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Recording: |
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The Jerks Win Again |
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Artist: |
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The Karl Hendricks Trio |
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Label: |
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Merge |
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Release Date: |
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29.July.2003 |
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Reviewed by: |
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PostLibyan
and Tracers |
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Rating: |
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Brendan's Introduction:
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My Minions have so many quirks that sometiems
it's not even funny. One of them revolves around Karl Hendricks,
a singer-songwriter from Pittsburgh, and several of them going
out of their way to track him down at the Merge Records 10th
Anniversary Festival.
Anyway, he's got a new album, and here are PostLibyan and Tracers
thoughts on it. |
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Tracers: |
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Overall, it's Karl. Musically I don't think he's grown much
with this album. If you line all his releases up end to end to
end and there is a consistency. As usual, there are some great
song titles on The Jerks Win Again. However, this
album doesn't seem as bitter as some of his others. |
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PostLibyan: |
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Well, before i get into an overall statement on the disc, i
like to go over the tracks. Here are my thoughts on the songs
here. First up, Chuck Dukowski Was Confused. This song
totally rocks. Karl is singing his heart out and his guitarwork
is great. All around, this is one of the best rockers i have listened
to in quite some time. |
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Tracers: |
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Damn straight. I like this one a lot myself. Plus you've got
to like anything with Chuck Dukowski in it. |
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Brendan: |
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For those of you who are staring blankly at your monitor now,
Chuck Dukowski was a bassist with Black Flag. They were a punk
band in the 80's. If you don't know them by all means go do some
research now. Chuck did in fact, "write the best song on Damaged"
as Karl points out. |
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PostLibyan: |
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Track two is New Wave Situation, which is a cool title.
The song is decent and i have no real comments on it.
Next is The Night Has No Eyes, and this song gets old.
It is just too long, and my advice to Karl is "chill it with
the guitar freakouts already". Sheesh.
Then comes The Overweight Lovers. I like this song,
but i don't want to. I mean, i'm not the sveltest person in
the world, and this song paints the picture of unhappy lonely
fat people. I hate the use of the easy stereotype. But, it is
a catchy song with good drumming. |
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Tracers: |
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It reminds me a lot of the mopey-ness of the Misery and
Women album, combined with the fuller sound of...what
was the one with Nogales by Tuesday? |
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PostLibyan: |
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That would be 1996's For A While It Was Funny,
which i think is Karl's most recent album, before this one of
course. |
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Tracers: |
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Yeah, that one. There is a sonic similarity.
But you're right i like this song, and you're also right that
I don't necessarily want to like it. |
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PostLibyan: |
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Then comes one we can all enjoy shamelessly, I Think I Forgot
Something - My Pants. This is a damned funny song with wacky
lyrics. Everytime he sings "I think I forgot something / My pants"
i chuckle because it is so unexpected. All that plus the song
features strong rhythm and nice guitar. |
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Tracers: |
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Did you notice on the credits that he gives credit for song
titles to various
people? |
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PostLibyan: |
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No, i missed that. |
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Tracers: |
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Well, one of the people he credits is his daughter, who I think
is still a toddler. I think this may be the song inspired by his
daughter. That would make sense, don't you think? |
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PostLibyan: |
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I guess so. |
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Tracers: |
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It's the only song title that would make sesne coming from a
toddler. Of course the idea of toddler talking about Chuck Dukowski
is also hysterical in and of itself.... |
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PostLibyan: |
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True, but if any kid is going to know her Black Flag, it's
bound to be Karl's daughter!
Anyway, up next is Thank God We Have Limes, and much
like the second track, i love the title, but the tune is a kind
of generic. Contrast this with The Ballad Of Bill Lee,
which is a fun catchy tune. How can you not like a song that
starts with the line "They called me a commie fag"?
And then finally, after a mere 8 tracks, Karl wraps it up with
The Summer Of Warm Beer. There is a painfully long guitar
hero style solo in the middle that more or less dominates this
song. When the melody comes back it's a good little pop song
with Karl's typical great lyrics. I especially like the line
"I'm the crown prince of bailing water from an already sinking
ship". However, that solo. Ugh. It ruins it for me. |
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Tracers: |
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Yeah you're right about the guitar parts, but i lie the poppinesss
of it. |
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PostLibyan: |
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It's a decent song, but it just gets tiring in the middle. Reminds
me of Band of Susans, who did some great stuff but often lost
me during the guitar freakouts. This is opposed to Sonic
Youth or Landing, who do
not lose me during the guitar freakouts. |
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Tracers: |
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That's a product of innovation/not sounding like anything else.
Karl's guitar solos have a certain "by the numbers" quality. I
also hear it in some of the drumming, but since he doesn't have
the "drum solo" thing, it isn't as distracting. I find that the
rote-ness of the music seems to have a direct correlation with
the amout of confession in the singer/songwriter genre. It's like
you can either be creative with the music or creative with the
lyrics, but rarely can someone be both. |
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PostLibyan: |
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Ooh! Good one. We'll call this "Tracer's Law of Conservation
of Singer/Songwriter Innovation". And it makes sense to
me in this contect. It seems like Karl is insisting on "normal
rock song structure" which makes things seem slightly formulaic,
and does tend to drag the length of a song out. Think about
it -- there are fewer songs on this disc than on any other Karl
album.
Now for a few overall comments. Firstly, in a way, this is
confessional singer-songwriter stuff: folk music really. Except
that it is with electric guitar (and Karl apparently just got
a new fuzz pedal) and lots of drumming. There is a reflective
tone to the lyrics, but the instrumentation is more forceful.
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Tracers: |
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I think you're right about that confessional aspect of it, but
that's always been a Karl trademark. What is different is that
the songs here do have more of a tradional "rock" strcuture, which
makes some of them seem too long. I contrasted this to one of
my favorite Karl songs, Romantic Stories from the War (off
Misery and Women). That's a very very long song
(i think 5 or 6 minutes), but since it doesn't have the requisite
guitar solo, etc., it seems much shorter. Does that make sense? |
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PostLibyan: |
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Yeah, that does make sense.
Okay, another point i want to make is that, listening to this
album i hear an influence in Karl that i have not heard before.
And this is the much revered Billy Bragg. Karl's guitarwork
(especially on <i>Chuck Dukowski Was Confused</i>)
and general song writing show a slight bit of Braggishness.
This is a good thing, really.
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Tracers: |
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Good point. I hear that really well on The Ballad of Bill
Lee. |
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PostLibyan: |
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Overall, i would give The Jerks Win Again a 4.
It breaks no new ground, and in fact gets a little tiring at 2
points, but there are some good songs on here. |
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Tracers: |
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Yup, I'd agree. It's got more of the same, as I said before.
But for me more of the same equals pretty durn good. |
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Related Links:
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none available. |
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