Gluecifer are a Norwegian quintet that has embraced the boogie with a punk-rock frenziness. Sort of a Norwigian counterpart to the Hellacopters, their specialty is storming through a program of acrobatic rock and roll numbers with the sensitivity of a conquering viking.
They made their name with the single God's Chosen Dealer (Hit Me, 1995) and the mini-album Dick Disguised As Pussy (Hit Me, 1996), later reissued with additional tracks as Nineteen Inches Of Rock (Tiger, 1996) and then as Head To Head Boredom (Devil Doll, 1999) with even more additional tracks.
A spate of singles followed, one more powerful and epileptic than the other: Leather Chair (White Jazz, 1997), Shitty City (Hit Me, 1997), Dambuster (Bad Afro, 1997), Lard Ass hagen (007, 1998), Mano-A-Mano (Safety Pin, 1998), Get The Horn (White Jazz, 1998).
In between, they managed to put out also two full-length albums: Ridin' The Tiger (White Jazz, 1997) and Soaring Eagles At Night To Rise With The Pigs In The Morning (White Jazz, 1998).
The Year Of Manly Living (White Jazz, 1999) and Get That Psycho Out of My Face (Munster, 1999) were the only singles of a season full of world tours.
The six-song mini-album Get The Horn (Subpop, 2000) collects a few of those singles. Get The Horn erupts with echoes of Led Zeppelin's Rock and Roll and Deep Purple's Highway Star, sung with the Free's Paul Rogers hoarse and visceral delivery. If The Year Of Manly Living slows down for a slightly more melodic hook, Go Away Man borrows the manic beat of Johnny Thunders' Heartbreakers and Leather Chair detonates its riff at supersonic punk-rock speed. This band has enough adrenalin for an entire generation of rockers. But the closing Titanium Sunset unveils a heavy metal pace which could spoil the entire party.
The new album from Scandinavia's bad kids, Tender Is The Savage (Subpop, 2000), is another terrifying slab of granitic MC5 riffs and howls (via Motorhead and New York Dolls) that redefines the art of power chords for the supposedly high-tech generation of the year 2000. Nothing could be more low-tech than the tight rock and roll acrobatics od I Got A War and Ducktail Heat. Compared with previous maelstroms, Tender is precisely that, a little less overbearing. Anthemic choruses a la AC/DC (The General Says) and bulldozer riffs a la Deep Purple (Rip-Off Strasse) sound a little forced. The "savage" side of the equation is not as prominent as it used to be.
BasementApes (Epic, 2002) further reduces the sonic impact, in the quest for a broader audience (Easy Living).
