Labels: Wrong Records
Review by: Alex Hannan
I come to this one as a big fan of HANSON BROTHERS’ first album, the 1992 Ramones-as-ice-hockey-fiends LP “Gross misconduct”. “Sudden Death” is the second LP, originally released four years later, since rescued from Virgin Records Canada and given a second outing on Wrong records this year.
The first LP featured Road to Ruin-inspired cover art: this time the sleeve references a D.O.A. single, but much of the record still comes across as an alternate universe Ramones. It’s an organically grown take on the sound – the band use the Ramones as a starting point to develop their own quirks rather than as gospel. A similar brand of downstroke-heavy guitar chords drive the songs, but as with the first LP there’s some hot shot musicianship sneaking around behind the big dumb riffs.
The hockey content is higher this time around. “Gross misconduct” has only a few sport-related tunes, leaving plenty of space for lyrics about alienation, roadkill, masturbation, and one’s girlfriend being a robot. Here, the tracklist is heavy with hockey references. Strangely, the record is front loaded with a couple of clunkers: “The Hockey Song” combines a jittery little TOY DOLLS style lead with a terrace style singalong (“The good old hockey game / Is the best game you can name”, etc), but comes across as a novelty effort. Third track “We’re brewing” rhymes “We’re brewing / That’s what we’re doing” over a two chord bounce and feels similarly throwaway. Thankfully things pick up – the likes of “Stick Boy” and “Danielle (she don’t care about hockey)” are closer to past form.
Several later songs raise the pace and introduce more off-kilter songwriting, like the numerous key changes in the punchy “Third man in”. The airtight musicianship and hyperactive riffing of their dayjob NOMEANSNO comes through at times, particularly in the one-two of “Four heads one brain” and “Rink Rat”, which rips into a teeth-clenched gonzo second half complete with screeching and fart noises. At the other extreme, the preceding “I never will forget her” is a doe-eyed mid paced number which could have come from Road to Ruin.
Hockey, beer, food, impotence and a German folk singer called Heino – a slightly less engaging set than the previous LP, but there’s enough personality and tunes here to pull it round. Wish I’d seen the hockey referees in the pit when they played the Brudenell…