Turbonegro
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| Turbonegro | |
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| Origin | Norway |
| Years active | 1989–1998, 2002-present |
| Genres | Hard Rock, Rock, Punk Rock |
| Labels | Big Ball Records Dog Job Records Get Hip Records Repulsion Records Amphetamine Reptile Records Boomba Records Epitaph Records Bitzcore Records Sympathy for the Record Industry Burning Heart Records Virgin Records Man's Ruin |
| Members | Hank Von Helvete Happy-Tom Euroboy Rune Rebellion Pål Pot Pamparius Chris Summers |
Turbonegro (Turboneger in Norway) is a Norwegian band that combines heavy metal, rock and punk music into a non-politically-correct version of punk (which has been described by the band as "deathpunk").
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[edit] History
[edit] Early years (1989-1994)
Turbonegro first came together in Oslo, Norway during the winter of 1988/89. The line up was Thomas Seltzer, Vegard Heskestad, Pal Bottger Kjaernes, Rune Gronn, Pål Erik Carlin and Carlos Churasco. Thomas and Vegard had formerly shared times in a band called De Dype - a noisy and subversive ensemble equipped with a certain amount of Butthole Surfers inspiration and a disturbing attitude that was basically meant to piss people off. Apparently early Turbonegro continued their conceptional styles. Their first show was at Ungdomshuset in Copenhagen, Denmark in March of 1989. By April Turbonegro played their first show in their hometown of Oslo. In the following weeks they recorded songs for their debut single Route Zero and the Turboloid 12" EP. Both records were released by Thomas Seltzer's own label, Straitjacket Records, which he started in 1983. This first session was recorded at Nesodden Musikkverksted by Christian Calmeyer. Thomas played bass and drums on Route Zero. An initial pressing of 50 copies came with an exclusive demo tape called Computech featuring a cover of The Stooges' 1970. The early pre-deathpunk Turbonegro sound featured here offers fairly tormented and distorted noise rock (some contemporary reviews compare to a Halo of Flies or early Mudhoney type-of-sound). Turboloid was the second and last release by the original line up. Drummer Carlos Churasco left to play guitar for Anal Babes. Route Zero was reissued by Sympathy For The Record Industry in 1990 with two songs from the Turboloid EP. In September of that year they left Norway to tour the US for 3 weeks. Rune was beat up in in a quarrel with some crackheads in front of a hotel in Minneapolis a few hours after their arrival and remained in the hospital. The band forged on without him but the tour was a disaster. Three weeks later Turbonegro returned to Oslo and broke up.
In the winter of 1990/91 Thomas Seltzer (now on drums) reformed TRBNGR with Pål and Rune. Norwegian punk veteran Harald Fossberg who had acquired fame in the late 70's with Norwegian punk pioneers Hærverk was recruited as the new singer and in the subsequent months Bengt 'Bingo' Calmeyer joined them on bass guitar. In the summer of 1991 the reformed lineup released the Vaya Con Satan 7" in the US being followed in early 1992 by their debut album Hot Cars and Spent Contraceptives on up-coming local label Big Ball Records. Both the single and the CD give an early introduction to the deathpunk sound - Turbo's self acclaimed very own genre. Actually the musical pre-settings are already anticipating later Ass Cobra era - dark death driven punk rock with occasional excursions into hardcore and metal as well as a certain tendency to disruptive and sarcastic lyrics. Swedish broadcasting DJ Lars Allman once described their sound as "Radio Birdman meets Venom in an institution for sexually abused retards" and Denish Moshable magazine remarked back then: "One great big hunk of an album that simply barfs up the best in Scandinavian punk rock - and then slam it into overdrive. So fucking punk that it will tear you a new asshole - and then some!"
