I can already hear people on both sides taking up arms to talk about how this is an awful record drenched in noise while others shout what a brilliant album this is. The year was 1997. While the internet was alive, it wasn’t anything like it is today. A person couldn’t run to the computer to immediately head a song drop. The Wildhearts had seemed to be in danger of imploding according to the magazines at the time. They had to pull out of a tour in the U.S. with AC/DC. There was talk they had recorded demos for a new album but were unhappy with the direction they were going. These would later be released in 1998 against the band’s wishes. In 1997 though, the band released the infamous ‘Endless Nameless’ produced by the late Ralph Jezzard (R.I.P.) who just recently left this world way too soon. The band had signed with a new label (Mushroom Records) which gave me optimism as a fan that despite the stories the band’s trajectory was still moving higher.
I cannot recall what I received first. Kerrang usually ran at least a week late in the States, and Tower Records usually could get CD singles within about a week of their release. I also had a record store back in Albuquerque where I had previously lived (I miss you Merlin’s Record Workshop) that would order me everything Wildhearts related and mail the items to me. Good old mail order when I had to check the mail each day to see if I could finally hear music from across the pond… The first thing most of us heard was ‘Anthem.’ There was the initial thought of ‘Why is the music damaged like this?’ I think that was quickly followed by realizing Ginger wasn’t singing; Danny was. ‘Anthem’ is extremely catchy even through all of the racket that collides with the music. I mean it kind of had to be when you borrow a line from a chorus by the Clash to use as your hook. What I realized quickly was that there was still melody in there amongst the explosions and speaker rattling white noise and feedback. The other change that was immediately noticed was the b-sides were largely cover songs and not all originals. I can safely say that ‘He’s a Whore’ was the last one I heard because it took longer to get the 45. The production on the b-sides was the same as ‘Anthem’ with the things I loved about the band going through a noise blender. I was partial to the CD single version that contained ‘White Lies’ and ‘The Song Formerly Known as?’ ‘White Lies’ stormed out of the speakers or maybe I should say it Scorched out of the speakers. The memory is fuzzy now, but I think it was the cover of this song that helped make sense of this new sonic assault. The lyrics in the other song asked all kinds of interesting questions, and I still don’t know why we men have nipples…
I believe the ‘Urge’ single then snuck out right before ‘Endless Nameless.’ A song that continues to get louder and more destructive as it goes through its running time. This time we also received four new Wildhearts songs and only one cover song. I love all four of these originals and will talk in more detail about two of them later. What was clear upon hearing the second single was that the album was going to have a sound consistent with the noisy and abrasive sound of the singles. I was feeling optimistic about the album overall even though I was missing the approach that had created the likes of ‘Sky Babies’ and ’29 x the Pain.’ The blend of crunch and melody had always been present in the band as I remember at one point the band was described as Metallica crossed with the Beatles which I don’t think would have been my description in those early days. Ginger has a gift for writing songs that can touch across a lot of genres, but the even greater gift is that they sound cohesive and recognizable as the Wildhearts or other dedicated projects. They don’t sound like a hodgepodge of ideas that are forced together. It never seemed odd that the band could include the old-time rock n’ roll feel of ‘Loveshit’ on the same album as the aggressive flurry of ‘Suckerpunch’ or the epic ‘Sky Babies’ from ‘Fishing for Luckies’ where Ginger incorporates what feels like several songs into a seamless epic.
Released at the tail end of October 1997, I would not hear the album until early November when the CD appeared in my mailbox. Looking at the cover, the band had finally released an album with a picture of the band on the front cover. I don’t think I immediately noticed that they all seemed to be in their own little world and had no intention of being together as friends or bandmates. Looking back later, it became obvious that the cracks (Crack? Other drugs?) had broken the band and sent them towards an implosion. When I played the album the first time, I had initially wondered why ‘Junkenstein’ was mastered so much lower than other albums and had turned it up to a more desirable volume… For those who know, the song becomes a little bit louder as it goes. The song isn’t one with an immediate chorus that captures your attention like ‘Greetings from Shitsville’ or ‘I Wanna Go Where the People Go’ did. It felt more like my buddy’s car where you had to tap the screwdriver on the starter to get the thing to turnover. I cannot imagine another song starting the album though. This song which initially sounded like a twisted mess of noise rising to the surface gives way to a song that does feature a large hook. ‘Nurse Maximum’ roars to life in what feels like the middle of the first verse. The melody and the noise fight each other for control throughout the song in a glorious way that rewards the listener. There is nothing subtle here.
After the two singles, the band launch into ‘Pissjoy’ one of my favourite songs by the Wildhearts. It closes out the first half of the album with another anthem (no pun intended) where an opening riff without much distortion gives way to a swirl of feedback in the verses. I am not sure if my brain hears all the feedback and white noise in the mix here or somehow isolates the melodies and old crunch in the music. The kids screaming the title give it another nice element that jumps out of the mix. At the halfway mark, it is a chaotic and noisy mess of an album that really hits the spot for me on most days. There are those random moments where it may not connect as much.
