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Freeplay: Psychotic Maniac
By Megan Carneal
mcarneal@mscd.edu

Psychotic Maniacs A Tribe of Melbourne EP (Reactor Records, 1987)

Australia was once an importer of criminals from Great Britain, now it is exporting Psychotic Maniacs.

Although Psychotic Maniacs may have an intimidating name and sound, upon closer inspection they are not as maniacal as the name suggests. As a matter of fact they are nothing more than sweet little Aussie potheads.

“I Need The Weed,” is the hardcore answer to Sublime’s “Smoke Two Joints” or any of the plethora of jam bands too stoned to realize that dreadlocks and tie-dye are not as attractive as they think. By repeating the title of the song over and over it becomes quite apparent that this guy definitely needs to smoke. The problem at the crux of this overwhelming need is the singer’s financial situtation-he has no green for the greenage.

The track is only one minute and 14 seconds long but quickly goes through several verse chorus verse changes and an excellent bridge in which the lyric “smoke” is introduced and then used more than Tommy Chong’s Bong. The lyrics are typical for a stoner, but the instrumentation, or background noise, is what sets this track apart from other smoking singles. Instead of freeform explorations and 45-minute solos, two chords and one drumbeat are used throughout the entire song.

As if they weren’t already teetering on the edge of hippiness, the track “Meat” pushes them even further into the land of eternal patchouli stench with an anti animal cruelty message. The track is a little slower in tempo than the rest of the EP, but that only means that the crunch of the guitars is more audible and less like TV static.

Psychotic Maniacs may have a bit of an identity crisis, but coming from the land where evolution put duck bills on beavers, fanny packs on just about any animal and turned the koala, one of the most cuddly looking bears, into an ill-tempered eucalyptus junkie, things could be worse.