In December '92 Turbonegro set up for an after all quite ruinous tour outside of Norway: having had money left from a grant they went for one gig confirmed in Ålborg, Denmark then heading south to Hamburg, Germany where they stranded in desperate and finally in vein search for an opportunity to play. After 5 days the band ran out of money but their efforts were not a complete waste as contacts were made with Gravy Train Agency who organized a lot of subsequent tours for Turbo outside of Scandinavia in later years as well as the people from Crypt Records. In late March 1993 Harald played his last show with Turbonegro at Sentrum Scene in Oslo. He quit due to health reasons and was replaced by Hans Erik Husby aka Hanky who would be their best and final vocalist. With the new singer a decision was made to rename the band Stierkampf (the German word for ’bullfight’). They opened up for Poison Idea in Oslo and Denmark as well as The Ramones in August 1993 at the Oslo Rock Festival. The only release as Stierkampf was the Grunge Whore EP on Sympathy for the Record Industry. All songs on this release would resurface on their next album with the exception of "Six Pack". Their second album Never is Forever (1994) was recorded by Christian Calmeyer at Nesodden Musikkverksted and was self-released (limited to 1200 copies) with a friend at Oslo Musikk Distribusjon. In their own irritating words announced as "a tribute to Blue Öyster Cult" it is an attempt to dissociate from the Lo-Fi aesthetics of the garage scene: "When the rest of the punk oriented world tried hard to be lo-fi and 'real', Turbonegro as usual went the opposite way, creating a miniature suburban deathpunk opera. Seldom have pop culture, darkness and desperation blended so well." With the release of this album was their first full European Tour. The tour was nick-named "Nihil Jung" and had 17 shows in Denmark, Germany, Switzerland, Belgium and Holland.
By the winter of 1994/95 Turbonegro was back to the old name but with a new look referred to as the 'Al Jolson schtick', fortunately it didn't last long. Happy-Tom summed it up best with the following anecdote: "so there we were backstage with our black faces and wigs and little hats, smoking pot with our all-time heroes the Bad Brains, and the absurdity just didn't cross our minds. I mean, those guys didn't mention it, they were probably just embarrassed on our behalf."
[edit] New look and new sound, rise to success (1995-1997)
The gag was long gone by May of 1995 when they debuted the denim and moustache look. Happy-Tom stated "We feel that denim out-rocks leather at all levels. Leather is for empty, little people. Denim is for us big guys! And the kids love it!" With a new look came a new sound. Christian Calmeyer, their engineer at the time, said, "we decided to make things more raw, trying to convey the power of the live performance, if not the sound." The first recordings of the new and improved Turbonegro showed up on the Denim Demon and Bad Mongo singles in spring '95. That summer Turbonegro left for their second attempt at a US tour 'NAMBLIN in the 90's'. They played only eleven shows and in the words of Happy-Tom "at least we didn't get the shit kicked out of us like we did the last time we were in the USA". In fall '95 Bingo and Pal left the band putting Turbonegro on hold. Pal wanted to travel while Bingo didn't like the new musical direction, "less Slayer, more rock'n'roll." Thomas at the same time was suffering from some stress injury to his arms after the US tour - thus agreements were made to put the band on ice for a while.
Also that year Anthony Martin started his new label Boomba Records so he could release Turbonegro's third album Ass Cobra. It did not come out until the spring of 1996 and by September they were touring Europe again with a new line up. Anders Gerner from Angst was added as the new drummer, so Thomas went back to playing bass. Pal was replaced by Knut Schreiner, who Thomas had played with in The Vikings. Knut aka Euroboy was a priceless addition to the band in the reshaping of their sound. The Prince Of The Rodeo 7" was his recording debut with Turbonegro and a taste of the greatness to come. Also at this time Pal returned from traveling in Thailand to open his famous 'Pamparius' pizza parlor outside of Oslo in Kolbotn. He decided to rejoin the band as the keyboard player and "dancer". Pal's return would be the final touch in the latest incarnation of the band. The new look, sound and album irritated and fascinated the European underground; people were starting to pay attention to Turbonegro.
