Rolling Past Expiry Hard Rock 2010

leave it to earlnash. i loved that show. that was some pretty rad shit for mainstream FM radio, even if it was on a Sunday night at 10 PM. I remember hearing the early Accept like "Fast As a Shark" on that show, Exodus, I think I even remember some interview with Jon Bon Jovi where they asked him his favorite formative influences (and this is like in the area of "Runaway") and he said 'Tokyo Tapes' by the Scorpions (live versh of "We'll Burn the Sky" specifically...) And I'm like 'Tokyo Tapes' what the hell is that? I thought they were a new band on the scene, and only knew about "No One Like You."

Yeah, I used to see Armored Saint on MuchMusic's "Power Hour", so that would appear to make 'em metal, even though that program's definition of "metal" was kinda elastic. (They aired Styx' "Heavy Metal Poisoning" once; plus, when Michael Williams (the black guy) filled in for J.D. "John" Roberts as host, he'd make a point of playing "Let's Go Crazy" or "Rock Box" or Xavion.)

So, speaking of Canada, anybody here have any thoughts about TROOPER?? Got Thick As Thieves from 1978, produced by Randy Bachman, for a buck at Breakaway a month or two ago and didn't know what to expect. Pretty sure I used to get them mixed up with Triumph, and Trillion, and Toronto, and Tycoon. (I know who Triumph are now; still hazy on the other three.) Put the album (their fourth I believe) on, and "Live From The Moon" was a rocker -- Popoff calls it pomp but I say it's a good Who rip. But then the next seven songs weren't hard rock at all -- more like soft-rock/yacht-rock, if anything. Nice groove, a lot of the time, but a very easy one, with definite occasional disco leanings. There's a couple blue-eyed soulish things that reminded me of Lavender Hill Mob; "Round Round We Go" had harmony parts right out of "Ventura Highway"; "Drivin' Crazy" tried a Latin rhythm on; "The Moment That It Takes" was a brainlessly generic power ballad that could have been done by Elton John in the late '70s or a hair-metal band in the late '80s or Rascal Flatts in the '00s. (For some reason it gets a slightly different copyright on the inner sleeve, so maybe it was contracted for a movie or something.) And then, finally, second-to-last song on the album, they start rocking again -- "Gambler," maybe midway between early Loverboy and late '70s Bob Seger. And then they do "Raise A Little Hell," a knucklehead party shout that I totally remembered hearing a lot on Detroit radio 30 years ago, and hadn't thought about since. #59 pop hit, Whitburn says, only time a Trooper single charted in the U.S. Worth keeping for that track alone, but still kinda weird.

Popoff seems to say that their debut album, from '75, was heaviest and best, and then they turned consistently mediocre, with occasional sparks of glory. Jasper and Oliver say Trooper "won a reputation for delivering hard-hitting metal of above-average standards" (they're so quotable!), then got more AOR commerical in the '80s. Who's right?

as i think i said on the vinyl board, i wore "raise a little hell" OUT when i was a kid. but i would never actually play the whole album. just that song over and over and over like a lunatic. that was my anthem when i was 11 or 12. that and "hair of the dog". and "hold your head up".

Debut was the most rocking. Had a boogie about roller-skating called forthrightly enough,
"Roller Rink," which is very good. Plus the obscure favorite, "General Hand Grenade." They definitely look like rockers and are high energy on it. Later they made themselves tame and scored the hit you wrote of which also was aired in Pennsy rather a lot. So that generated traction everywhere.

Pulled "Santa Maria" from 1976 (and from Two For The Show) only other Trooper record I've got, down from the 45 shelf, and thought it was disappointing, especially given how glammy two Troopers look on its sleeve (unless those are groupies -- hard to tell.) Basically it's a middling seafaring choogle, like they were trying to do their version of "Ride Captain Ride" by Blues Image, but couldn't really pull it off.

I guess you could rate that with The Stampeders. Trooper lagged April Wine, Chilliwack. Weren't as good as Helix would sound. Not quite up to going toe to toe with Max Webster/Kim Mitchell. More noticeable in the States than Goddo ever was.

Bigger impression than Thundermug. I think Thundermug's Orbit is an incredible early Seventies hard rock record. Everything and the kitchen sink is in it. Nada.

