Members
Alvin Vomit (bass and vocals)
Neng Vomit (drums)
Who they are
Formed in 1993, the band already have two acclaimed demos under their combat helmets and have appeared in a number of well-publicised gigs. Spacemen marks their first outing on CD and is best described as surf-punk dominated by a bassline that's busy following earthquake patterns. As hard as we tried, we still don't understand why they never supped on a conventional pop diet of sugary ballads and crotch-thrusting metal rockers. More power to them for listing Leonard Cohen and Jonathan Richman as influences. - Picture by Mary Ann
Reviews
The Fight In The Cave Of The Moon Butchers
(demo)
To term this demo release, kitsch, would really be complimenting the cool, fab songwriting here. Check out the lyric to Terror Come Home: "Don't come near me/I have a knife/don't come near me/I have a mind/And I will use it." It's a clever, smart razor-sharp lyric.
Then they go all goofy on Rasta Baby: "He couldn't stand for the gold and cocktail shows/He's leaving on his own/Made no tropical bones." But the band does tackle issues. Rasta Baby could be about broken families, Terror Come Home about delinquency and Post Coital Tension speaks about sexual frustration. Their sense of humour marries well to their B-movie rock 'n' surf music.
But don't accuse the Vomit family of Dino (guitars, vocals), Alvin (bass, vocals) and Neng (drums, vocals, and also drummer of Bruce Lee) of bandwagonising. The Vomits were into this surf-rock style way before Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction made this genre hip again.
The opening track, Spacemen Over Malaysia, could have been a pre- Independence-Day hit. But it's an instant Vomit classic in the vein of a P. Ramlee sing-along under coconut trees set in picturesque Cherating, Pahang.
Performance-wise, there is a zaniness in their brandishing of thrashy punk riffs to pump up the volume. Go get this one before Tarantino does. - Joe Ng
