The Fruit Is Still Fresh

Exactly two months ago I've posted the album A Good Tip For A Good Time by the Norwegian band Cato Salsa Experience. In that post I've asked you to look out for that album, because it was really hard to get. There were a couple reactions by the readers of this blog. Because of these reactions I can call myself a happy owner of that CD.

Today I was pleased again when I found this CD on my doormat. It is the Japanese issue of the most recent album The Fruit Is Still Fresh. This version contains four bonus live tracks.

The Fruit Is Still Fresh is again a garantee for some infectious catchy and energetic Psychedelic Garage tunes. An example of that is the song Lovesick, once played and it remains sticking in your head for the rest of the day. You are warned! Enjoy!

Meet the hardest working band in Norway: Cato Salsa Experience! And (along with Ricochets, Madrugada, and Motorpsycho) they're also one of the most credible rock bands around our shores. I had the pleasure of seeing the latter half (to bad I missed the full set) of their performance at this years Roskilde Festival, Denmark, to experience what a great live band they are. So what about recordings then?

The Fruit is still Fresh is album number two (their debut A Good Tip For A Good Time came almost three years ago), with more of their garage'n'roll rhythm'n'grooves. Or; maybe one of the titles of the songs from this album is a fitting tag: "Rock'n'Soul". Their sounds twist and turns, and even though this music really begs to be performed live it works remarkably well on disc. Much thanks to the tightness of the band and the arrangements of the songs. The mixture of the charisma and energy of front man (singer/guitarist) Christian Engfelt, the dancing and playful bass thrills of Cato "Salsa" Thomassen, the steady drum-beat from the hands and feet of Jon M. Riise, all topped or touched with a spicy taste of organ by Nina Bjørndalen.

CSX have played 200 gigs the last three years, which is understandable when listening to how tight and punchy The Fruit... is. A few tracks: opening song "Living Longer Each Year"; the energetic "Runaround"; the explosive "Up & Around"; the slightly Television/Tom Verlaine-ish (guitars!) "Waiting For The Summer Sun". Plus my fave of them all: "Candyman", which is a rolling, stomping, thundering, whispering, blistering song.

Good luck around the world, CSX. Guess he success will increase (they've already been on tv soundtracks in Jackass and The Osbournes). In the USA they're (along with Ralph Myerz and the Jack Herren Band) signed to Emperor Norton Records. In Japan Epic/Sony distribute the CSX groove-machine.

(By Håvard Oppøyen at Lukacafe.com)

Cato Salsa Experience - The Fruit Is Still Fresh (2003)

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A Good Tip For A Good Time

This album was once posted by fellow blogger Mari at the famous blog Doomed To Be Stoned In A Sludge Swamp, so all thanks and credits for this post go to her!

Cato Salsa Experience is a Sixties influenced Garage Rock band from Norway with slight Psychedelic tendencies. A Good Tip For A Good Time is their second release and it is such an awesome album. This album is filled with tunes that are really a garantee for a great vibe. The music is energetic and jumpy, it will somehow make your body move. I was hooked from the first time I've heard this album and I still am. So this urge to share it with you.

There is only one thing with this album: It is not available anymore! So I have a question to all of my readers: If you see this album somewhere, please buy it for me! If you see it somewhere on the web, please order it! I will reimburse all costs! Anyway... Enjoy!

Blasting from your speakers like a spicy tornado, Cato Salsa Experience shimmies, shakes, and squirms with unfettered guitar distortion, bombastic drumming, and layers of retro-cool organs that sound like they're as much fun to play as they are to listen to. Hearkening core elements of classic garage rock, Norwegians Cato Thomassen (vocals and guitar), Christian Engfelt (bass), Jon Magne Riise (drums), and Nina Bjorndalen (keyboards) fuse late-'60s models of the Rolling Stones and the Who with something derivative of the Hives and the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion. "Time to Freak Out!," "Listen to Me Daddy'O," "Got Soul if You Want It," and "So the Circus Is Back in Town" all swirl in an exuberant alt-rock, go-go dance shack infection. Though the album is easily digested as a whole, "Deadbeat" and "M.F." further exhibit fun jungle drums, goofy organs, freewheeling lyrics, and even some slick horn work by Jaga Jazzist. Perhaps it's the vintage equipment or the bands psychedelic name, but A Good Tip for a Good Time is raucous listening that dares you to dance around in your underwear for no particular reason.

