Published on Nov 18, 2003
Believing that one good turn deserved another, U.S. music label,
Man’s Ruin Records obviously had visions of grandeur when signing
the Scandinavian action rock tandem the Hellacopters (Sweden) and
Gluecifer (Norway) to a one-time project titled
Respect the Rock America. But, on the other hand, the
uninitiated action rock lover might have been easily put off by two
no-name Nordic bands challenging the American audience with such a
pompous mission statement, resulting in a cynicism that could
easily assume chipped shoulders on two boys named David entering a
country pegged as Goliath.
In all fairness to the two groups, both were riding high from
the positive effects that the 1997 White Jazz Records release
Respect the Rock
had on exposing the bands in their native homelands in Europe.
Brisk sales resulted with the subsequent releases of the
Hellacopters breakthrough album
Payin’ the Dues and Gluecifer’s first full-length album,
patriotically referencing their hometown of Oslo, Norway with the
title
Ridin’ the Tiger.
And as the story goes, it took an indie label like Man’s Ruin to
take the plunge on bringing these two acts to U.S. soil. What
resulted should easily illustrate examples of what a label can do
right and what a label can do wrong in trying to payoff on such a
gamble.
First, I’ll applaud Man’s Ruin for actually trying to take a
great idea from White Jazz Records and attempting to make it
better. Seriously, rock n’ roll and pompous mission statement
associations are cool even if it’s to augment a marketing strategy.
And yes, as an avid student of European action rock, I’m going to
praise the label for choosing the two most talented and interesting
bands coming out of the Northern European scene at the time.
Something tells me that if this had been a major label enterprise,
we’d be talking about Ace of Base and the Cardigans, but I
apologetically digress…
Sadly though, when describing the tracks on the album, I have to
give a failing grade to Man’s Ruin for allowing the Hellacopters to
record four crappy cover songs to supplement their one original
tune on the album. Covering Wilson Pickett’s “A Man and a Half” and
Bob Seger’s “Her Strut” are as much bad ideas today as they were
even worse ideas when the original artists first recorded them.
Sure, the title of the album tells us to respect the rock, but give
me Ted Nugent or Allman Brothers songs to revere. Hell, I’d even
take a cover of Aretha Franklin’s “R-E-S-P-E-C-T” over those two
songs.
Listen to the Hellacopters perform their lone original “Doggone
Your Bad Luck Soul” and you’ll find yourself wondering why Man’s
Ruin let the Hellacopters record the covers in the first place.
Split tempos set to equal parts of blues and wah-wah are far more
interesting than the likely boring first impressions that the
Hellacopters granted first-time U.S. listeners with the other
tracks performed on the album.
But alas, this is a split effort for which we should all be
extremely thankful.
If music industry wisdom is to put the best songs at the top of
the track listing then Man’s Ruin failed again and that’s a shame.
Gluecifer wins the battle of the two bands on this album hands
down.
Gluecifer rocks and Gluecifer roars much like that tiger I was
describing earlier with their tracks “Gary O’ Kane” and “Shitty
City.” Listening to “Gary O’Kane,” I get a certain impression that
Biff Malibu is singing about the days when he used to put “a boot
in the ass” of a guy he describes as the “king of lame – a no-good
doofus with an idiot name.” Likewise, “Shitty City” is a song that
would seemingly describe Gluecifer’s distaste for their hometown of
Oslo. Even if they are not being serious with their chants of
wanting to see the city burn, the big guitars, wailing vocals, and
vicious backbeats that are kicked out during this jam impressively
hide any sentiment one would normally sympathize with such a
happening.
Anger management classes can wait as Gluecifer figure out how to
convincingly pen a song with the title “My Card Says Typhoon
Killer.” It doesn’t take much imagination to realize this isn’t a
ballad we’re talking about here. The last two tracks, “No Goddamn
Phones” and the cover of the Backstreet Girls (yes, that’s right)
“Going Down” pack the finishing wallops of the Gluecifer set; a
quintet of tracks that may end up going down in history as some of
the best-arranged songs the band has ever put out to date on one
release.
Looking back, Man’s Ruin definitely had the right idea for
putting out this release in an attempt to jump start the
Scandinavian scene on North American soil. What they lacked was the
ability to balance the output of both bands efforts as much as they
featured the wrong band at the top of this billing. With a title
like
Respect the Rock America, it’s understandable how the
previously uninitiated will remain uninitiated to what should have
been.
Gluecifer Grade: A The Hellacopters Grade: D+ Man’s
Ruin Grade: D (for as much stupidity as anything else)