www.churchonthursday.com
Various Artists
Alpha Motherfuckers: A Tribute to TURBONEGRO
Hopeless Records
2001
What the f#&@k is this???
I admit that I was taken by surprise when first faced with this
TURBONEGRO
tribute album. I have never been exposed to this band and am in awe that they
existed ('89-'98) for so long and escaped my ear. They are/were an extremely
outlandish Scandinavian Death Punk band and very obscure to the general public.
Did I mention that they are extremely GAY! Never have I heard such vile, homoerotic
filth. Their overt "Fag Rock" rivals only the misogynist masters
known as The Mentors. Hank, the singer, is one hairy bastard. The son of a
bitch wears Alice Cooper-type makeup and a goddamned top hat and was known
to shove a lit Roman Candle up his ass while singing extremely queer songs.
Even after being disgusted and appalled by this gay Scandia music I am wholly intrigued by this band and their songs. There's a part of me that wants to tell you that TURBONEGRO (or Turbojugend) has produced some of the worst music I've ever heard, but I can't do it--this bizarre mixture of 70's Shock Rock and Glam is fused with the oddness of what Scandinavians view as cool (usually ten years after Americans have moved on with a fad) and almost every song is unbelievably gay but still rocking. Don't get me wrong, this band rocks very hard, but it was difficult to take them seriously at first. They broke up in 1998, but apparently impacted Eurotrash everywhere, as well as many American bands. Thus, this tribute album.
...Which is excellent, from tracks 1 through 26 (26 tracks--damn!). My favorites are "Age of Pamparius" by Nashville Pussy (seemingly the only non-homo track on the album...but it's all about pizza for Christ's sake), "Denim Demon" by Therapy?, "Get It On" by Supersuckers, "Back to Dungaree High" by Queens of the Stone Age...Jesus!--this list is going on and on...I like them all! This well-done and very well-recorded record does TURBONEGRO justice. Why can't people put this much effort into other tribute albums? If TURBONEGRO gets this supreme treatment, don't go half-assed with a Descendents or Blue Oyster Cult tribute!
I highly recommend this album to anyone who loves garage rock or punk or just dark music. You will laugh and you will be disturbed but you will love it! How can you go wrong with lyrics like "So you think you had a real good pizza? Well not like this," or "I got a headache in my pants". And then you have song titles like "Rock Against Ass", "Sailor Man", "Rendevous With Anus", "I Got Erection", and of course "Hobbit Motherfucker". You can't ask for more than that. So get your Amyl Nitrate out, you Apocalypse Dudes, and rock! TURBONEGRO truly gives a new definition to "Ass Rock". There is even a story that TURBONEGRO got kicked out of the Filmore in San Francisco for being too gay--in San Francisco? Since when has anybody been accused of being too gay in San Francisco--it's the "Gay Bay"! I guess they played the Rawhide Saloon...things have a way of working out for the best, you know. They probably scored that night. So, whether you're a homophobe like me--or not--check this tribute album out.
--Garren Hanon