Audioscam 4 Kicking and Screaming Is a Keeper

The cover to Kicking and Screaming https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/au... indicates some kind of film noir new wave and with the Avengers' Infinity War (movie) adding so much to the kettle, it's the order of the day to go all out. The boys from Queensland and the world down under outdo themselves after the impressive e.p. releases Audioscam 3 (May 6, 2014) https://itunes.apple.com/mt/al... and their second release / original music debut When The Money's Gone (August 18, 2011,) https://itunes.apple.com/mt/al...

Those were brighter days of perfect pop confections by the veteran recording ensemble who launched with the extraordinary Stevie Ray Vaughn meets Abba tribute they entitled Abbattack (August 12, 2008)

KICKING AND SCREAMING

https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/au...

It's hard to believe that a decade has rolled by since the group concocted their amazing hard rock renditions of Abba classics, and now the bite is back as Kicking and Screaming takes their originals to a more edgy realm, though not pushing that envelope too far, enough of the pop sensibilities of When the Money's Gone and Audioscam 3 remain. As in the first track, "Just like Jamaica," which could be a sequel to Audioscam 3's "Awayo." https://itunes.apple.com/mt/al... OK, so now you'll say "Ol' Judy is contradicting herself. Does the album have pure bite or is the music sequellian (my word!) - Go to track 2, "Baby Done Bad" - three minutes and forty seconds that the publicist tells me he thinks sounds like a second cousin to Humble Pie's classic "Thirty Days in the Hole." Well, golly gee, it does! sound like Steve Marriot, and that's a good thing. See, you don't pound harder than Humble Pie, a band that should have been much, much bigger back in the day - and now. So too with Audioscam, like HP before them (Humble Pie, not Hewlett Packard,) the Peter Frampton / Marriot / Jerry Shirley progression chugged along and made great waves. "Get Used to This" explodes like the Beatles in the Cavern Club, sixties flavored Brit rock as perceived almost sixty years on by these musicians from the former British colony.

Wikipedia says about Australia: "The artistic, musical and spiritual traditions they established are among the longest surviving such traditions in human history." The song "Batesfield" from Kicking and Screaming keeps those aforementioned customs and conventions alive, as does the cosmic, Voodoo-esque "Hand of Sin." At 4:01 the song keeps the time signature (if you will) with most of this disc, compositions hovering around the four minute mark, "Baby Done Bad" one of the few dipping below that (3:40) along with the live version of "When the Money's Gone" at three minutes exactly. "When the Money's Gone" sounds great live and rumor has it there's a full concert of material the band opted not to put out as the "full" bonus due to licensing issues. Seek out the bootleg!!! Kicking and Screaming is a tremendous addition to the catalog generated by these professionals over the past ten years.

May 19, 2014 my interview with Brian Pitcher of Audioscam published here on Patch. Interesting that this review is posted on May 20, 2018. Four years have elapsed since then, and this band continues to impress me with their heart and creativity. Check out the interview from back then: https://patch.com/california/a...