Spun a couple times my new old $1 copy of the '77 self-titled debut by Detective, who George discussed some upstream, and determined my favorite tracks are probably the fairly ferocious Zep Zerox "Grim Reaper," surprisingly tasty midtempo opener "Recognition" (where I always think Michael Des Barres is saying "red condition" instead), and the very funky "Wild Hot Summer Nights," more evidence that plenty of metallish bands around that time had zero qualms about being accused of "going disco" -- sounds like they're aiming for Ohio Players or the Family Stone, only louder than "Fopp" even, and they do it to it. (Worth mentioning maybe that bassist Bobby Pickett is a black guy, and that all five of 'em looked dressed up real fancy like they're ready to hit the disco floor on the back cover.) Rest of the album rocks the piano some ("Detective Man," guitar riff stolen from somewhere obvious I can't place -- keyboardist is Tony Kaye via Yes), fulminates real purty some ("Deep Down"), gets noisy some ("One More Heartache"), and gets cumbersome sometimes when it gets too bloozy. Still, mostly good.

Popoff compares it to Physical Graffiti, Humble Pie, Lone Star (who I haven't heard since I wrote Stairway I just realized), and post-Hunter Mott, but seems to like their followup from a year later more. I'll play that one soon too, I guess. Oliver and Jasper call them "incredibly heavy" and claim they "have the heaviest drum sound bar anyone except John Bonham," which overstates the case a bit.

love this album:

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_KcJj6wN1MA4/Ro8DDF56ODI/AAAAAAAAAO4/V_ZDFaIRMTk/s400/copperhead.jpg

Detective did have a 'disco' look. Even moreso on the second. Tonly Kaye, I think, used to joke that being in silver was his baked potato thing.

The Live at Atlantic one reveals some Faces vibe going on, particularly on a song called "Help Me Up" which might have been on the second. "Got Enough Love" also has some Zep stuff, although it probably hearkens more to Silverhead's 16 & Savaged style. For Silverhead, des Barres was glam. For Detective, he's urbane city man-about-town. Both bands only got to two albums, so it was six of one, half a dozen of the other.

Man, just played Good Rats' From Rats To Riches from 1978 again, first time in a year and a half, and I'm sorry George, I fucking LOVE that album - especially "Taking It To Detroit," "Mr. Mechanic," "Don't Hate The Ones Who Bring You Rock & Roll," and "Local Zero." Suddenly I want to start looking for all their other records. We were talking about possible U.S. equivalents of Max Webster upthread, and I swear, judging from this album, these guys probably fit the bill as much as Crack the Sky do. Plus, like Max Webster (and unlike Crack The Sky), they never charted in Billboard! Still want somebody to tell me what the deal is with their namedrop of Twisted Sister in that "...Rock & Roll" song. Also seems interesting that the album came out on Passport -- wasn't that mainly the house label for import distributor Jem? Based in South Plainfield, I know, but still seems exotic for a bunch of butt-ugly Long Island dudes. (Probably there were other Middle Atlantic acts on the imprint, but if so they're slipping my mind right now.) Anyway, here's what I wrote about the album in 2008; still rings true from here:

Rolling Hard Rock 2008 Thread

Good Rats and Twisted Sister ALWAYS played the same clubs near me growing up. They were everywhere. I'm sure they were on the same bills together not only in connecticut and across the border into new york, but also in long island and jersey. NRBQ and Max Creek were the other big bar bands near me, but Good Rats definitely had their tri-state cult.

passport was owned by jem and had a deal with sire. i think? they went bankrupt.

and passport had a deal with charisma in the u.k., i think. and maybe harvest? i know they licensed a lot of u.k. stuff.

that pezband album i bought is on passport. all their albums are. they seem atypical considering the passport roster of brand x, synergy, fm, etc.

though they did end up putting out a lot of new wave in the 80's. all my fave human sexual response records, for instance.

Chuck, if you ever see the Random Hold comp that Passport put out, you should get it. it has stuff from their u.k. album and EP - and it's probably easier to find. very cool post-punk/prog produced by Peter Hammill. i don't know why they haven't had some sort of nerd revival by now. they were cool.

Speaking of could-be nerd revivals, I'm kind of obsessed with this 1981 Credit In Heaven double album I got by Minneapolis Twin/Tone band the Suburbs for 50 cents at a Goodwill here a few weeks ago -- even though the vinyl's sort of warped, so I can't play the first track and a half on any of the four sides! Anyway, I'd call their sound sort of post-punk funk with prog and even Contortiony no wave tendencies -- a stretch for this thread, but I swear, if they'd come from the Lower East Side they'd be legends by now. Also interesting that they beat both their fellow funk-punks the Minutemen and fellow Minnesotans Husker Du to the double-LP deal by three whole years. I'm not gonna claim the individual songs are sinking in, but they have a really cool frantic groove regardless, even despite some kinda haughty Anglofoppish vocal affectations. And I've never heard anybody mention them, not for the past quarter century at least. (Ira Robbins likes them in an old Trouser Press guide book I have, though. And Christgau gave their In Combo LP from 1980 an A-, but this one only a B-.) Actually who they kind of remind me then of is The Embarrassment, from Kansas.

