It just so happens that all my rockabilly knowledge has never been to the south of Europe. Scandinavia, Germany, the east of Europe, especially Russia and Ukraine – there are many of my favorites. As for the European south, it has always been empty for me. It’s time to find out what’s going on in the rockabilly scene in that region right now, and for that, let’s take the It’s Time to Rock Again 2022 release from the band Hot Chops, a very controversial record, but first things first.
Viva la France!
Hot Cocks, as I plan to call them, because it’s more fun and not even very offensive, since it’s more of a reference to national symbols and my favorite curly lollipops (everyone loves them, they’re just shy), have been around since 1999. They proudly call themselves the oldest rockabilly trio in France, which is somewhat doubtful, but, unfortunately, quite likely. There are few of us, but our hair is pomaded, and fresh work is all the more valuable.
Their discography began with “PLAY GENE” in 2002, consisting of (who would have thought!) from Gene Vincent’s stuff. Popular streaming sites feature the collection “Decade 2001-2011” with as many as 50 tracks, as well as Buddy Holly’s dedication album Fool’s Paradise 2019 and the latest one, which we will consider today. A small spoiler: I liked the previous works much more.
What time is it? Time to Rock Again!
The overall sound rather refers to the abstract sixties. Everything is quite straightforward and unhesitating. There is an honest “woodenness” that I love so much, with direct readability of tools, without unnecessary special effects. Also, a separate charming plus is the light accent of the frontman. It gives personality, its own zest. At one time, I was just drawn to the Slavic pronunciation of the early Mad Heads.
It Really Ain’t the Rolling Stones is a great two–chord opener, with touches of tambourine and harmonica, the song is more like a Sixties song. The only track on the album, for my taste, that I want to spin separately. Well, yes, the link works, although not very well. Good Movies and Rock’n’roll is a moderate, more relaxed shuffle with no particular pretensions. A very characteristic decision. When playing The Boredom Breakers, I preferred to put such complicated things second or third.
However, the third position is occupied by something more interesting. L’hymne à l’amour – as if it pays tribute to the whole French rock’n’roll, which I am completely unfamiliar with. Well, I also have a weakness for national languages, including in our big little genre. Very peculiar backing tracks, characteristic double bass slap and lack of iron in the drums. This is a great song from the repertoire of Edith Piaf. We Are a Rock’n’roll Trio – frankly a weak rock’n’roll band. The dots at the beginning don’t work at all. Maybe it’s because I don’t like this subgenre of songs in general, about the fact that “Here we are! That’s what we are, and we’re not like that anymore! Come on, love us soon!” But even without that, she’s just not very interesting. The next track is also announced in the text and it is…
Surfin’ Bird! And this is the worst performance I’ve ever heard officially released! The Hot Cocks couldn’t tell this joke funny! The sound is both too dirty and not dirty enough. There is no desire to move, it starts to sound very heavy. And the vocals! The vocalist is openly making faces, fooling around too much. There is a feeling that the performers don’t like or respect the original song at all. Even in the Sodom cover, which, let me remind you, are German thrash metal artists, and that’s more authentic! Even Peter Griffin’s version of this song sounds better! I feel sorry for the bird, in short.
Okay… It’s Time to Rock Again! … and it’s a bummer again. The dots in the verses don’t work again, it’s like some kind of disease. The hi-hat sticks out excessively, after the previous song it is literally annoying. In general, everything is boring here and is forgotten a minute after listening. And now the equator of the album is passed! Now it’s time to roll the popsatch! It’s almost always a win-win option. So it is here. The Take on Me cover is made according to all the canons of scoring: a three-angle pulsation instead of a straight one in the original does everything. Overall, it’s good, but again, nothing outstanding. It’s not Boppin’ B and not even Baseballs, and it’s unlikely you’ll play this song more than once.
