GET IT IN YA - The Veebees (Ocker Records)
If you want Australian citizenship these days, the bastards make it tough. They roll out a game of 20 Questions and you're in more strife than a stingray in the Irwin family pool if you can't (a.) sing the second stanza of "Advance Australia Fair" - backwards (b.) name all of Kylie Minogue's U.S. top ten hits (snigger) and (c.) reel off the names and addresses of three National Rugby League stars that haven't been seen doing the rantan on a rival's head at 4am in a seedy Kings Cross nightclub. That last one's a toughie and it's rumoured the substitute question will be to name three songs by The VeeBees. While sculling a cold can, of course.
The VeeBees are surely in the top echelon of this country's finest Yob Rock Bands. That's not a club where membership is bestowed lightly - especially while the arseholes of people like the Cosmic Psychos, Fred Negro (in whatever guise) and the Onyas are still pointing to the ground, however sporadically. These Canberra/New South Wales South Coast pissheads should join them around the pool table on the strength of this second album, which has a wicked edge and enough snotty humour to fuel a garbo's picnic day barbie.
If you're an overseas Web surfer you may as well check out now, unless you have a hankering to tackle the impenetrable dialect called Strine (that's Australian.) It should be pointed that the I-94 Bar fields complaints from overseas patrons (especially Japanese) that our reviews are crammed with more inscrutable language than a mining town pub on pay night at 10 minutes to closing time. Should you agree, don't try and decipher the lyrics on this CD. If you haven't twigged after four songs, you never will.
"Get It In Ya" is Bogan Rock write large and in its basest form. Song titles like "Aussie Beef Snags", "Shootin' An' Rootin'", "Whaddya Reckon About Me Ute" and "Three On The Tree" are respectively nods to local cuisine, horizontal action, car envy and manual car transmission. Fair dinkum confused? 'Ken oath, mate.
Of course all this local cultural referencing would be flatter than a case of stale piss in the Queensland sun if the music wasn't up to scratch. The VeeBees have roots (I use that term under advisement) in the Canberra hardcore scene so they've got their chops down. It's a well-worn road down which they drive their Monaro with punk rock tempos prevailing and steel-meshed guitars showing more drive than a phalanx of V-8 hoons at Summer Nats. No doof doof music here, however.
"Three On The Tree" barrels along on fuzz bass and mashing six-strings, a la the Psychos, while the singalong choruses of "Hey Mate" and AccaDacca chug of "Quangers" will get Cheryl's thongs tapping. Needless to say, we won't bother knocking if the panel van's rocking...
But wait, there's more. "Get It In Ya" includes the "Fair Dinkum Rock 'n' Roll" mini album and sweet and sincere ballads like "Beer O'Clock", "Fucked Up Druggo", "Suck Me Off" and a cover of the subtle Psychos classic "C'mon Cunt". Production's not quite as sharp but who gives a shit, you'll be three-quarters of the way through your slab and fuller than a fat lady's boot by then.
I loved their last album and this one's even better, but then again I always thought Sir Les Patterson deserved his knighthood. Don't be a drop kick and ignore this one. We're even selling it and the predecessor in the Bar's shop. -
The Barman
CRACK
US ANOTHA – The Veebees (Ocker Records)
In the finest tradition of the Onyas and the Cosmic Psychos come
Yob Rockers the Veebees. If songs about drinkin’, wankin’, humpin’, more
drinkin’ and generally being a bit of a loud and obnoxious tool don’t
do it for you, well you can go root your boot (and if you’re an Aussie,
the rest of that one should be obvious).
Some trans-cultural explanations are in order if you’re not from the Wide
Brown Land of Chunder Down Under. The first thing overseas consumers need to
know is that the band’s name is a direct cop from Australia’s most
popular beer and most things flow naturally from there. The second is that punk
rock transcends all borders, and these boys do it well with singalongs galore
and broad Aussie accents.
The Veebees hail from the national capital Canberra, a place less associated
with punk rock than Stalinist architecture, roads to nowhere that pass through
endless roundabouts, X-rated video shops and politicians. I reckon these Veebees
would be hard-pressed to get past the door at local nightspots like The Holy
Grail or Minque. One listen to this and even the bouncers at the Kingo or Curtin
Pub might have second thoughts. Which should be an inducement to grab a copy.
The Veebees’ preoccupations are laid bare like a streaker’s arse
on a hot day at the one-day cricket by song titles like “Up the Shit”, “Drinkin’ Problem” and “Drive
Thru Bottlo”. No sense of restraint either in “Bashin’ the
Bishop”, whose major lyrical content is a string of euphemisms for tossing
off. Is it a coincidence that “Crack Us Anotha” was recorded over
four days in the Canberra suburb of Fyshwick, the epicentre of the Australian
mail order porn industry? Methinks not and there’s a song (“4 Days
in Fyshwick”) to make it official.
This isn’t the first venture into recording by the Veebees with another
two albums out there, apparently with similar themes. It’s a slightly re-jigged
line-up on this one (with one member leaving to take up professional boxing)
and it delivers nine tunes, none of which are sophisticated or pretty. The back
cover features a cartoon of two cattledogs doing the Dance of the Beast With
Two Backs and it arrived in the post box wrapped in the cardboard remains of
a box of beer. Are you sold yet?
Have sense
of humour, will travel. A bloody bottler and available direct from the
beaut blokes in the band. -
The Barman
3/4