...And actually maybe remind me even more of Philly's Bunnydrums (who George wrote about for me once at the Voice).

"And I've never heard anybody mention them, not for the past quarter century at least."

i have! on ilm at least. and there are other fans here. i need that album that you got. don't have it. love is the law was their big college hit and that's when i first heard them. bought that album at the time.

they were slicker by love is the law though.

I adored "Love Is the Law", too, but yeah, it's much more mainstream than Credit in Heaven. I think of the Suburbs in with the Swimming Pool Qs, Translator and (early) The Call...

it was only a couple of years ago that i finally heard the first translator album! heartbeats and triggers. i really like that album. i only knew THEIR big college hit "everywhere that i'm not". but that album is way weirder than that song. there are even, like, industrial post-punk moments on that album! very cool.

they were part of the 415 records crowd.

do we have a 415 records tribute thread? the nuns, the mutants, pearl harbor & the explosions, new math, the units, romeo void, wire train, red rockers, pop-o-pies. they don't make labels like that one anymore.

xpost

You just crushed me out of an explication on why the Good Rats ... were good. But they never made any albums as good as Silverhead's [i]16 & Savaged[i] or Detective's two.

It's not just being smart.

Smart is annoying when it dances too much beyond love of hard rock,
becoming only an instrument of contempt and satire. It's a very fine line -- it's hard to know when you've crossed it -- but -- every listener knows it when you've screwed it up.

However, Detective's two albums are what this thread was made for.

Unselfconscious funky hard rock, very heavy half of the time, urbane but greasy at a time critics would look back upon and say punk rock was hip over everything, exaggerating what was actually the condition.

This is so elusive a description, it slips through the fingers like mercury.

gorge, do you have that copperhead album? everyone needs that album. i like it way better than any silverhead. i always wanted to like silverhead more than i do. but i haven't played their 2nd album in a long long time. i should play it. every dollar bin has a detective album in it! anyone can be a fan.

No I don't. I've always wanted to hear it.

ILX swallowed my answer to the incoherent rubbish I just posted.

Detective's two albums are funky hard rock, hard to get accepted for after Humble Pie. Nothing immediately radio friendly on either of them but good songwriting nevertheless. It's enthusiastic
crunching rock and roll -- with classic Stonesy-Faces barrel house piano.

The Good Rats were like the Dictators without the craft to write classic American rock songbook tunes. Plus, they didn't have Ross the Boss. Ross the Boss is one of the ultimate American lead guitarists,
always spectacular, never in any band where the tunes pushed over the top. Everything the Good Rats did was elliptical.

with this 1981 Credit In Heaven double album I got by Minneapolis Twin/Tone band the Suburbs for 50 cents at a Goodwill here a few weeks ago -- even though the vinyl's sort of warped, so I can't play the first track and a half on any of the four sides! Anyway, I'd call their sound sort of post-punk funk with prog and even Contortiony no wave tendencies

Christ, I had all this immediately when I was doing a fanzine at Lehigh. It was difficult to swallow with a smile.

Flee, flee!

The Suburbs ate it entirely with respect to this thread. They were not the fluid of Milwaukee's
finest.

If you were there, you initially thought they were cool. Really. I did. Until I heard an album
of it. Fuck me, I'd rather hear 60 minutes of Louie, Louie.

There was a lot of stuff on Twin-Tone which I bought religously. More fool me -- or a reflection
of how much many were desiring more humanity and backbone in their hard rock.

My ex-wife might have liked the Suburbs. That could also be slander.

I think Twisted Sister borrowed the Good Rats' drummer at some point. Joe Franco.

the nuns, the mutants, pearl harbor & the explosions, new math, the units, romeo void, wire train, red rockers, pop-o-pies. they don't make labels like that one anymore

OTM. I only loved half the records here. My ex-wife liked the other half. Me: the Nuns ( I thought that was Posh Boy), Pop-O-Pies, Red Rockers and Pearl Harbour.

415 put out the first nuns single/ep. in 78 or 79.

