spiders album on your blog a little while ago, and I'll post a few more here at luna later in the week
ReplyDeletescurfie, this was actually a big college radio hit in the late 80s, so some of these songs might sound quite familiar
ReplyDeleteEl Isabelino, my pleasure. Very good to hear from you :)
ReplyDeleteThanks so much! Another listening surprise (to me anyway). Kurt
ReplyDeleteKurt, I'm glad you liked this one. It's been impossible to find in lossless, so we fixed that :)
ReplyDeleteHey, great blog and great fun to see this classic rearing its ugly head after so many years. I used to buy all their early releases on import in Rounder Receords (Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK) and they totally rocked. I remember this as a little disappointing due to a great love of Lime Spiders total garage confrontation as displayed on their early releases; Out Of Control/Save My Soul still stands up as one of the greatest charged garage punk singles of all time.
ReplyDeleteSo head over to Rise Above Bedlam and score a copy of Headcleaner (a comp of all the early releases)
http://risingabovebedlam.blogspot.com/2011/06/lime-spiders-headcleaner.html
Thanks for a digital copy of this great LP
Have fun! Tull
Tull, thanks for the comment! I agree with you; I'm not entirely fond of the change in their sound that started on this album, though this is still a great listen. Good to hear from you and keep visiting!
ReplyDeleteI really do like this band, but I think you're straying off the Paisley Underground track a bit by including them in this series. I think I would have given The Lime Spiders a separate blog spot and for punk influence in the Paisley Underground Series, would have posted, oh, I dunno... maybe The Twinkeyz? Seems to me to be a much better fit for the series.
ReplyDelete