In December/January Turbonegro continued spreading the deathpunk seeds on a tour with further 14 dates in Spain, Portugal, France, Germany and Denmark. The insignia of their stage performance - the bulging denim, Hanky's routine to stick a lit Roman candle up his ass, Happy-Tom's sailor hat, Euroboy's lissom and sultry guitar choreography & Hanky's attempts in addressing the audience in their broken native tongue - sort of became the Turbo trademark for the upcoming boom.
In spring '97 Turbonegro had yet another line up change. Christer Engen, aka Chris Summers, from Big Bang took over on drums and they were ready to tour Europe again. This time out they were opening up with a modified version of a Grand Funk song ("We are a Norwegian band"). Hank was wearing Alice Cooper like make up and lighting Roman candles in his ass (referred to as "assrockets"), they were just warming up to their final and greatest album Apocalypse Dudes. Musicwise - as later will be proved on Apocalypse Dudes - it became obvious that they had meanwhile made a move into mid-70's punk & glam territory - in the spirit of proto punk pioneers á la The Dictators, The Ramones or late Iggy & The Stooges - plus a bit of New York Dolls' travesty thrown in. Now it was time to take the new and improved Turbonegro back across the Atlantic with the 'Summer of Head' US tour. They were more warmly received this time around but still played only a few shows that were plagued with problems. Nonetheless, after years of stumbling through line up changes, name changes and various shticks, they had finally found themselves.
[edit] The Apocalypse trilogy part one, popularity boom and disbanding (1998)
In the autumn of 1997 their next/last album Apocalypse Dudes – the first part of the so-called Apocalypse trilogy - was recorded at Endless Sound studios in Oslo with producer Pål Klaastad. When Happy-Tom was asked if their new sound and album has anything to do with Euroboy's entry into the band, he replied, "Yep, he's a genius, and so is our new drummer Chris Summers, The Prince of Drummers. We released the punk album of the millennium with Ass Cobra, and didn't want to make an Ass Cobra part two plus we spent two years writing new stuff, so as to make sure that every song is a hit, so we ended up making the rock album of the next millennium." The album was released in March '98 by Boomba Records. However it was released in Norway exclusively by Virgin. It is no coincidence that it was their most successful record and by far their best. Moshable magazine commented: "Apocalypse Dudes is the perfect mix of classic 70's US punk / rock'n'roll like Dictators, Heartbreakers & Ramones... every tune on this release is fucking brilliant". Even Jello Biafra was quoted as saying, "the new Turbonegro record is possibly the most important European record ever." Apocalypse Dudes is all hits all the way through.
Turbonegro supported the album playing 24 sold out shows throughout Europe and by that fall they were ready to attack Europe again with 16 dates on the 'Darkness Forever' tour. Unfortunately this tour would be their last and ultimately the end of Turbonegro. According to Happy-Tom "Turbonegro broke up in the waiting room of a psychiatric emergency ward in Milan, Italy." Hank's mental indisposition became a real problem thus the remainder of the tour was cancelled. They bid their farewell December 18, 1998 at Mars in their hometown of Oslo. Last ever song performed on stage has been the final encore "I Am In Love With The Destructive Girls" - so "Yeah-Yeah! Yeah-Yeah!" were about the last words uttered.
[edit] On hiatus (1999–2002)
On the threshold of their breakthrough Turbonegro had said goodbye to the circus and appeared unlikely to ever return. While there were several reasons, fundamentally, Hank's drug addiction made it impossible for him to continue. Leaving the band to undergo treatment for heroin dependency as well as his struggle with depression, Hank von Helvete returned to his childhood town in northern Norway. There he worked at a radio station and guide at a fishing museum. Another issue was that the band was stuck in an oppressive record deal with Boomba. The arrangement saw very little money directed to the band and cancelling the tour with Nashville Pussy after only half the dates only added to the financial problems.