Ha, my wife and I just had a discussion the other morning about how we can get ahold of a copy of the Pop-O-Pies' White EP, with "The Catholics Are Attacking" and those two "Truckin'" covers and the song about donuts with extra grease for the chief of police on it, before they went and turned into Faith No More. Not sure why I ever got rid of my copy in the first place. Will keep you posted. Still do have Pearl Harbour and the Explosions' album of course though. (Plus Pearl's first solo album.) Also should mention to Glenn that I've listened to the CD reissue of the first Swimming Pool Q's album twice this month. Not hard rock at all, but I like that too. Way more than their later album with, uh, a horse on the cover I think that I found a copy a couple years back. (Also, yeah, I was going to make a Good Rats/Dictators comparison myself before George did, and didn't get around to it. The Good Rats obviously don't survive that one-on-one well. Then again, who would?)

(The Mutants I know were the Detroit ones, who did "So American" where they quoted Steve Miller on cheeseburgers. Were they on 415, though?)

Anglofoppish vocal affectations[i]

Re the Suburbs, perfect reason to lift the needle, since they weren't actually as good as genuine Anglo-fopps. Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel come to mind. The Suburbs never made records as good as [I]The Psychomodo or "Judy Teen" or "Man It Was Mean". And those weren't exactly top tier.

Busier maybe. Busy has never grabbed me.

I'd have to say the demographic searching for it liked Audience's House On the Hill a lot more, too.

i was a big fan of the self-titled swimming pool q's record, bought it on cassette and played it until my college roommates said 'turn that shit off, we want to get laid sometime'

http://www.boikot-underground.com/images/Ac-dc_Flick_of_the_Switch.jpg

this really has to be considered the last *great* AC/DC record (although I like all of them since then, I am a life-long diehard.)

'Flick of the Switch' is SO much better than 'For Those About To Rock'. FTATR has like nothing except the of course majestic title track. But the rest? filler. 'Flick of the Switch' -> whole first side is amazing, no filler. Last time that you could ever say that about an AC/DC album side. "Rising Power" an awesome first-track. Then "This House Is On Fire" comes on which is basically a Rolling Stones track. Listening to it again now, I realize why the AC/DC guys bristle at being called a 'heavy metal' band by various journalists. In their mind, they've always been a "rock and roll" band. and "This House Is On Fire" totally affirms that, just a Stonesy-rocker (just with a way-more rigid drum track than Watts would have done.)

"Flick of the Switch" is an incredible single, better than that overblown "For Those About to Rock". and then .. "Nervous Shakedown". wow, what a track. This album was basically my first real introduction to AC/DC. I sorta knew who they were? I was 11 in 1983. After listening to CKLW for most of my life, I was slowly venturing into the rock stations like WRIF, WLLZ, and WIOT (Toledo, Ohio). I think it was WIOT in Toledo that caned the fuck out of "Nervous Shakedown" in 1983. Man, that song scared me , it sounded so heavy and insanely menacing, at least for mainstream rock radio anyway. Bought the 'Flick of the Switch' album, it's been a perennial fave ever since. I'm not gonna say it's the last *great* AC/DC album -- I think 'Blow Up Your Video' is a contender -- but man, it rules.

ha, I see where I said this was the last great one and then that 'Video' could be in the mix. Well, I do love them both. This is probably better than 'Video', just because the production is so crisp, live, and amazing on 'Flick of the Switch'. For 'Video', they went back to Vanda and Young which seemingly would be an awesome move, but there is something kinda flat about it to me. Although, I own 'Flick' on LP and I own 'Video' on CD. I need to get the LP of the latter, i think..

in any case, 'Video' was like 10 times better than 'Fly on the Wall'

oh , the other cool thing is that, on the vinyl at least, Atlantic used the old school R&B label logo, just like they did on all of the J. Geils Band LPs

surgery EP on circuit records. really digging it. chuck must have reviewed it for creem metal, right?

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_5hZizn5Q1tM/SrF_jQeqxFI/AAAAAAAAA4E/8NLUcampH_M/s200/R-458978-1148643564.jpg

(Continuing the non-hard-rock SPQ digression: the one with the horse was Blue Tomorrow, their third. I hate half of the songs, and the other half are my favorite SPQs things by far. The self-titled one was the second, Deep End was the first. I love them when they went for drama, hated them when they went for twang. Anne Richmond Boston had an underrated solo album at some point, too.)

(Oh, and Guadalcanal Diary, they're another band in that group for me.)

