UNDERNEATHICA: Down Underneathica

Monday, December 18, 2006

Down Underneathica

I've been listening obsessively to Monsters of Australian Rock, a 23-track compilation CD that comes with the latest issue of Carbon 14. If you are unfamiliar with Carbon 14, it is a magazine that covers rock, rasslin', and raunch (porn, drugs, tattoo artists, underground film, etc.) Issue #28 has a lengthy interview with Steven McDonald of Redd Kross (reunited and back in the studio!), plus a poignant feature on Cynthia Plaster Caster, and a survey of the films of Herschell Gordon Lewis. You get 120 glossy pages for $6 (or you can get a four issue subscription to Carbon 14 for $20).

Plus you get the aforementioned CD: twenty-three variations on the theme of amped-up, raw-throated, buzzsaw ramalama that never gets old (not to this listener, at least). I've never heard of most of these bands, but almost all the songs are great. Listening to this wealth of musical talent, I envision Australia as a punk paradise where the national anthem is "TV Eye", the coins are inscribed "LAMF", and the faces of Johnny Thunders, Stiv Bators, Johnny Ramone and Fred "Sonic" Smith are carved into the side of Ayers Rock.

To give you just a taste of Monsters of Australian Rock, here are the Pink Fits performing their dystopian dancefloor smash, 100 Robots. It sounds like Mark E. Smith fronting the Rezillos! Brilliant, mate.

From an earlier Australian compilation that was included with the magazine Off the Hip, here are the regrettably named Hymies performing the unforgettable I'm Stressed.

4 Comments:

At 12/18/2006 6:51 PM , Anonymous said...: I might go to Ayers Rock now.

Either for Johnny's face or to play a game of cricket on the surface of the largish boulder.
At 12/18/2006 7:11 PM , jonder said...: Ever try explaining cricket to an American?
At 12/18/2006 10:10 PM , Anonymous said...: So Jon, I answered your question in the private message box on the geek board and did you get back to me? No, no you did not.
At 12/19/2006 9:50 AM , jonder said...: Amy, that's because I'm the worst kind of geek: one who is technically inept. I've been checking my inbox for three days and didn't realize you had responded. Smart blogger wanted.