Don’t tell the Mooney Suzuki know that rock ‘n’ roll died years ago with Mick Jagger’s libido, or with the Velvet Underground’s trademark mixture of deviant sexuality and liquid cool, or with the Ramones’ flurry of three-chorded bliss, or even with the tragic losses of Jimi Hendrix and John Lennon and Kurt Cobain. Don’t complain about manufactured teen pop sensations, or nu-metal outfits that make hair-band purists long for the days of Ratt and Slayer. Don’t tell them the current state of rock needs saving. They’ll simply respond all polished rock gesturing and intense coolness they can’t possibly save it. They are rock ‘n’ roll.
Their style: fast, hot, fuzzed-out blues fused with the energy of foot stomping garage rock anthems. Imagine a classically messy band with perfectly crafted pop pieces, like the Kinks. If said band turned up the volume, fleshed out their sound with lots of amp feedback, kicked some gloriously addictive riffs around in the gutter and dressed it up in a mod version of James’ Brown’s dancing shoes, you’d have something that resembles the Mooney Suzuki.
Their haiku-like mantra: ‘In a young man’s mind, it’s a simple world, / There’s a little room for music and the rest is girls.’ Enough said.
The Mooney Suzuki isn’t your average trendy garage rock band with predictable attention-grabbing gags, a la the Hives (the suits! the ties!) or the White Stripes (the colors! the rumors!). Don’t hasten to instantly categorize this band, rolling your eyes at another new addition to the ever-growing New Garage movement. Forget anything you’ve read about them, if you’ve been unlucky enough to stumble across the clichéd comparisons to the MC5 or the Stooges or the Rolling Stones or any obscure ’60s garage band that appears in the infamous *Nuggets* boxed set. Derivative may be a dirty word but the Mooney Suzuki utilizes familiar sounds and elements of diverse influences to create something fresh and relevant. Mooney Suzuki is so balls-out, earthshakingly good that it manages to circumvent any possible dismissal as just another band du jour, just another group of New York City rock brats eager to imitate their musical forefathers and idols.
Lead singer, rhythm guitarist and old-fashioned showman Sammy James Jr., in a MUSE exclusive interview, stated, ‘Our biggest inspiration is to do something of weight. Something that has roots to it, some thought to it. Like the old saying, ‘They don’t make ’em like they used to.’ We want to make it like they used to.’
‘Anything I do, wherever I go, as far as I’m concerned, is the scene to be,’ he explained, speaking about the New York rock scene. ‘I’ve lived in NYC for a long time and whatever I was doing was the scene. Now people want to write about some kind of scene that’s great. But it’s nothing new to me.’
The title of its latest album, Electric Sweat, captures the band’s deliciously paradoxical approach to making music: the Mooney Suzuki combines vintage hipster attitude with formidable songwriting skills and an intensely focused work ethic. Featuring improvisational songs and tightly woven pop gems, an abundance of grungy guitar hooks and enough raw, nervous energy to electrocute a seedy club filled with rebellious, leather-clad teenagers, the album shocks and excites just like a live show.
You think you know rock `n’ rock, but you have no idea you ain’t seen nothin’ ’til you’ve seen the terrifying power of this band live. If the rock gods smile on your town and you have the opportunity to catch the Mooney Suzuki on tour, don’t pass up the chance to throw a fist in the air in a fit of mock-anarchy; as drummer Augie Wilson pounds the kit into the ground, to watch Sammy James strut and howl and command the stage like a pro, to become a slave to the bass and the rhythm.
Pete Townshend, lead singer of The Who, may have been referring to the Mooney Suzuki when he declared, ‘Rock is dead. Long live rock.’ If the Mooney Suzuki has anything to say, rock ‘n’ rollers will continue to recycle and add and stitch together the past and the future to keep it alive, keep it cool. Long live rock, indeed.
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