Johndoe
Rastløs rock'n'roll
Dead Letter Records

Young Trondheim 4-piece Johndoe put out this EP - their debut - some months back. Rastløs rock'n'roll - restless rock'n'roll; a good description of the musical content.

Johndoe play rock music without any make-up and fashion nonsense. Just plain, simple rock. Catchy, and with cocky, streetsmart lyrics, bravely done in Norwegian (rarer these days). Well-working and a bit reminiscence to the DumDum Boys (sort of the "godfathers" of Norwegian rock, post-punk era - meaning the late 70s boost), who reigned the rock scene a short decade from the late 80s. In fact Johndoe remind me of DDB musically as well as lyrically (especially the song "Skyskraper"), and Jonas Skybakkmoen's (vox, guitar) vocals makes me think of DDB's singer Prepple.

The five songs included make believe in a band probably being a treat on stage. The title track makes me nostalgic, pulling another oldie from the shelves; the 1979 compilation LP 7000 RIFF, presenting bratish, punky bands from Trondheim's Hard Rock Kafé (long before the stupid worldwide HRCafé concept) scene. Put on side one, track 2: Edge's "Fortrock". "Kickstart" might be the better track on the EP, but also the mentioned "Skyskaper" and "Fuktig liten faen" are neat songs.

Of course Johndoe (the other three are: Øystein Eide on bass/vox, Terje Ulv on guitar/vox, and Stian Lundberg on drums/vox) flirts with clichés, but that's what rock's about, right? Meet Johndoe. Smalltown urban rock hymns. Well done, keep on, lads!

Copyright © 2002 Håvard Oppøyen