Lime Spiders
Australian Garage Punk: An Interrogation.
Garage punk emerged in the mid-1960s, the product of feedback-and-fuzz-loving American kids who listened to The Kinks, The Who, The Troggs, and The Rolling Stones and decided that they could do the same thing, but louder and harder. Bands like The Standells, The Chocolate Watchband, The Seeds, The Litter, The Music Machine, Count Five, The Sonics, and The Leaves made one or two great singles each that wound up influencing generations to come (largely thanks to Lenny Kaye’s seminal 1972 collection Nuggets). The second wave of garage punk came in the mid-1980s and was an international affair, with bands like The Nomads (Sweden), The Barracudas (England), The Jesus and Marychain (Scotland), The 5.6.7.8s (Tokyo), Thee Headcoats (England), The Mummies (California),1 the Gories (Michigan), and a score of bands on the Australian record label Citadel, whose most successful act was the Lime Spiders. One can argue that every Australian garage rock band is a pale echo of Radio Birdmen, but the Lime Spiders were better than most, delivering a string of good-to-great singles until they made the mistake of signing to a major label.
Following is an interview with the Lime Spiders’ leader, Mick Blood, from GREED Vol. 1, #4, written at a time when I had tired of the “rock interview” format.
WHACK
“Auuuuggh!”
“So tell us about the Lime Spiders.”
“I don’t know nothin’ about no Lime – “
WHACK WHACK
“Arrgggghhh!”
“You want I should refresh your memory a little more?”
“No, I–”
“Refresh his memory a little more, Sergeant.”
WHACKAWHACKA POW POW POW
“Aauuughhh!”
“Tell us about the Lime Spiders. Tell us about this conversation you had with this guy, the leader...”
“Blood!”
“Ohh, ya poor little baby.”
“Pipe down, Sergeant! Blood’s the name of the leader of the band. Mick Blood, or so he calls himself. Come on, kid, spill. Easy way or the hard way, your choice.”
“Okay! Okay...Yeah, I talked to him, I talked to Mick Blood. I...I dunno. It was about three in the morning in Australia when I finally got a hold of him and he was tired and his voice was shot to hell. He really lays it on when he sings. I dunno, he really didn’t say anything new...”
“Well, maybe it’s new to us, kid. Come on, start at the beginning.”
“The Lime Spiders are an Australian band that do a modern take on the ‘60s garage punk style. They’ve changed lineups about a million times, especially guitar players. When they started out in ‘79 Mick Blood himself was on guitar.”
“On guitar? You sure about that? We heard he was the singer.”
“Well, he is now, and he writes a lot of their original material, but he used to play guitar. He told me he stopped because he likes to leave it to the experts.”
“He said that?”
“Yeah. ‘Leave it to the experts.’ Jeez, you just about knocked my tooth out, you know that?”
“Pipe down, runt, or you’ll be lookin’ out of two glass eyes!”
“Shaddup and let him talk! Go ahead, kid.”
“Yeah, well, the band just sort of started and stopped a lot, always breaking up or just not doing anything. In 1981 Richard Jakimyszyn, a fierce guitar player, came into the band and that’s when Blood said it started to take off, that they developed their sound. Mostly they did covers of classic stuff like “1-2-5.” Their first single, ‘25th Hour,’ was a two-7” set released in 1983 on Green Records. Like just about everything the Spiders released before their first lp, it’s maybe a classic.”
“It’s ‘maybe a classic?’ What the hell does that mean?”
“Uhh, chief, Webster’s Dictionary defines classic as of the highest class, a model of its kind, excellent, standard, authoritative. Does dat help?”
“Put a sock in it, you big maroon! You know we only use Oxford in this precinct!”
WHAAAAPPPP
“What are you hitting me for?”
“Because you’re the suspect, that’s why! Now come on, you’re telling us ‘25th Hour’ may be a classic?”
“Well, it may not be a classic, but it’s good, right? So in 1984 they released the ‘Slave Girl’ single on Citadel, which is the label that’s leading the garage punk renaissance in Australia. Some people think "‘Slave Girl” is the best thing they’ve ever done. Blazing guitars and a lyric about a guy who is chained up and tortured by his wife…a joke on what you think the song is going to be about. Around that time they picked up Gerard Corben on guitar, who, along with Jakimyszyn, came in and out of the band. Now he’s their permanent guitarist, I guess. They’ve had dual-guitar setups that I’ve heard were really great, maybe better than the lineup now, but I dunno. Blood, of course, thinks the band as it is now is the best one, or at least that’s what he says. He told me the band hasn’t really changed lineups that much, but that’s a crock of shit.”
WHAAACKWHAACKWHAAACK
“No swearin’ when you’re in the presence of a police officer, you wormy little son of a bitch!”
“Okay, okay! In 1985 they released the ‘Out of Control’ single on Citadel, which will make your ears bleed and is my personal favorite. Then they recorded another single called ‘Weirdo Libido’ that’s basically a rewrite of ‘Slave Girl.’ A troubling sign. Then they broke up, sort of.”
“Yeah, this is the part we’re curious about. What gives? Didn’t Blood kind of wander around Europe or something while the others guys formed a new band?”
“Something like that. Anyway, they got approached by Virgin, who maybe didn’t know the situation, and the next thing you know ‘Weirdo Libido’ is released and the band is in a recording studio cutting their first album, The Cave Comes Alive. It has some pretty good tracks, although some of it, well, I don’t know…”
“Get to the point!”
“Well, it’s a very heavy sounding record. Maybe too heavy. I asked Blood about it and he said he wasn’t entirely happy with the production, admitting that the album doesn’t have the same level of ferocity as their early recordings. They’re looking around for a new producer now. Still, although he doesn’t think it’s perfect, Blood’s satisfied with the album because of the diversity of the material on it. Up ‘till now the Lime Spiders have been known exclusively for their ‘60s punk sound. But it sounds too heavy to me, lumbering in spots, which their singles never were. They were a fast, jagged, hard-edged band. Maybe one of the worst-dressed bands around, too, but then they are Australian. Anyways, there are softer things on the album, and a lot of influence from the psychedelic era and acid rock.”
“Ah-HA! Now we’re getting somewhere. What’s all this about psychedelics?”
“Well, uhh, some of it’s good psychedelia and some of it is not-good-at-all droning hippie crap psychedelia, if you know what I mean, like “Winds of Change” by Eric Burdon & The [New] Animals, or some of the stuff on that second Plasticland album – it comes real close to slipping into the muck. But Plasticland’s third album is great, so...”
“Quit wastin’ my time! Sergeant! Persuade our guest to stay focused!”
WHAACK WHAAACK
“Now are you gonna tell me about these psychedelic narcotics or am I gonna have to break your face?”
“I dunno what you’re talkin’ about!”
“Sergeant, break his face!”
WHACK WHACK KRUNNNNNCH SPLAAAAT
“Now are you gonna tell us more or...”
“Ummhff!”
“Now what are you...Sergeant! How’s he supposed to talk without any lips?”
“Sorry.”
“Sorry. I’ll say you’re sorry. Look at this mess. Well, we weren’t getting anywhere anyway.”
“What do you want me to do with him?”
“Tie him up. Take him to the junior prom. Feed him to your dog. Not my problem. Whatta wasta column inches.” •
The band that gave us the timeless classic “(You Must Fight to Live) On the Planet of the Apes.”)