Demolition Doll Rods

On (Swami)

By Kim Newman
Published: June 18th, 2004 | 3:50pm

If you like your punk raw and infused with a double shot of swaggering rhythm and blues, then Detroit's Demolition Doll Rods will do just nicely. Although this trio's been around for a decade, Danny, Margaret, and Christine Doll Rod have just three albums to show for it — not what you might call prolific, but that's no matter considering their hooks.

The Doll Rods have waited five years to deliver On, the follow-up to 1999's T.L.A.. With that amount of time, you might expect some slickly produced concept album aping the hyped Detroit garage-rock scene that would most certainly fail to deliver the blistering goods. Definitely not so with On.

Backed by a surefire rhythm and beat, this trio scorches through some choice nuggety guitar goodness. With its tight conceit and fuck-you attitude, the release is raunchy and full of Margaret's jolting howl matched by Danny's guitar virtuosity (he honed his chops in the legendary Gories) and Christine's steady beats. The Doll Rods are what garage rock should be, with their ability to transform an Americana classic, "Big Rock Candy Mountain," into ferocious rocknroll and tracks like "Fat Pussy," an ode to a cat that with Margaret's delivery sounds like an ode to something else entirely. Never before has the sound of a dirty club been captured to tape. You can almost hear the sweat pouring and the clinking of ice swirling in your whiskey.