Bunch of things:

Had no idea people felt so passionately about the Suburbs, both pro-and con-. I figured everybody would just say "who??" Shows what I know. Anyway, George is probably right about the them not being as good as Cockney Rebel (I've only heard one album by each in my life, I think, so I'm not much of a judge), but I was probably at least a little off on the Anglofop crack. They sure look like Anglofops, at least on the back cover, but sounds like the Suburb singer is going more for a David Byrne deadpan, the more I listen, and I'm guessing Talking Heads must've influenced their funk proclivities at least a little. (They both sing about women's hips, too.) But George is definitely right about the "busy" part. At least on the album I got, they have a real prog/art-rock conception of "funkiness" -- musically, it actually reminds me of the Tubes' funk moves quite sometimes. I like it the same way. As for Glenn's comparisons, I think I get now why he mentioned the Call -- it's possible I've only ever heard two Call songs (never gave them any thought at all -- were they any good??), but one was "The Walls Come Down," and the Suburbs have this song "Faith" that not only sounds similar but actually features the repeated line "The walls come tumbling down," two years before the Call one. Just saying. (I've never heard the later, slicker stuff that Scott and Glenn say they hit with, unless I heard it and didn't know it.)

International Discography Of The New Wave lists two different bands called the Mutants. The SF ones who were on 415 are different than the Detroit ones whose "So American" 7-inch I used to own and like.

The song I remember liking a lot on Flick Of The Switch back in the '80s (when I used to own it) was "Bedlam And Belgium," though I'm not sure I'd say the same today. Did think that was an okay album at the time. Also kinda loved "Let's Get It Up" off Those About To Rock and "Sink The Pink" off Fly On The Wall once upon a time.

Deep End is the Swimming Pool Q's album I like; Blue Tomorrow struck me as meh. I may well prefer their twang to their drama.

Anybody care about Kevin Coyne? Eccentric British guy, early '80s. The one album I have, In Living Black And White from 1973, is a live one; his guitarist plays pretty loud rock, though his band doesn't much -- come closest in "Eastbourne Ladies" and "Mummy," maybe. He has a Joe Cocker growl that occasionally sounds a little Ian Hunter, but he doesn't seem to have much in the way of tunes. (Maybe the studio albums are more tuneful, I dunno.) Sings about insane asylums (used to work in one according the liner notes), suicidal fat girls, burning down the world with turpentine, America being a land of disease, and British class stuff I don't understand much. Don't know what to make of the guy.

Oops, early '70s I meant for Coyne, not '80s. (At least the stuff I know of.)

Uh...just noticed that the loud guitarist is Andy Summers, six years before the Police's debut album. (Wiki says John Lydon was also a fan.)

oh yeah, big fan of the Coyne. saw him at a small club in Chicago just a couple years before his death. he's quirky. I like his take on things. the working in the insane asylum apparently had a huge effect on him, because yeah it's one of his big themes. and yeah, Andy Summers was in his band for a while. I dig his solo stuff but it's not usually all that "rocking". Better to check out the two Siren LPs, on Elektra in the states. TOTALLY rocking.

(uh, Siren being the band that he was lead singer for, before going solo)

I was listening to the Kevin Coyne & Siren box, from John Peel's Dandylion label, last night. It's almost all old country blues, R&B and late Sixties pub boogie. Definitely a bit of a very poor man's Joe Cocker voice wise. Makes up for it with storytelling and lyrics. Some of it's very country folk blues idiom, intimate and approachable. "Ze Ze Ze Ze" is something to hear in a bar room.

There are a couple old videos of festival and Beeb appearances on YouTube. "Strange Locomotion", from a Rainbow show shows a young Summers on guitar. It's stomping Brit R&boogie. "Eastbourne Ladies" -- which is the song Rotten liked -- is another boogie, performed in front of a festival audience in the Sevenites. More boogie with the guys and gals bopping in a polite hippies we're-having-a-party-in-Blighty
way. Camera pans back to show it's next to a pasture, the cows grazing unperturbed. Coyne has a pair of Walter Brennan 'real McCoy' farm pants on, humps a pole a little. This was back when you could look real crappy and the crowd loved you for it.

"House On the Hill" is a compelling country folk whine about what a local insane asylum is like. Really captures a bleak part of English life. That's from a solo double album, "Marjory Razorblade" which I've not yet digested in its entirety.

andy summers does good stuff on that one double album by The Animals. Love Is. he got around back then.

i think i had one bad kevin coyne album experience and never looked for anything else. this was years ago. and years ago i used to confuse him with kevin ayers. now, kevin ayers, i know i like.

i think the album i had was matching head and feet. which also had andy summers on it. maybe i'd like it now.