(By Craig Curtice at All-Music)

Cato Salsa Experience - A Good Tip For A Good Time (2002)

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Ridin' The Tiger

Gluecifer is a Norwegian Rock 'n' Roll band. I've seen this band playing as support act for The Hellacopters back in 1998. And that was quite impressive!
Ridin' The Tiger is their debut album from 1997. This album is influenced by bands like Motorhead, Black Sabbath, The Rolling Stones, MC5, The Stooges and so on. There are also similarities with another Norwegian band called Turbonegro. It is not only Rock 'n' Roll that Gluecifer plays, but also a perfect combination of Garage Rock, Hard Rock and Punk. Great songs are: Leather Chair, Rock 'n' Roll Asshole, Bounced Checks, Evil Matcher, Rockthrone and Burnin' White. Enjoy!

Formed hot on the heels of the Norwegian trendsetters Turbonegro, and pre-empting the Scandinavian garage rock revival by quite a few years, Oslo-based quintet Gluecifer made their full-length debut with 1997's surprisingly memorable Ridin' the Tiger. And, although they were clearly steeped in the same, post-glam, pure rock urges of their denim-clad, N.A.M.B.L.A.-loving heroes, there was also something decidedly Motörhead-ish about Gluecifer's brand of speed-addled psychosis (a feature also espoused by labelmates like the Hellacopters and the Backyard Babies, let it be said). The proof is in the pudding, as they say, and the pudding here contains a steady recipe of pedal-to-the-metal racers ("Leather Chair," "Evil Matcher," the self-evident "Burnin' White"), only interrupted by nearly as teetotal laughers like "Rock'n'Roll Asshole" and the wonderfully dangerous "Rockthrone." In fact, the members of Gluecifer were still so hopelessly addicted to that rush at this stage in their career, that they only find time to stop maniacally pogo-ing around the room on two or three occasions; and it's fair to say they sounded rather more ill at ease than self assured on the purposefully slick "Bounced Checks," the intensely groove-based "Titanium Sunset," and the amusingly warped "Obi Damned Kenobi." Still, for a debut album Ridin' the Tiger was a more than capable and even promising first step on Gluecifer's lengthy run.
(By Eduardo Rivadavia at Allmusic.com)

Gluecifer - Ridin' The Tiger (1997)

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Excellent Norwegian Stoner Rock.

The first time I've heard this EP, I was completely hooked to it. The Killing Cure is a Stoner Rock band from Norway. The EP sets off with the majestic Go Low, what a great song is this! The songs that follow are also awesome! The singer Tommy has a very great voice.

According to their MySpace The Killing Cure is influenced by the following: Mastodon, Queens Of The Stone Age, Muse, Tool, Alice In Chains, Soundgarden, White Zombie, Mustache, Monster Magnet, Black Sabbath, Corrosion Of Conformity, Fu Manchu, Helmet, Kyuss, LOK, Nebula, Clutch, Mad Season, A Perfect Circle, Puscifer, Them Crooked Vultures, Eagles Of Death Metal, Creature With The Atom Brain, Probot, Pantera, Stone Temple Pilots, Black Label Society, Blind Melon, Brant Bjork, Clawfinger, Dessert Sessions, Jaqueline, Monster Magnet, Nirvana, Rage Against The Machine, Rob Zombie, Stone Sour, The Black Keys, Velvet Revolver, Violent Femmes.

So you have an idea what's The Killing Cure about: Great Stoner Rock with Grunge influences. It seems there's a full-lenght album at hand. I can't wait to hear that one! For now: Enjoy this EP!

The Killing Cure is an explosion of high-energy rock music laced with dreamy insanity and bone crushing riffs. Simmering in the underbelly of Oslo’s rock underground, the band has no regard for genre, era or rules creating a melting pot of sound and creativity. Presently, the band has finished their first full length album. The new material is stronger and more dynamic than ever, showing the strength of the songwriting and musicianship of this freshman album. Their self-titled debut EP was released in January 2008, which have been featured on NRK P3, Radio Tango and KNAC (USA). The Killing Cure have been gigging in Norway the past three years, playing nearly every rock scene in Oslo including KlubbØya 2007.
(From MySpace)

The Killing Cure - The Killing Cure EP (2008)

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Thanks and credits to Mari!