In 1999 Bitzcore Records out of Hamburg bought the contracts from Boomba and began to reissue Turbonegro's entire back-catalogue of albums. 1999 also saw the release of a posthumous live album entitled Darkness Forever!. It captures selections from two shows in Hamburg and Oslo - and a great documentation of Turbonegro's exceptional larger-than-live stage antics it is. Their appreciation among contemporary artists from diverse musical genres as rock, pop, punk and even black metal is utterly well displayed on Alpha Motherfuckers, a tribute album to Turbonegro that was compiled and in the works over a span of two years and finally released by Bitzcore in May 2001. The impressive line-up includes among others Queens of the Stone Age, Nashville Pussy, Therapy?, HIM, Bela B. & Denim Girl aka German technopop star Blümchen. During these four years, the band members would rarely speak, however the momentum from their previous albums (most especially Ass Cobra and Apocalypse Dudes) would continue to grow as more and more music fans would get turned onto their music. Unbeknownst to the band, Turbonegro was becoming a cult phenomenon. Fan clubs were established all over the world (see Turbojugend).
In fact the immense following and the tribute album revealed a huge interest that was certainly never received back in the day when they had quit. When Turbonegro were approached by the organizers of the Norwegian Quart Festival about a possible participation in 2002, Turbonegro agreed. What was initially meant to be a one-off affair to offer an opportunity to the many newly recruited fans to witness a Turbonegro performance, finally resulted in the band's reunion. Apart from the tremendous response at the festival shows Turbonegro had also realized that they are in better shape and much more determined than ever before.
[edit] Reforming: new albums, new tours and even greater fame (2003-)
Shortly after the Bizarre Festival the band proclaimed that they signed a record deal for two new albums with Burning Heart Records, an independent record company from Sweden with a long tradition in the punk & hardcore sector. Burning Heart also licensed Turbonegro's most successful albums Ass Cobra and Apocalypse Dudes from Bitzcore and reissued them as digipak CDs with additional video footage from the recent Res-erection show at Quart.
The band released the highly anticipated album, the second part of the Apocalypse trilogy, Scandinavian Leather in 2003, complete with artwork from legendary Revolver-designer Klaus Voorman. A US tour with Queens Of The Stone Age proved that the American Turbojugend contingent had grown completely out of control, and almost 150 shows later, Turbonegro finished the Scandinavian Leather campaign by selling out the House of Blues in Los Angeles two days in a row in December 2004.
While Scandinavian Leather was recorded at their own Crystal Canyon Studio in Oslo, Turbonegro decided to bring in Steve McDonald as co-producer for Party Animals. McDonald played bass and sang in Hawthorne, California band Redd Kross from the age of 11, and "Standing in front of Poseur" from the bands 1979 debut EP is still a punk rock classic. Redd Kross transformed from being an archetypical L.A.-punk band to taking in influences from the glam and stadium rock of the seventies, not unlike what Turbonegro has done through their career. In recent years McDonald has worked with artists such as Beck and The White Stripes. On Party Animals, he's done his best to keep the bubblegum intact in the stadium rock and the sharp edged punk rock. This follow-up to 2003’s Scandinavian Leather and the last offering in the Apocalypse trilogy was released throughout Europe on the 9th of May (Norway 2nd of May). It continued and brought to perfection the '70s and '80s glam metal and hard rock influenced party-oriented deathpunk sound that was first introduced on Apocalypse Dudes. Party Animals was followed by intense touring throughout Europe – and in October they visited the US. A collection of remixes and rarities also appeared in 2005 as Small Feces.
Turbonegro are on tour again in 2006 with mostly European locations. They keep reinvading the world with their deathpunk sound; probably the best summary of the band is by Happy-Tom: "Most rock 'n' roll bands start as a riot but end up as a parody. We started up as a parody but ended up as a revolution."
[edit] Homages everywhere
It's no secret that Turbonegro use very obvious homages to their favorite bands in their music.
Examples:
"Get It On" uses a riff from The Ramones's song "I Just Want Something To Do", and also part of the chorus of Alice Cooper's "I'm Eighteen".
"Sell Your Body (To The Night)" uses a riff from The Stooges's song "Penetration".
"Fuck The World" uses a riff from Neil Young's "Rockin' In the Free World".