"Eastbourne Ladies" is def a high point. Coyne's whining nasal voice in a kind of "Highway 61 Revisited" thing, except about high class dames who look nice. Do they go to bed wearing crowns?

"Holiday in Spain" is a spoof on Brit package holidays to the title country, flamenco beat, the Spaniard waiting on the table looks like a gangster from an evil side of town. "Jackie and Edna" about going to some dire British shore resort, pining for someone in an adulterous affair.

"Marlene" classic rock boogie with a central 'like a rolling stone' organ -- along with "Eastbourne Ladies," one of the recording's party shuffle tunes amid the desperate thin screams and folk blues. A lot of it this has an off Van Morrison quality. I think Ian Hunter was probably a fan as there's a 'stocks and shares' line in "Nasty" which sounds like it was pinched for Mott the Hoople. "Nasty" talks about his wife or girlfriend who makes him wear a dress, perhaps figuratively rather than literally.

Quite a good album as a sometimes taste. Coyne gets the country folk blues complaints going, always follows after awhile with a thumping piece of R&B pub rock, like "Chicken Wing."

It would be a hard person who wouldn't break out laughing during "Karate King," 'his white and muscled flexing at all the passing girls, smashing his way through the window frame, ripping apart his mother's pearls -- they're lieing on the dressing table ... Chop! Chop!"

"If you see the Karate King. Help him! Help him! Comment on his pommaded hair, tell him he would have been an excellent kamikaze pilot in the Second World War! That's what he wants to hear ... in the gymnasium."

Priceless, really.

"Good Boy" --- "Good boy! Good boy! Well done! Good boy! You're just a lickspittle! Lickspittle! Lickspittle! Lickspittle!"

Know we know why Johnny Rotten liked this. Entire portions of the record tear at the British class and compartmentalization thing. One understands immediately why Coyne could never have any significant number of fans in the US.

I'd pay real money to see someone perform "Good Boy" and "Karate King" before a country festival audience at an ag fair.

I have to say xhuxk and stormy bringing up Kevin Coyne has serendipitously been a fine thing. I'm enjoying this stuff and I literally had no idea.

Glad to be of service -- though now I've clearly got some Coyne catching-up to do myself.

And now another '70s cult act (except maybe in their own country, where I get the idea they were a lot bigger than "cult") whose live album that I've got I suspect doesn't stack up to studio LPs I don't have: Gasolin', from Denmark. Been playing their 1976 double-live Sadan, and while you never doubt that the spirit is there, given the loose playing on-stage and less-than-stellar recording it's not so easy to figure out how well-formed or even rocking the songs are. They definitely liked rock'n'roll, back to the '50s variety: you can detect subliminal Chuck Berry influences here and there, and they cover Little Richard's "Keep A Knockin'." Yet there's no doubt they're a '70s arena band in sound -- just not sure whether that means glam, prog, boogie, or what. The fact that they mostly sing in a foreign language doesn't help the issue much; in fact, who they mostly remind me of is that East German band from the same time, Puhdys, who were known to do entire albums of '50s oldies on occasion. At least a couple of songs eventually click, though -- the medley of "Fi-Fi Dong/Inga, Katinka Og Smukke Charlie Pa Sin Harley" (catchiest thing on the record I think, and one of two originals with "Charlie" in the title) could be their equivalent of Chris Spedding's "Motor Bikin'". And "Refrainet Er Frit" on the fourth side convinces me they were most likely Slade fans -- they look pretty darn salt-of-the-earth backstage on the back cover, too. I get the idea more songs might sink in if I gave it more time.

Christgau gave their self-titled LP from the same year (which apparently came out in the States on Epic) an A-, but he mentions "the musicianship and symphonic textures of Yurropean technopomp," which I'm not hearing so much of on the live one -- the arrangements feel big enough, but not quite complex or majestic to read "prog" to my ears, not even in say a Golden Earring sense, though that band might still be another point of comparison. (Jasper/Oliver call Gasolin' "a strange mixture of hard rock -- early '70s style -- and weird European pop," which is intriuging but kinda vague.) Also Wiki lists a ton of Gasolin' LPs, and then more solo ones by Kim Larsen in the '80s (wasn't he marketed as new wave in the States? Or am I just remembering seeing a record ad in New York Rocker or somewhere?) So it's possible their sound changed somewhere along the line too, but I'm not sure how.