Space Girl

20/20
Stupid Rock'n'roll, don't you just love it !

This wild bootleg collection celebrates all things primitive, sleazy, and lowbrow, taking the art of the compilation to new heights of lunacy. It's more like an elaborate mixtape from your weirdest record collector buddy, the one with too much time on his hands. There's no time to breathe between the tracks, as they're hastily jammed together to save precious seconds for radio spots for assorted dirty drive-in films like Hallucination Generation, The Virgin Witch, and Graveyard Tramps ("We get our hands on every stiff in the joint!"). The main attractions here are the ultra-primitive teenage garage combos, treble-charged adolescent blues blasters that sound like they were recorded in a trash dumpster. The Juveniles tear off a reverb-drenched version of "Bo Diddley" and the Saxons offer up the out of tune but still tuneful "Draggin' Around," but the real monster here is "Go Go Gorilla" by the Shandells, a wild and woolly Sasquatch of a dance number that has appeared on other compilations but is always welcome. If mental illness-themed country & western songs are your bag, there are plenty here, amping up the usual themes of bad women, bad liquor, and hard times with LSD, puppy strangling, and straightjacket confinement. The rest of the disc is crammed with novelty tunes of dubious amusement value, though the Lone Twister's bongo-driven theme song is irresistibly dumb ("Move your torso, even moreso"). The first Wavy Gravy LP wraps up with an obscene come-on for further volumes; a sequel followed, and the CD release consists of tracks from both. ~ Fred Beldin, All Music Guide

Listen To

The Earthboys - Space Girl