Rocking at the Oxford Bar – a good measured guitar riff drags the listener into this sixties track. It’s generally good, but the only thing I managed to remember was the closing chatter in English-French. And the next track evokes mixed feelings. On the one hand, this song is as good as the opener. Bright sixties and moderately moving. With another… F–K You? Seriously, monsieur? The whole album looks like an application for a French blue flame, but here you decided to be bold and obscene? In one song? In one word in one song? I don’t even know what it looks like more: how your respected age colleague Kaban Veprevich tells you a dirty joke on a coprative, or the owner of a southern vegetable stall, crookedly screwing Russian matyuki into speech. Not very appropriate, in short.
Here Repose Beethoven is good! It’s only good because it’s a French-language variation on the Roll Over Beethoven theme, but combined with the pressure of the sound, it sounds pleasant and original. Let’s Go On is a standard country ballad that you’d expect towards the end of the disc. Everything is very good here, although I didn’t really like the sound of the violin. As if her dry sound doesn’t really work here. And not all the notes in it are in their proper places. Anyway, it’s a good song. I wish she could finish… But no! There’s another track ahead! And this…
Unchained Melody, where everything is very bad from the first chords! No, everything is terrible! It’s worse than with Surfin’ Bird. Because initially a funny and driving bluebird bird doesn’t turn out to be fun and driving, trying to make a classic ballad like that is a real madness, causing me, as a musician, the most powerful Spanish shame. The sound didn’t fit, and it doesn’t fit. Mixing is also not suitable, guitars and iron stick out godlessly. What a vocal! This is a fiasco, Mon Cher. Of course, I understand that you are Hot Cocks, but why give these very cocks! Why would you do that at all! Pourquoi, pourquoi l’as-tu fait?
Identity is above all!
A logical question after such a scolding: What’s so good about this job and this band? In fact, there is a lot of good, or rather interesting stuff. There is a clear feeling that all the eccentricities and experiments of this record are made from the bottom of their hearts and the Cockerels do not apologize for their sometimes strange approach. There is enough energy here, and there are a lot of pleasant nuances in the little things that draw out the performer’s face and make it distinctive. Their previous works are very interesting precisely because of their almost imperceptible originality.: “Yes, we’re making Rockabilly like this here!” And this record definitely didn’t leave me indifferent, although the main emotions were clearly not excitement. It’s definitely not a good job, but conceptually it is. The fatal directness and filth of the early 60s, the heavy pressure and the strange reworking of stereotypical moves that have remained stereotypical. The experiment failed, but that’s what the experiment is for.
They’re too alive
So, we have a very strange, frankly passing album from the oldest French rockabilly trio. And what about the band itself?Are the guys too tired and the gray hair has defeated the grease? The recording of the Hot Chikens performance from November 2021 suggests otherwise.
And now a little bit of my personal speculation: the band is a lot of years old, they play great live, but they release a frankly weak record that would come off as a debut, but nothing more. Why? Perhaps the fact is that all these years the venerable gentlemen have not bothered too much with studio work, or rather with its specifics. Concerts and recordings require different approaches, and very often teams that are very good at one thing, but may barely do the other. Well, or not everything turns out equally well. Perhaps the venerable veterans could have used a producer, and even more likely there was such a producer and he was the one who ruined everything.
This album is like the first section for a performance in a bar. And it would be fun, especially if you go out for a light drink break to smoke a cigarette, watching the setting sun sink into the Atlantic Ocean.
Album level B
Sometimes it’s really good to listen to something that’s not epochal. Not platinum forever, but something from ordinary and peculiar comrades. Too many hits devalue themselves. This is the album I can recommend to rockabilly fans who are hungry for new releases. It will fill the void, and perhaps you will find some strange finds very good. Then your path through the discography of Hot Chickens will take you to earlier releases of the artist, which are much more pleasant, for my taste. And don’t show this album to neophytes! This is a strange experiment just for your own people.
And a bonus: from now on, I’ll be making a small playlist on Yandex, which will contain several tracks from those I’m writing about, available on the platform. From this album, It Hardly Ain’t the Rolling Stones and L’hymne à l’amour fly away to favorites.
