| Issue
#32 Oct.
'01
Simply put The Trollops
self-titled debut CD is the best pure
Rock-n-Roll album since “London Calling” by The
Clash. I have personally touted
that 1979 release as one of The (if not Thee – well, Yes
– Thee) Best
Rock-n-Roll LPs ever, Hands down #1.
The Trollops is this
era’s London Calling. It blows me away. Such an
accomplished testament of Rock-n-Roll, it drips attitude in a way
I’ve not heard
since The Stones of the late 60s and Mott The Hoople of the 70s.
Smacking of the urgency
of The Clash and the desperation of Nirvana - these 10 songs put the
Rock-n-Roll
perspective as savior to the culture of youth back into place.
The Trollops comes at me
in a time when my Rock-n-Roll needs to be shaken up.
When the events around me calls for my need of the culture of youth -
The innocence, the
cynicism, the need, the power, the familiar territory of us vs. them,
the sanctuary of
being one. Rock has been good to me, all my life I’ve had
certain assimilations with
Rock - Rock has always reached out to me when I needed it to - Rock has
never failed me,
some times the people who brought it to me would fail me. But, whenever
I looked past the
selling of it to me, when I would peek below the surface, and find
something that was so
fulfilling and satisfying, something that presented itself to me with
such astounding and
pertinent beauty that it creates an euphoric response from my inner
being – Well, I
had to share it with my friends. How can you not spread the joy of
music? (I have never
been that selfish). Now, I share this with you: Rock doesn’t
disappoint, you just
have to look hard enough or have someone introduce you to it.
Meet The Trollops:
Nathan Rees
(lead guitar, vocals) has fashioned a masterpiece
around his unusual vocal style - sounding like the smoke ravaged
Richard Butler of The
Psychedelic Furs tempered by the mellow rasp of The Clash’s
Joe Strummer –
linking it with Ken Moon (Guitar) Jonathan
Fioman (Bass) and Nathan Wade
(Drums) to explode with a reconciled force. Controlled Chaos.
It’s what has been at
the heart of Rock-n-Roll for years and The Trollops grab us and drag us
in right from the
start…
“Let
It Ride”
opens the CD with a great acoustic hook picked note by note until the
rhythm kicks in and
Rees’ rasp proclaims an anthem that has been echoed by youth
for ages – (the
best metaphor I can come up with is that line by Tom Cruise in Risky
Business
“Sometimes you just have to say ‘What the
Fuck’), even though we’re
treading a familiar ground that has been covered time and again since
Rock-n-Roll first
began helping youth escape the overwhelming realizations that they are
beginning to
formulate in their ever expanding minds – It’s
Rock-n-Roll, it’s there for
them. And it’s all delivered with lines like “Standing
next to you/ you know
I feel so ashamed/ Standing next to you/ you know that I can feel my
pain/ Standing next
to you/ you know I just wanna run away, yeah.” As
if they don’t say enough
about the world and how it pertains to teen angst, there’s
the lines “They
took away my radio/ gave me a TV screen/ Won’t you take me
away from here/ Let it
ride.” That says it all: “Let
it ride.” As this song
builds it tells you that it is one of the most powerful musical forces
to come along in
quite some time. And you should believe it because what follows is a LP
of 3 winning
musical trifectas, each one built upon the last.
The opening 3 songs
set the stage viewed from the jaded eyes of a
detached youth. The anthemic “Let It
Ride” leads into
“It Ain’t Easy”
a lost love heartbreaker that
exonerates the delusions that led to the break up even though the
despair is crippling.
“How Many Times”
simply vents the anger and
frustration of youth aimed at various stages of a society which tends
to squash their
importance and impact. Over all, this opening trifecta instills the
importance of not only
the sound, but also the meaning. Yes, Rock has a conscience, a mind and
a heart, and if it
needs to scream to get your attention it is going to do so, stick
around for the final
furious minute of “How Many Times”
and experience the
emotion rung through the amps of The Trollops; so
intense, so personal, so telling,
a confession all the more substantial by being laid out with music and
not words.
Now catch your
breath and head into trifecta #2 “Faces,”
“Down On Me,”
and “Let The Crazies
Out” While the first 3 songs
focused on the strained mental aspect of
youth through failed ideals of community, relationships, and society,
these 3 offer up the
savior status of Rock-n-Roll by emulating the Raw Power of the
Rock-n-Roll guitar god
hooks and runs. “Faces”
provides Keith Richards
Rolling Stone guitar chords (and a blazin’ solo) over a bad
boy sex statement. “Down
On Me,” offers
Mick Ronson Mott The Hoople guitar leads (and again, another
blazin’ solo) to prod
the self-doubt and pity from its insecure narrator. Finally “Let
The
Crazies Out” could have been penned
by Kurt Cobain; with signature
Nirvana grunge guitar (and chaotic rhythm) dripping through a tale of
woeful excessive
mental abuse from the fragile fringes of life (including, would you
believe, another
awesome blazin’ solo!).
The final trifecta
of songs groups together the first two and simply ROCKS!
Using every facet of Rock, The Trollops pull no
punches as they Roll us down this
disc of amazing music and set the record straight as to the problems of
youth; problems
that are no different then the ones that have been brought to light in
each and every Rock
movement from the mid to late 50’s to today. Relationships
& Society & Self
Awareness, or to put it bluntly: Sex & Drugs &
Rock-n-Roll. “Special,”
“Avenue B,”
and “Are You Still Mine”
puts it all together for us as they crown this achievement, they blow
us away with how in
touch they are; The Trollops have their collective
fingers on the pulse of today,
of music, of youth, of Rock-n-Roll.
And, just to show
you how much it all means to them, how intense they
are about it all, they close the album with the only true ballad of the
bunch, aptly
titled “Goodbye.”
Set against a lone acoustic guitar
with mandolin accompaniment, our raspy voiced anti-hero laments of
another loss wrapped
around the sorrowful intonations of someone who can and will rise above.
The
Trollops have given us a complete Rock-n-Roll record, a
bold, solid statement that lets us know that Rock, teen angst, and
youthful rebellion are
still alive and well. Rock is still here, it won’t let you
down, it will not
disappoint, it will not fail you.
The
Trollops is available now for: $9.98
+s/h*
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