"Death From Above" uses a riff from The Butthole Surfers's song "Chewin' George Lucas's Chocolate"
"Wasted Again" is an homage to the Black Flag song of the same name (and also features Keith Morris, Black Flag's original singer).
"Back to Dungaree High" uses the riff from the Black Flag song "Nervous Breakdown".
"Humiliation Street" is the DNA equivalent to The Stooges "Gimme Danger".
[edit] Musical style
Their lyrics often attack political correctness; for example, the cover of the single "Bad Mongo" depicts Adolf Hitler as mentally retarded, and in the song "Hobbit Motherfuckers", they complain that there is "not enough suffering" and "not enough natural selection". Their genre of punk has been self-described as deathpunk. The band stated their music superseded existing genres, so they dubbed it deathpunk as a way to avoid being pigeon-holed into musical groupings they felt they were above. Lyrics referencing the genre choice include ("gimme deathpunk baby, and I like it", from the song "Get it on"). Being a fun project with common predecessors (Sex Pistols wearing swastikas, etc), Turbonegro have been praised by some as playing the most up-to-date form of punk, and refusing to be categorized being nowhere as clearly expressed as in this anarchic blend of humour, shock and sexuality. In the Turbonegro - The Movie DVD extras, Happy Tom said that early on, festival goers expected TRBNGR to be gothic metal or black metal in the vein of other Norwegian bands. The band is notorious for their on-stage gimmicks. An early version of the band wore black-face and wigs on-stage in an effort to challenge those watching their shows. On The Reserection DVD the band states that early on they were often driven away from shows they were to play because they weren't edgy enough or didn't fit the look that the crowd wanted. As a result, the on-stage schticks started to become as much of the Turbonegro experience as the music. Following several tours in black-face, the band started an odd-ball theme of tight denim pants, nautically themed stage props and homosexual innuendo. A tongue-in-cheek joke, the homosexual/transvestite stage presence found its way into the band's music, including songs such as "Prince of the Rodeo" and "Rendezvous with Anus" which are both thinly veiled references to anal intercourse. Levis jeans endorsements soon followed from the stage antics, and the trucker cut jacket soon became standard fare amongst fans.
Widely acclaimed as the band's first break out album Ass Cobra (1996) had an album cover that was a direct parody of The Beach Boys Pet Sounds album cover. This shows that they have a rare combination of talent, shameless audacity and a true bitterness in their song writing that sets them apart from other hard core acts. Jello Biafra would later comment that it was one of the best punk albums of the 90s. Following Ass Cobra was Turbonegro's most critically acclaimed release Apocalypse Dudes (1998). Apocalypse Dudes' introduced a combination of 70's arena rock, irreverent lyrics, and punk stylings which brought the band a level of notoriety that they had not achieved at any other point in their history.
[edit] Band name
Initially the band had two running ideas for band names; Nazipenis and Turbonegro. They were advised that a band named Nazipenis would never sell records, so they chose Turbonegro as an arguably more consumer-friendly choice. The band's name raised some eyebrows, and for that reason their first releases were sometimes branded TRBNGR, perhaps to preclude backlash against what some consider to be a racist name. However, the band's stated motivations are anti-racist, trying to change the attitude of racism and nationalism perceived as prevalent in parts of Scandinavia. Founding member Thomas Seltzer once said, "A turbonegro is a large, well-equipped, armed black male in a fast car, out for vengeance. We are his prophets." [1]
[edit] Turbojugend
A feature of Turbonegro's fan base is the Turbojugend (Turbo Youth), the band's fan club. The first Turbojugend chapter started in St Pauli, Hamburg, Germany, with later chapters appearing throughout the world, St. Pauli being the unofficial capital. Chapter members identify themselves by wearing specially-made denim jackets with the Turbonegro logo and "Turbojugend [name of chapter]" stitched on the back. The logo of Turbojugend Oslo can be found on almost every album Turbonegro has ever made.
