| CD REVIEW Turbonegro |
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Band : Turbonegro German label earMusicis really heavily into re-issues, apparently, and having started a re-issue series of the Savatage catalog last year, they're now also re-issuing the albums by Norwegian Punk Rock act Turbonegro whom, after having reformed in 2002 (for the second time, by the way) are now back on a hiatus. Regretfully, the re-issues are again not chronologically...but they do come in a two-for-one cardboard digipack packaging with lavish booklets ànd bonus tracks for each CD! As with the Savatage re-issues, I feel the re-issue schedule is somewhat confusing for us, as we would have to give you the band's complete history in order for you to fit in the releases. This time, in stead of browsing through only part of the band's history and saving some for a later re-issue (as I did with the Savatage re-issues posted at the same moment), I decided I'd generalize the band's history somewhat...again keeping part of it for a later date. So, Turbonegro first came together in Oslo during the '88/'89 Winter in a line-up which already had mainstays Happy-Tom (bass/ drums; real name Thomas Seltzer) and Rune Rebellion (rhythm guitar; real name Rune Grönn), and Pàl Pot Pampirius (keyboards/ percussion/ guitar; akà Pàl Bottger Kjaernes) which continued the noisy conceptual/ experimentations of The Butthole Surfers, and played its first show in March 1989. A first recording session resulted in the release of a single (Route Zero) and 12-inch EP (Turboloid) on Seltzer's own label Straightjacket Records. In September 1990 the band left Norway for a 3-week tour of the US. Rune was knocked into hospital only a few hours after their arrival, and the band went on with the disastrous tour without him. Upon their return home, the band split...but not for long! In the winter of 1990 Seltzer reformed the band with Rune and Pàl, adding other members (including singer Harald Fossberg from Norwegian Punk pioneers Haerverk) to the fold to complete the line-up, which released the Vaya Con Satan single in Summer 1991 and recorded the 1992 released debut full-length Hot Cars and Spent Contraceptives (through Big Ball Records – the album was re-released on CD by German label Repulsion Records under the title Helta Skelta with 5 bonus tracks, one a near 25-minute audio play about a young man being raped by a policeman...but leaves out the original album's track “Prima Moffe”). The band's sound had changed, displaying their self-named “DeathPunk” stylings (a dark driven Punk Rock with occasional excursions into Hardcore and Metal as well as a tendency to disruptive and sarcastic lyrics). Following an eventful tour of Norway in support of the album, the guys tried their luck in Hamburg, where they failed to get any gigs and spent their remaining money in no time...but useful contacts we made for later. Due to health issues Harald quit the band, and in his stead came the very boisterous Hank von Helvete (real name Hans Erik Husby). The band renamed itself to Stierkampf, opened up for Poison Idea as well as The Ramones at the Oslo Rock Festival in August 1993, and went on to release the EP Grunge Whore, issued through Sympathy For The Record Industry. After getting their old name back, the band issued the self-released album Never Is Forever in 1994. The album set an example by the band: where most Punk acts were going back to lofi recordings in order to be as “real” as possible, Turbonegro on purpose went against the grain, creating a veritable miniature suburban Deathpunk Opera! Time to talk image, which changed a couple of times during the band's career. Starting off with a leather-and-studs image, the guys changed to what they themselves called the “Al Johnson schtick”, including black make-up faces with wigs and little hats for a short time (Winter '94-'95), and then reverted to their “Denim and moustache” look (later on the band would even get some kind of endorsement by Levis jeans). With the new look again came a new rawer sound, reminiscing the band's sound on stage, and this sound was first revealed on the Denim Demon and Bad Bongo singles, released in Spring 1995. The band then made a new attempt to tour the USA, and got away with playing a total of 11 shows. At the end of the year Pàl left to travel, and bassist Bengt “Bingo” Calmeyer left because he felt uneasy with the band's new musical direction (“...less Slayer, more Rock 'n' Roll...”). Seltzer was at the same time suffereing from some stress injury to his arms, so the band was put on hold for a while. The band's 3rd album Ass Cobra eventually surfaced on Boomba Records during Spring 1996, and in September the band was tourig again with a new line-up (with Anders Gerner from Angst on the drums, Seltzer could go back to bass again; Pàl was replaced by Knut “Euroboy” Schreider, whom Seltzer had played with in The Vikings). With Euroboy on the rhythm guitar came yet another reshaping of the band's sound, which came out first on the Prince Of the Rodeo 7-inch single. Pàl then returned from Thailand, opened up a pizza parlor outside Oslo, and decided to rejoin Turbonegro as keyboard player and “dancer”. Thanks to the new sound and the band's stage antics (including Happy-Tom's sailor hat, Hank's routine to stick a lit Roman candle up his ass, Euroboy's wacky guitar choreography, and Hank's trials at addressing the audiences in their broken native tongues...people were finally starting to notice the band. But more changes were about to come, first in the line-up when the drum position was taken over by Chris “Summers” Engen (Big Bang) in Spring 1997, and off to another European tour the new team went, already showing signs of the addition of Glam Rock elements to their sound, as would become evident on the band's 1998 album Apocalypse Dudes (strongly inspired by Euroboy's '70s musical leanings). The new style (which had references to the Dictators, The Ramones and late period Iggy & The Stooges as well as New York Dolls) was also more appreciated on the band's 3rd US tour, even if again the boys only played a couple of shows and were plagued with problems. The band's 4th album saw Turbonegro coming of age, and fall into a style which not only befell the members most, but also got praising criticism from both fans and press media. In fact, Jello Biafra was quoted as saying, “The new Turbonegro record is possibly the most important European record ever.” Apocalypse was promoted live with a 16-date tour throughout Europe during the first part of 1998, and another 16-tour European tour, dubbed the Darkness Forever tour, followed in Autumn. It would be the last tour for the band in a long time. Hank 's mental condition had become a real problem, so the band went on a hiatus until 2002...which is where I'm stopping this tirade. I'll just add that the Darkness Forever album, with material culled from the band's tour of the same name, as released posthumously in 1999, same year as which Hamburg based label Bitzcorebought the rights to the albums from Boomba, and started to re-issue the band's complete back-catalog of albums. Reasons for buying these re-issues, even if you happen to have the original albums (lucky bums!)? The improved sound quality is one (re-mastering, you know), the bonus tracks is two [very nice stuff too: the most recently released Retoxalbum gets 2 bonus tracks entitled “Back In Denim” and “Into The Void”; the band's debut album linked to it by the same double-disc digipack, gets no more that 5 (five) bonus tracks, one an almost 25-minute audio play about a kid being raped by a policeman). Bonus tracks on the Apocalypse Dudes album include the single version of that album's “Prince Of The Rodeo”, and a cover of “Suffragette City”, and to the original track-list of Darkness Forever 5 more live recordings from the same shows at Oslo and Hamburg the original album was culled from...making for 7 bonus tracks for each re-issue package]. Reasons for buying these re-issues, in the case you do not have the original albums, but know the band...do you actually nééd any reasons? And in that case where you don't know the band yet? Well, you get a chance to acquaint yourselves with a band which went through several musical motions (as already described in the text above), but was excellent in each of these...A band with a somewhat hilarious view on sexuality as a whole, which simply nééds being discovered. You can almost certainly find music at either the band's official website, or at the band's MySpace (for links to both, first go to the band's Wikipedia page: google “Turbonegro (band) wikipedia”, and you've got the page at the top of the list!!! Okay, re-issues, so normally no rating, but there's a bonus for the packaging. One thing I regret is the absence of an additional story booklet but hey... Tony. |
