 Thee
Michelle Gun Elephant are one of a handful of bands that made some
waves in the west, catching the eye of the right people at the right
time (their major label debut, "Cult Grass Stars," was produced by
Chris Brown, who was at the time fresh off Radiohead's "The Bends.")
Getting their name from misreading the cover art
of The Damned's "Machine Gun Etiquette" (good lord that's awesome,)
their sound was simultaneously obvious and difficult to truly describe.
Punk? Well, yeah, but with undertones of more straightforward hard
rock. I suppose you could call it a Sex Pistols / Motörhead /
Stooges / AC/DC hybrid, but even with AC/DC's Brian Johnson's hideously
shredded vocal chords, none of those comparisons deal with TMGE's most
distinctive asset: Yusuke Chiba's angry growl is almost comically
harsh, like a higher pitched Tom Waits imitating a tiger after drinking
a couple of shots of sulfuric acid. Seriously, it's insane. Even live videos from the era don't match the vocal annihilation Chiba achieves on "Gear Blues."
Which is not to suggest the album is a mere showcase for his voice.
TMGE run on plenty of snotty attitude (like the Sex Pistols,)
visceral wallop (like Motörhead,)
and nihilism (like The Stooges.) Music like this doesn't really need
involved songwriting, and yes, some tracks achieve "Surfin' Bird" levels
of simplicity. That's not a shortcoming: gussying up tracks like "Satanic Boom Boom Head" (live video here,)
with such baroque accoutrements as "verses" or "structure" would be to,
er, cheapen the sentiment. Seriously, if you find yourself writing a
song with a title like "Satanic Boom Boom Head," and you feel the
need elaborate your point, you've missed that point.
Which leads us to what makes "Gear Blues" so special. Not every song is
as ruthlessly simplistic as "Satanic," but even when things get more
involved, simple crunch carries the day. Single "Smokin' Billy"
takes a Stonsey riff and turns it up as loud as it can possibly go, and
the whole things seems somewhat bothered by the fact it has to have a
chorus. "G.W.D." (live video here)
is much the same, copping the riff from Nirvana's "Breed" and upping
the intensity by several notches. "Free Devil Jam" (live video here) is basic rockabilly turned up to eleven...you get the idea.
As much mindless directionless energy as there is, understandably, the
band doesn't waste time with extraneous experimentation, instead
throwing everything they've got into moving forward as loudly as
possible. While that allows them to hit their target, it can get a bit
monochromatic, especially over the space of nearly an hour ("Gear
Blues" is 55 minutes long.) Live shows are one thing, albums are
another, and clipping a few tracks might have made the album a leaner,
sharper shock overall. Then again, I'm coming from the school of
thought that albums are made to be played, in sequence, all the way
through, which isn't really necessary for energy merchants like TMGE.
Whichever perspective one might choose, too much is better than not
enough when it comes to loud rock 'n' roll, and with "Gear Blues," Thee
Michelle Gun Elephant's cup runneth over.
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