Entertainment :: Music
Guitar Heroby Kilian MelloyThursday Nov 12, 2009 Like the love child of The Mentors and Frank Zappa, Gomer Hendrix strikes a cocky pose on his album Guitar Hero with a dozen tongue-in-cheek songs tweaking everything from the abortion debate to gay sensibilities.
"Guitar Hero" mocks electronic music and the video game of the same name, observing, "Much too lame to lean real guitar / Push 5 buttons down and be a star." A bit later: "Go, Guitar Hero, watch him as he scores / Go Guitar Hero, he’s not gay."
Fast food comes in for a right round slap-down with "Dicky in a Box," a guitar thrash anthem narrated with slapstick, Cheech-and-Chong style dialogue in the background.
"I Didn’t Mean to Do Your Mom" takes aim at teen suburbia (image Bill and Ted trying to karaoke to a funky disco tune and getting it hilariously wrong), while "Hey Joe" sharpens community anomie by profiling the neighborhood pedophile and "Think So" dances on the graves of high art and last-century standards while yearning for a cultural apocalypse: "Next time you’re at the monster truck demolition / You might assume a more advanced position," teases Hendrix, adding, "Nothing could be easier to fall in love again." The kicker is the music, which contrasts with the words with a driving, sincere, sweetly melodic sound that contrasts with much of the other music on the disc.
Romance is in the air with "Tantra Baby," which takes the form of a good old fashioned duet--with Hendrix singing both parts.
Hendrix both honors and thumbs his nose at classic rock acts: "Fetus With No Name" plays like a distorted, manic echo of U2’s "Where the Streets Have No Name," appropriating the tune and dropping a healthy dollop of Monty Pythonesque banter into the mix; "Sweet Home Alabama" gets bitch-slapped in "Shrimp Home on the Playa", as does "Summer Wind" in the song "Playa Wind." Meantime, "Baby in a Jar" delves into classic guitar-riffing rock and stays there, happily rollicking away, unfazed by the tough, growling vocals.
Hendrix shows a musical inventiveness throughout: "Metal Cello" takes the pounding beat of spy-movie music and runs it through a slack-key sounding reinvention--and yes, that does sound like a cello being put through its paces.
There’s even a nod to Celtic folk music: the CD’s final track, "Metal Butterfly," sounds like it gets its wings from Donal Lunny.
Old-fashioned rock licks and dizzying parodic lyrics make Guitar Hero an acerbic, sometimes campy riff on pop music: as familiar as blue jeans, and as scuffed to match, Guitar Hero wears its musical influences on its sleeve, but offers a wildly skewed take on Americana.
by Gomer Hendrix
Kilian Melloy reviews media, conducts interviews, and writes commentary for EDGEBoston, where he also serves as Assistant Arts Editor.
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