Demolition Doll Rods – There Is A Difference / 2006 Swami / 13 Tracks / http://www.demolitiondollrods.com / http://www.swamirecords.com / Reviewed 29 April 2006

The throaty vocals that hit listeners during the opening of “Take You Home” should remind listeners of individuals like Alannah Myles (“Black Velvet”) and Joan Jett; the slinky type of instrumentation that works around the vocals during a track like “Take You Home” comes out of the Stooges / MC5 tradition more than anything current. A song like “On The Way To School” should remind listeners of the time that Twisted Sister covered “Leader of the Pack” or when the Ramones sang about school even when they were 20 or 30 removed from attendance.

Each of the songs in “There Is A Difference” come in this crunch, older brand of rock and roll; Demolition Doll Rods give this ailing genre a facelift and a shining visage for the new year. There is nothing that is truly experimental or different about the Demolition Doll Rods, but the fact is that is not what they wish to do with “There Is A Difference”. Rather, they set off to create a great rock album, and by the end of the disc, that is precisely what they do. The beats may be repetitive, but individuals will be caught up with the band by “Booty Call”, burning all their Sahara Hotnights and Donnas albums along the way.

This is the real thing, and there is no doubt in my mind that an act like the MC5 would have loved to share a stage with them. It is interesting to hear the Demolition Doll Rods now, as the halcyon days of the Swedish rock movement (acts like Gluecifer and The Hellacopters) took place so many years ago. One would think that the creative process would be a quick one, but perhaps it took a few years to find the rest of the band. Take a listen to a song like “Baby Say Unh!” and just tell me that the Rods haven’t listened to a few Rolling Stones albums in their time. The ability of the band to vacillate between these two distinct styles means that a larger collection of listeners will pick up this album, and that the band is not necessarily hemmed into a specific brand of music for their future albums. Three-fourths of an hour passes between the beginning strains of “Take You Home” and “Medley”, and Demolition Doll Rods are no worse for the wear. They could conceivably rock ears off for hours after the disc, as there simply is that much raw fury in the band.

Top Tracks: Baby Say Unh!, Let Yourself Go

Rating: 6.7/10

[JMcQ]