Get Some Go Again from Metal Hammer (March 2000)
THREE years down the road from 'Come In And Burn' Hank Rollins returns with his eighth album as a bandleader, and brings with it the biggest shake up among his collaborators since Black Flag split back in 1986. Close to entirely turning his back on music around late '97-early '98, it was apparently the experience of working as producer on LA trio Mother Superior's album 'Deep' that re-energised the previously jaded Rollins and prompted him to call time on the original Rollins Band line-up, and there and then recruit the guys from Mother Superior for what has become the 'new' Rollins Band. It goes without saying that it's never the easiest of tasks to try and follow in the giant footsteps of one of the most consistently outstanding hard rock outfits of the past decade. So it's all credit to the Mother Superior trio that they've been able to make the quantum leap forward. However, Rollins being Rollins, the 'new' Rollins Band isn't exactly a million miles away from the old one. Leaner, more immediate and faster moving than, say, 'Come In And Burn', 'Weight' or meisterwerk 'The End Of Silence', 'Get Some Go Again' is aptly titled.
While the sound might be short on something of the reverberating thunder that was producer Theo Van Rock's trademark on earlier Rollins Band releases, 'Get Some Go Again' nevertheless finds Hank walking along pretty much the same road as before. Both the opener 'Illumination' and 'Monster' sound like they could easily have strayed off any of the more recent albums in the Rollins Band back catalogue, likewise the blues grind of the Thin Lizzy-esque 'On The Day' and 'Brother Interior' feel rooted in Hank's past, while the ferociously-paced title track sits comfortably alongside any of his previous high-velocity excursions.
However, if it's a glimpse into the current state of the Rollins psyche you're after, look no further than the self-explanatory incendiaries 'I Go Day Glo', 'Hotter And Hotter' and 'Thinking Cap', Elsewhere, the first of the album's two major surprises comes with Hank paying tribute to Thin Lizzy with a blistering cover of 'Are You Ready?', featuring Lizzy's Scott Gorham on guitar. But arguably the most interesting departure comes in the shape of the hidden album closer 'LA Money Train', where Hank welcomes aboard one of his all time heroes -ex-MC5 guitar legend Wayne Kramer -for a slow-burn- ing, 14-minute, James Brown-style groovathon, with Hank excelling in the role of satirist delivering a scathing rant against LA, the soul-selling capital of the world, Ultimately, if 'Get Some Go Again' proves anything, it's that while the faces around him might have changed, Hank himself remains as
distinctively hard-boiled as ever.
Grahame Bent 10
'Get Some Go Again' is released on February 28
Hank on working with his heroes
Tales of Thin Lizzy covers, Scott Gorham, Phil Lynott's Mum, Wayne Kramer, Tony lommi and George Clinton...
"I love Thin Lizzy. One of the most listened to sets of records in my collection is my Thin Lizzy stuff. I had already sung 'Are You Ready?' with the Lizzy guys, so I called up Scott Gorham to see if he'd be interested in laying some guitar on the track. He told me: 'I get asked to pIay on Thin Lizzy covers on people's albums all the time and I always say no - but for you I'll do it! I've seen you playing the song and I've got a feeling that it'll rock'.
"I think it's a real ballsy track. I'm real proud of it, and I'm glad to have done a Lizzy song that was never properly recorded in the studio - it was only officially released as a live track - with Scott who actually co-wrote it with Phil Lynott. One of the main reasons I put it on the record was as a present for Phil's mum, Philomena. She's a dear friend of mine, and I thought she'd like to hear one of her son's songs on our record because she's kind of my irish mother. I sent her a tape of it and she wrote back telling me how much she loved it. Philomena's just this amazing woman. I see her almost every time I'm in dublin and the act that we cheered her up made it even better. At band practice today, me and the guys are going to work on another Lizzy cover, 'The Rocker'.
My idea for 'LA Money Train' was to do a song that esembled 'Escapism Parts 1 + 2' by James Brown, and I knew Wayne would get it. He's a long-time friend who's not a big fan of LA and he's always ready to jam. We did the track live in one take then he said, 'Let's write a song together' and a few minutes later we had 'Hotter And Hotter'. There's not a whole lot to it, but it's a good jam and it was a real honour to write a song with Wayne. He's real hero of mine and I'm really determined to work with my heroes, so maybe I'll just have one big ass jam on every record! I just did a song with Tony lommi for his solo record called 'Laughing Man With The Devil Mask', and me and the guys just did a song called 'Ass Wipe' with George Clinton for his next record - so, you never know, he might show up on one of ours one day!"
Thanks to Bojan from Bosnia for the transcription.
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