The Swamp Rats
Disco Still Sucks

gethip.com

(Get Hip 2003)

Pittsburgh's finest garage band in the 60s, The Swamp Rats released just a handful of singles during their brief existence. While the preponderance of the band's recorded repertoire was cover versions, the Rats' choice of material was rather special. Covering well known garage standards like "Louie Louie" and "Hey Joe"-along with more obscure cuts like The Sparkles' "No Friend of Mine" and The Sonics' "Psycho"-the Swamp Rats seem to have acknowledged the garage-rock genre while the phenomenon was still in vogue, fully five or six years before the music community at large recognized it via Lenny Kaye's legendary Nuggets compilation.

The Swamp Rats' distillation of their fellow garage rockers centered on taking already potent material to powerful extremes, resulting in some of the ballsiest recordings of the genre. Some of the band's best 60s material was compiled on a slipshod 1979 album release, Disco Sucks, supplemented with later material recorded by band leader Bob Hocko and others. This recent reissue from Get Hip is essentially an expanded revision of that album, which attempts to provide a complete document of the Swamp Rats' recorded works. The CD leads off with their version of "Louie Louie", notable not only for its intense guitar attack, but also for its messed-up, mumbled lyrics. The Swamp Rats don't even try to get the "real" words right, taking a totally punk approach to the obligatory Richard Berry-penned standard. Their version of "Hey Joe" likewise displays lyrical tampering, vocalist Dave Gannon seemingly improvising his way through.

Though the Rats' other signature covers are more true to the originals, they are no less intense for this fact, with the possible exception of a rather unoriginal recording of "In the Midnight Hour". Their cover of "No Friend of Mine" manages to do justice to the original version by Texas's Sparkles, which is no easy task for sure. Their raunchy version of The Rolling Stones' "It's Not Easy" reeks of teenage angst, and their take on The Beatles' "Here, There and Everywhere" succeeds thanks to Paul Shalako's faltering, but undeniably genuine, vocal. Their version of The Sonics' "Psycho", however, is The Swamp Rats' real showpiece. With its violent fuzz guitar, Hocko's hysterical screams, and an unusual, reversed-tape fadeout, the Rats' reading of "Psycho" beats that of The Sonics for all-out intensity. Interspersed among the original single tracks on Disco Still Sucks are several interesting unreleased songs, both original compositions and covers. The Hocko original "Hey Freak" is a bold, punkish rant, climaxing with the declaration "I'm a freak"!

Another Hocko composition, "I'm Going Home", is a moody, sensitive, slower tune that shows a different side of the band. In view of their quality, it's a shame that none of Hocko's original songs were issued, especially considering "It's Not Easy" appeared on two of their singles. Two unreleased-at-the-time Kinks covers are strong, if a bit faithful to the originals, as is their "Tobacco Road," a virtual copy of The Blues Magoos' interpretation. Following the amazing "Psycho" is the last tune on the tracklisting, an alternate version of "It's Not Easy", which actually sounds almost identical to the original version apart from a 20-second intro that sounds tacked-on anyway. This alternate version is at best nonessential, but the three unlisted bonus tracks that follow it represent a distinct turn for the worse. I don't know about disco, my friends, but these three bonus tracks definitely suck. Tracks 14, 15, and 16 are largely unrealized acoustic tracks that seem to have been recorded a few years after The Swamp Rats' reign, assumedly by Hocko himself.

These tracks are not only of a dramatically different style than the earlier material, but they are really just fragments of songs, linked by inappropriate "psychedelic" transitions. Track 16 in particular is cloying, consisting as it does of self-indulgent verbal ramblings and Vietnam news-report snippets. These unlisted tracks are at best poor, at worst annoying, and they end the compilation on an unfortunately low note. Didn't the compilers of this CD learn anything from the original Disco Sucks album? By adding these twelve minutes of mediocre later material to the original 60s tracks, they repeat the mistake made on the 1979 album, which they themselves condemn in the liner notes. Another gripe results from the exclusion of the single "Two Tymes Two"/"Mr. Sad". Although the liner notes point out that these songs were actually recordings by the Rats' earlier incarnation, The Fantastic Dee-Jays, their inclusion would have been appreciated nevertheless.

Certainly they would have added more to the compilation than the unlisted Hocko tracks do. Speaking of the liners, it's worth noting that the packaging for Disco Still Sucks is admittedly excellent, and the liner notes by Doug Sheppard insightful. Everything taken into account, yes, this is still a compilation worth purchasing for those interested in The Swamp Rats' music. Just consider hitting the stop button on your CD player after "Psycho" has run its incredible course.

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