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Features Disc of the day
Turbonegro
Apocalypse Dudes
(Boomba, 1998)
Scandinavian death-punks unleash "dangerous gay rock" storm!
When Turbonegro split in December 1998, bass player Happy Tom issued a statement on behalf of the six-piece blaming "drug problems, mental illness and an impending religious crisis". If it wasn't for the fact that it was true, it would've been funny. After a four-year drying out period which allowed their troubled singer Hank Von Helvete to regain his joie de rock, they reformed and found that their absence had enhanced their legend. If Turbonegro found themselves name-checked by everyone from Jello Biafra to Queens Of The Stone Age, their reputation was founded firmly on this, their fourth album, which established them on a global basis despite their provocative moniker.
The band themselves - having sensibly reneged on the initial idea of calling themselves Nazipenis - openly stated that their name was designed to challenge the questionable attitudes to race held by some of their fellow Scandinavians. Not content which tackling the issue of colour, Turbonegro also squared up to the issue of homophobia in rock music on 1996's Ass Cobra album, developing their ambiguous look (brickies-meet-Bowie at a sailor's convention) and lyrical approach. The fact that they claimed to peddle "dangerous gay rock" while remaining staunchly heterosexual is as confusing as Eddie Izzard's assertion that he's a male lesbian; nevertheless, their provocative faux-mo tendencies are here evident on tracks like The Prince Of The Rodeo, Rendezvous With Anus and Back To Dungaree High.
Musically speaking, Apocalypse Dudes is muscular rather than camp, rampaging over the same ground covered by '70s dumbkopf cult classicists The Dictators, and straddling the nebulous grey area that exists between punk and hard rock. The influence of early Alice Cooper, the Ramones and prime Blue Öyster Cult are equally apparent, the melodramatic opener Age Of Pamparius (fantastically named after a pizza parlour initially run by the band's guitarist/keyboard player Pål Pot Pamparius) recalling Sandy Pearlman's production on BÖC's Tyranny And Mutation. Selfdestructo Bust and the anthemic Get It On follow in quick succession, sparking up an album whose bruising, burlesque power has ensured that it remains one of the seminal underground releases of the '90s.
Phil Alexander
Posted by Ross_Bennett at 6:00 AM GMT 07/08/2009
Further Listening
Alice Cooper – Love It To Death (Warner Brothers, 1971)
The Dictators – Go Girl Crazy! (Epic, 1975)
Turbonegro – Scandanavian Leather (Burning Hearts, 2003)
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