Spiderbait – Tonight Alright
(Interscope)

Australia’s had its share of great rock bands over the years, and hey why shouldn’t they? Just because they’re all the way on the other side of the world doesn’t mean they can’t rock… it just means that sometimes it takes a while for the rest of us to catch wind of what’s going on over there.

Spiderbait have been a household name down under since about 1995 when their album “The Unfinished Spanish Galleon Of Finley Lake” went gold. They’re still flying under the radar here in North America for the most part, but that could change very soon with “Tonight Alright”. It all depends how people react to this band’s style. It seems to me they’re all about loud, dumb rock songs and often that’s more than enough to propel bands into the spotlight.

Personally, I’m always a bit suspicious when a band decides to release a cover tune as a single from their album. Spiderbait do a quirky remake of Ram Jam’s “Black Betty” that almost reminds me of Ministry with its thumping beats, overdriven vocals and wall of distorted guitars. It’s energetic and slightly amusing to be sure, but it doesn’t really give a proper indication of what the rest of this album is like.

In fact, no one song on “Tonight Alright” can be taken as indicative of their trademark sound because they seem to wander all over the place. The tangible difference between the bubblegum vocals of bassist Janet and the sneering delivery of drummer Kram further divides their music. In some ways, this is a real weakness to the album… it’s unfocused, jarring and hard to get a grip on. The only thing that holds it together is the fact that most of the songs are basic three-chord, verse-chorus-verse blasts of energy with crunchy guitars.

They may not have a very distinctive style or an easily labelled gimmick, but their own enthusiasm and infectiousness shine through and perhaps this is what has gotten them so far. Silly, simple punky pop-rock songs like “Fucken Awesome” and “Cows” seem to be what Spiderbait do best; on the other hand, the gritty rock n roll swagger of “Put It Down” is an adrenaline rush that can’t be denied. Unfortunately, most of their songs are oversimplified to the point of being repetitive and forgettable. How they can manage to be both repetitive and unfocused on the same album is a bit puzzling to me. The album’s closer “Picky” again adds more variety and less cohesion by playing out on an unexpected mellow groove.

Tonight, Alright is not a terrible album, but in an ocean of mediocre rock bands starving for attention it might as well be. I can’t really find anything here that makes them worth getting excited over. Call me an ignorant North American but I know for a fact there’s cooler stuff going on over there in Aussie land. Someone back me up on this… please? — Sean

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