Revolting Cocks : Sexo Olympico

Revolting Cocks: a band with history. Originally founded in the mid ’80s, the band recorded their first album in 1986. Since then, recordings have been sparsely produced, with their musical style devolving from their layered Industrial beginnings to their current incarnation as an obnoxious parody of bad taste. I say parody of bad taste because the tracks on the album don’t hit the listener hard enough to really be hurtful. Songs like “Hookerbot 3000” and “Robo Banditos” are simply silly and, if an album entitled Sexo Olympico is even capable of having artistic aims, silliness appears the only object.

This is apparent without really even needing to listen to the music: the song titles do any and all of the artistic work, as one might observe for oneself by reading again the short list in the above paragraph. Nonetheless, there are moments where the music shines like shit on porcelain. Take for example the spoken word lyrics that serve as lead in to the song “Red Parrot.” The radical guitars force a complacent rhythm out of your speakers, and this rhythm serves as a backdrop, a stage on which the vocalist can share his peal of wisdom: “I didn’t need these clothes anyway.” Following this, the guitarist slides up an down the scales like a cat’s me-aow, and you can almost hear his hand clawing the air, and isn’t it all very funny.

The medium through which Revolting Cocks exude this parody couldn’t have been better chosen. Shredding guitars recur in all of the tracks like the acrid nostalgia of acid wash jeans, but, simultaneously, the band softens the edge of their songs by fitting them into palatable verse-chorus format. The final product seems coated in a gloss of wimpiness that is perhaps just lurid enough to offend though maybe hoping that some might be attracted by its ostentation. It’s difficult to say from my own vantage if these Revolting Cocks want above all to prove themselves irksome or if there is something desperate about them underneath, that they want people to laugh with. Either way, it can be said that the music is outlandish, not necessarily outrageous, and funny in the way a boy much too young is heard saying the words “vas deferens.”

I had thought for a while that this would be the one review in my career in which I had given the album only one prior listen; somehow, I decided not. Reviewing the album again, songs like “Wizard of Sextown,” despite titles that attempt to discard the musical content lying underneath, do indeed have musical content, some of it even engrossing. “Wizard of Sextown” in particular, is rhythmically interesting, a song that evolves and has a dynamism to it. Let me end this review by saying that it is easier to dismiss the band than to listen. If you prick up your ears, hold them there, there may be something worth finding.

Similar Albums:
Ministry – Twitch
My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult – Sexplosion!
KMFDM – XTORT

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