Where would the music scene be without Neil Young's stark reflections on heroin ("Needle And The Damage Done"), or Modest Mouse's acerbic take on modern life ("Bury Me With It")? A cleverly spun tale, a wittily constructed pay-off, a rawly exposed nerve: they all serve to make the world richer and more interesting. But sometimes, you just need your cerebral cortex tickling, without the stimulus first passing by various language processing functions in the brain. Sometimes you want to be hit with something that goes beyond the mere combination of signs and sounds that we use to communicate. And that's where The Good The Bad come in.
"We don't have a singer because we couldn't find one that would stand behind the drummer," is Adam Olsson's take on the band's instrumental leanings. Eschewing almost all forms of the written and spoken word (the unnamed tracks receive a three digit number and nothing else; indeed, the only words to appear in the whole package are the band's name and the rudimentary album title "From 001 To 017"), The Good The Bad fire out sweaty, primeval rock 'n' roll that cuts out the courting and goes straight for the bedroom. Seventeen tracks may seem a lot, but with each one lasting little more than two minutes ("017" is by far the longest at three and a half minutes, whilst the western-infused "015" rips through town in twenty-one seconds flat), the emphasis is on hot and heavy flamenco-infused rock, peppered with roaming surf guitars that bring to mind more than once the legendary Dick Dale & The Del Tones.
From the sleazy basement vibrato of "003" to the simple but sexy twelve bar blues of "010", riddled with buzzing organ and whip-crack percussion, the album positively sweats the sort of rough 'n' ready swagger that most new bands would sell their first newborn for. "004" cracks on at a fearful pace, a soaring wordless chant the closest the album gets to any sort of vocal, while "006" blasts out of the blocks with the sort of rapid tremolo picking that once had musicians swaying and girls swooning. Indeed, with a seemingly boundless energy, dynamic foot-tapping rhythms aplenty and a bag full of heart-quickening tempos, The Good The Bad crackle with such a primordial power that it's hard not to believe the cocksure bravado on their MySpace page that claims the band is essentially all that stands between Denmark and a birth rate of zero. With absolutely no hanging about, "001" launches into a pummelling slice of what the band does best, driven on by the bedroom sounds of a distinctly pleased lady and two testosterone-fuelled dual guitars, choppy and exceedingly carnal. Musically speaking, this is an incredibly well-endowed album (further evidence, if ever it were required, comes in the form of single-only release "030" and its supposed effect on the female species). But in amongst all this bristling power, there's variety to the band's performance too.
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Ex-Raveonette Manoj Ramdas' distortion-drenched baritone guitar, coupled with Johan Lei Gellett's flurried cymbal attack, crushes all before it on the foundation-rumbling "007". "009", distinctly psychedelic in sound, succeeds in fusing a mangled fuzzy Hendrix-esque drop-out and a Shadows-esque drive with gliding female cries, all in just over two minutes. The scuzzy "008", bookended by a looping minimalist melody and the silence of suburbia, drops a fidgety rhythm and tremolo heavy lead, leaving behind an eerie ring in the ear and what sounds like either a back gate squeaking or a woman's stifled scream. Either way, it sounds ominous. The only other let-up in intensity comes from "014", a washed out guitar solo vignette that offers a seventy second breather amongst the loose and lively cavorting going on around. By the time "016" and its smattering of breathless panting rolls out, you're going to need a shower.
With spring reverb as far as the eye can see, "From 001 To 017" fuses nostalgia with a combination of immediacy, intricacy and raw sex appeal that is often laid claim to but rarely delivered on the modern-day music scene. If their debut is anything to go by, then The Good The Bad's failure to find a singer may yet prove to be one of the most fortuitous events in recent rock 'n' roll history.
The Good The Bad on MySpace
Stray Cat Records online
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