The second half of the album is where I wish there were a couple of changes. ‘Soundog Babylon’ would not be one of those changes. It builds into a looped rhythm with a crushing guitar. A catchy pre-chorus sets up an even bigger chorus. In some other world, this was probably the lead track to the album, but I think it works better here. I remember a review slighting this song and have never understood it. The way it all dissolves into the breakdown with no feedback in the mix before the maelstrom at the end could not be done better. Next up, ‘Now is the Colour’ became a grower over the years. When the album was first released, I would have said the song was okay. The hook has become more ingrained in me over the years and that industrial-sounding (like a machine in a factory) rhythm section. I also hear a Lee Harvey Oswald Band influence in the way the vocals are placed in the mix. For those who cannot get past the approach the band took here, I understand feeling that way with this song filled with extra noise and sounds in the mix. There should be a warning that pops up in your car when any song includes sirens…
This is where I wish the album could have two changes. I am a huge Dogs D’amour fan with ‘In the Dynamite Jet Saloon’ being my number one album of all time. The Wildhearts cover of ‘Heroine’ just doesn’t work for me. The Dogs recorded a number of versions of it, and Tyla has released multiple solo versions of it as well. It has never connected with me as much as their other material. I don’t mind it, but it is not a song I ever really seek out to play. This is where I would have preferred seeing ‘Zomboid’ from the ‘Urge’ b-sides on the album as it is one of my favourite songs from the band at this time. It is abrasive, extremely catchy, and extremely heavy. If you want to play at home with a playlist, pull ‘Heroine’ off the album and insert ‘Zomboid’ here. The guitars seem to roar above the white noise and provide a major dose of adrenaline. Next, I make another change which could be correlated to hearing the songs back to back so often back in the day. I would include the Ritch sang ‘Genius Penis’ next. If you want to make the flipside of the album even more aggressive, you can switch that for the cover of ‘White Lies.’ I think ‘Genius Penis’ gives the album a brief break in the heaviness with a catchy chorus, spoken vocals, and gives Ritch a chance to lead a song like Danny did in ‘Anthem.’
I am not going to remove ‘Why You Lie’ from the album as I have always loved the song. I think it needs that separation of a song from ‘Zomboid’ so the additional song to the album gives more music and creates that separation. ‘Why You Lie’ initially sounds bit like a buzz saw in a machine shop with concrete walls amplifying every sound, and that is before the chorus where they see how loud they can make everything. For a record that is drenched in noise, there is a lot of dynamics used across the record. ‘Thunderfuck’ closes the proper album utilizing them to great effect. There are no ballads across the album, but I have always enjoyed that something with that title takes a very different approach musically than one might expect after the first nine songs. The slower beats and music at a lower volume to start the song to set up an awesome finale. The verses build slowly and don’t sound too far away from ‘In Lilly’s Garden’ with some different effects being used. There is a monster that is hiding in the mix though that begins to roar to life. More and more elements rise in the mix, and the beat increases until that moment when the record returns to more melodic and more traditional sounding chorus for a few moments that is still filled with all kinds of effects and just continues to get louder and louder. I have always viewed the album as whole as being a very dark journey whether it is through a metaphorical hell or our own darkness in our soul. The transition in the middle where that melody first comes out being our attempted separation from the darkness. The voices and continued chaos in the music being the back and forth as we try to find or stay in the light. That moment could not be placed in a better moment on the album. Just as ‘Junkenstein’ started the descent into this world, that melodic moment is our chance to move out of that world.
The Japanese version of the album added a loud white noise version of ‘Pump It Up’ that I have always enjoyed. Among the covers of this time period, it would only trail ‘White Lies’ for my tastes. I wish they would have moved it up in the playlist though so it didn’t come after ‘Thunderfuck.’ The band would implode not long after the album was released, and it felt like a very strange note for the band to have as its last release. When it was submitted to Mushroom Records, I can imagine their staff listening to the album and thinking something happened to the tapes before they were delivered, followed by wondering how to market these songs that will make people think they are not fully tuned into the radio station (anyone else remember turning the dial?). The following year would see the release of ‘Landmines and Pantomimes’ with the demo tracks the band had done before they started work on ‘Endless Nameless’ and some b-sides that could be found elsewhere. I would have loved to have heard a few of the six songs demoed done properly. The release was never sanctioned by the band.
The band was gone at this point, but the remnants from the Wildhearts would unleash some amazing material in the next couple of years. Ginger would decide he wanted to really see how diverse he could go musically. In 1999, we would receive the wacky and wild Clam Abuse album that I honestly don’t play much anymore. I am not sure if he ever did get that ‘Message to Geri.’ He would also release a great EP as part of SuperShit666 with Dregen, Nicke Andersson, and Tomas Skogsberg. It would be his next full album studio release though that became one of my favorite albums. Where ‘Endless Nameless’ pulled us through those dark depths that I detailed, Silver Ginger 5 captured the melodic choruses and brightness, even with some songs that remained darker lyrically such as ‘Inside Out’ and the long ago written ‘Church of the Broken Hearted.’ Danny released ‘Uppers and Downers’ the debut album by the Yo Yo’s which also still sounds incredible today. Ritch would return with the wonderful Grand Theft Audio who released the excellent ‘Blame Everyone’ album and would end up on a couple of movie soundtracks. Jef would return with Plan A. As a fan, there was solace in all of the music we were receiving, and I have not even mentioned that CJ had released music with Honeycrack.
Some things don’t stay dead though… A new ‘old’ version of the Wildhearts would rise back from the dead. Ironically, it is probably the band at their most commercial sounding with the shiny sheen of ‘Riff After Riff’ and ‘The Wildhearts Must Be Destroyed.’ When the Wildhearts imploded after ‘21st Century Love Songs,’ it seemed the band was going to remain gone again. Once again, we received multiple solo albums of new material. Ginger has created a new version of the Wildhearts. I have heard the three early release songs when I write this and am excited to hear the full album. The Wildhearts thankfully don’t ever remain dead… Satanic Rites indeed….
‘Satanic Rites of the Wildhearts’ is available now.
thewildhearts.com
Author: Gerald Stansbury
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