Various Artists
Alpha Motherfuckers - A Tribute to Turbonegro
Bitzcore

"If ABBA were all guys, had been born 30 years later and had grown up on Black Flag, Phil Spector, The Stones, pornography and speed, this is what they would have sounded like. This is the real thing: No promo budgets, no 18-month-old tattoos, no bullshit, just one of the most powerful bands in the history of rock'n'roll!" (from the press sheet for the 1999 Turbonegro live album Darkness Forever)

Ready for some macho hard-on-denim-porn-rock with wall-to-wall guitars? Alpha Motherfuckers gives you a chance to dive into the world of legendary Oslo-band Turbonegro. During their 10 years of existence they recorded 4 albums: Hot Cars And Spent Contraceptives (1992), Never Is Forever (94), the classic deathpunk anthem Ass Cobra (96), and their swansong album (an indeed stylish The End) Apocalypse Dudes (98). Not many Norwegian bands get cheered by a tribute album, and Alpha Motherfuckers - A Tribute to Turbonegro holds quite a number of internationally big (more or less) names: Queens of the Stone Age, Therapy?, Supersuckers, Nashville Pussy, the ADZ (a.k.a. the Adolescents) and Ratos De Porao. There's also alot of (to me) unknown names, plus some Norwegian acts such as Motorpsycho, Satyricon (the Gucci Satanists, according to the press sheet) and Amulet.

I'm not usually too found of tribute albums, simply because it's much better to hear the originals than a straight cover, a run-through without trying to do something else or make some funny twists. Alpha Motherfuckers shows that Turbonegro had a lot of catchy rock'n'roll songs (as well as explicit lyrics...). Not innovative of course; they borrowed from everywhere, but never denied they did so (on the Turbojugend pages they list a lot of names of inspiration: AC/DC, Bob Ezrin, The Ramones, Alice Cooper (3rd through 6th album), The Angry Samoans, Black Sabbath, The Rubber City Rebels, The Rolling Stones, The Circle Jerks, Iggy & James Williamson, Bowie & Ronson, Eddie & The Hotrods, Union Carbide Productions/Soundtrack Of Our Lives, Slade, The Who, Tony Joe White, Mott, Roky, Curtis Mayfield, Venom, J. Conrad, MC5, Jorma Kaukonen, Poison Idea, Marc Bolan, W. Reich, The Dictators, R. Crumb, Cheap Trick, John Philip Sousa, to name "a few"). 25 bands/artists have contributed to the collection, and most of the songs come from the last two records, Ass Cobra and Apocalypse Dudes (10 off each). And, well, 25 is way too many, even though there's quite some fun on the way.

Nashville Pussy present a brilliant kick-off for the album, with Age of Pamparius, opening quietly before speeding up. Both Queens of the Stone Age (Back To Dungaree High) and Therapy? (Denim Demon) play straight forward, but okay. Nothing more. I find many of the bands to be too anonymous, but as long as the songs are quite good it sure helps quite a lot. The highlights are Motorpsycho's Tom Waits-ish, jazzy-strolling take on (He's a) Grungewhore, Bela B. & Denim Girl's Are You Ready For Some Darkness, the gothic HIM and Rendezvous With Anus, and Namsos punksters Null$katte$nylterne's horn flavoured Sailor Man. Not to forget Supersuckers, simply because they play Get It On, Turbonegro's 1998 teasing hit. Great song, but it's sounding veeeeeery much like the Dictators...

So, there's quite some tracks to make you sweat your denim dripping wet here. 1-2-3-4-R-O-C-K!

To be released June 9th. Distribution in Norway: Tuba!

Copyright © 2001 Nimrod's Son