When I Hear That Death Punk Sound: ERECTION!

Turbonegro, what can I say about them? That they are too shocking with their act? Well, I don't care about that. What I do care is that they play an excellent combination of Hard Rock and Punk. Turbonegro are the true inventors of Death Punk.
For now I want only to post the albums Ass Cobra and Apocalypse Dudes, cause they're the best Turbonegro made. The guy from the review below feels the same I guess, cause he put these albums in one review. Ass Cobra is more punkier and Apocalypse Dudes is more Hard Rock orientated. At this album they got a new guitar player called Euroboy. That guy play so damned good. I think you will like Turbonegro (Even the most die-hard Stoners will!) Enjoy!

I’m doing both albums in one review really because I think the story behind this band would have been told twice if I did, and I remember receiving some flak about doing it in by Templar’s review. So, sorry if you got a problem with that but I don’t feel like repeating myself or boring you twice. So on with the review: One of the darkest and most disturbing bands that have ever formed, Turbonegro is re-releasing their classic albums 96’s Ass Cobra and 98’s Apocalypse Dudes on Epitaph, and with the lead singer finally released from the Italian mental institution that halted the band in late 1998, a headlining slot on three major European music festivals, and a new album coming this spring they are ready to take the world by storm. This band brings together the theatrical antics of early Alice Cooper, with the urgency and power of Black Flag, mixes with the striped down driving rock of MC5 and the Stooges, and provides a healthy dose of attitude as well to create their own distinct form of rock that many have dubbed leather rock. Not to be taken lightly, this band can not be described in words, as much as a person needs to hear them to appreciate the power that they possess.

In 1996 Turbonegro released the first of two musical masterpieces. “Ass Cobra” was a period of growth from the band’s original funk-rock roots to a down’n dirty rock sound. The sound of this band can only be described as a garage rock with an enormous amount of energy and passion injected into it. The sheer attitude and lyrical punch that is contained on this disc grabs the listener and doesn’t let go until the end. Songs such as “Midnight NAMBLA”, “Denim Demon”, and “I Got Erection” stay with the listener long after a listen and only get creepier and more disturbing with each listen. Another highlight of this album was the hilarious spoken intros on Just Flesh and Imorgen Skal Eg Daue, begins with Steve Ignorant of Crass trying to shake the band down on the phone, the later a Norwegian punker discussing his distaste for American punkers going out with “new wave hooker girls”. They are really funny even after the first time.

As great as that album was, it only got better with the release of 1998’s “Apocalypse Dudes”, hailed by Jello Biafra as “the most important European record ever”. The band took their rock to the next level that even through much of the song writing was simpler, but the lyrics became more sophisticated and the power that each song posed grew to dizzying heights that only the masters of rock had achieved before. I also thought that these sounds sounded much more melodic and less garage rock sounding and more classic rock sounding. It also sounds like this had a better studio and more production but that doesn’t take away from this at all. Songs like “Are You Ready (For Some Destruction)” and Don’t Say Mother Fucker, Mother Fucker”, while completely un-PC and classics and are often covered by bands of every genre including Queens of the Stone Age and Mayhem. The contradictory positive negative images that come from this record continue to amaze me. This band once again the breaking rock down to it basics is the way to go, with out trying to, this band was able to write a album that even five years after it was written it still sounds fresh, and is light-years ahead of anything that is being down today.

To put it simply, these are both records that a fan of any form of rock must own. They are the new form of rock, powerful, yet simple, at first unaccesable, but given time soon a person’s favorite band. The albums also contain a live footage from this summer’s festival appearances, which after watching makes me really want to see them. Great releases that are finally readily available for all, and all I am say is thank you to Epitaph for reissuing them, this might just be one of the greatest things they’ve done.

(By Moldy at Punknews.org)

Turbonegro - Apocalypse Dudes (1998)

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Turbonegro - Ass Cobra (1996)

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