[edit] Welt-Turbojugend-Tage
Once a year, Turbojugends from all over the world meet in St. Pauli, Germany to celebrate Turbonegro, themselves, as well as punk rock in general. This 2 day event called "Welt-Turbojugend-Tage" (English: "World Turbojugend Days") with concerts and meetings in different clubs has taken place from September 8th and 9th 2006 for the third time now.
[edit] Current members
- Vocals: Hank Von Helvete aka Hertugen aka Hertis aka Hank from Hell (real name Hans Erik Dyvik Husby)
- Bass/drums: Happy-Tom aka Tom of Norway aka Bongo (real name Thomas Seltzer)
- Lead guitar: Euroboy (real name Knut Schreiner)
- Rhythm guitar: Rune Rebellion aka Rune Protrude aka Brune (real name Rune Grønn)
- Keyboards/percussion/guitar: Pål Pot Pamparius aka L. Ron Bud aka Max (real name Pål Bottger Kjærnes)
- Drums: Chris Summers (real name Christer Engen)
[edit] Former members
- Vocals: Harold Fossberg aka Harry (1990-1993)
- Vocals: Pål Erik Carlin (1989-1990)
- Guitar: Vegard Heskestad (1989-1990)
- Bass: Bingo (real name Bengt Calmeyer) (1991-1996)
- Bass: Ole Martinsen (1990-1991)
- Drums: Anders Gerner (1996)
- Drums: Carlos Churasco (1989-1990)
- Drums: TK (real name Tor Kristien) (early rehearsals)
[edit] Discography
[edit] Albums
- Hot Cars and Spent Contraceptives (1992)
- Helta Skelta (1993)
- Never is Forever (1994)
- Ass Cobra (1996)
- Apocalypse Dudes (1998)
- Scandinavian Leather (2003)
- Party Animals (2005)
[edit] Live albums
[edit] Compilations
- Love It To Deathpunk (Australian Best-of Compilation, 2001)
- Small Feces (Box set of rarities, 2005)
[edit] Splits
- Stinky Fingers 10" Vinyl (1995) - split EP with Flying Crap
- Flabby Sagging Flesh 7" Vinyl (1995) - Turbonegro / Anal Babes Split
[edit] EPs
- Turboloid 12" Vinyl EP (1990)
- (He's A) Grunge Whore 10" Vinyl EP (1993)
[edit] Singles
- Computech Cassette tape (1989)
- Computech + Route Zero Cassette tape & 7" Vinyl (1989)
- Route Zero 7" Vinyl (1989)
- Vaya Con Satan 7" Vinyl (1991)
- Denim Demon 7" Vinyl (1995)
- Bad Mongo 7" Vinyl (1995)
- I Got Erection 7" Vinyl (1995)
- Prince Of The Rodeo 7" Vinyl (1996)
- Suffragette City 7" Vinyl (1997)
- Get It On 7" Vinyl (1998)
- Fuck The World (F.T.W.) 7" Vinyl & CD (2003)
- Locked Down 7" Vinyl & CD (2003)
- Sell Your Body (To The Night) 7" Vinyl & CD (2003)
- City Of Satan CD (2005)
[edit] Side projects
- The Vikings - An early-mid 1990s project that features Thomas Seltzer and Knut Schreiner.
- Oslo Motherfuckers - A now defunct project that featured Christer Engen and Thomas Seltzer. Produced one album.
- Euroboys - A project of guitarist Knut Schreiner.
- SCUM - Project featuring Thomas Seltzer with members of Amen, Emperor, and Mindgrinder.
[edit] Sources
- Biography from Turbojugend USA and Official Turbonegro archive.
[edit] External links
- Official website
- Official Turbonegro shop
- Turbojugend.net, fansite where you can see all the Turbojugend chapters with their members
- Official Turbonegro World-Forum
- Official Turbonegro archive
- North American Turbojugend website
- Official Turbonegro Homeland-Forum,(Norway)
- Pitchfork Media's review of 2003's Scandinavian Leather (also provides some historical background)
- Turbonegro Album Reviews
