BORN
LOSERS - The Stomachmouths (Subliminal
Sounds) Barely half a minute into "Don't Put Me Down", the first song on this 23-tune disc, and Sweden's Stomachmouths get where they want to go. That place is a sweaty teen club somewhere in the American Midwest, circa 1966. Insistent drums and bass are joined by a
twangy
Rickenbacker, then a sludgy fuzz. The vocals are pure snot. And it all sounds
like it was recorded in a toilet. Flashback to the 1980s and the Swedish music scene was nothing like today. If it wasn't imported, it wasn't happening in a rock and roll sense. The Stomachmouths decided the clock needed to be turned back two decades and embraced the Nuggets bands with open arms. Unashamed revivalists they may have been, but it was their fervour and total commitment to the form that won a small but dedicated cadre of fans. The Nomads, the Wylde Mammoths and the Crimson Shadows apart, not many others in Scandinavia were on, or remotely near, this trip. Probably none of that trio were chasing down authenticity to the degree of the Stomachmouths.
The Stomachmouths were a band I'd heard more about than actually heard (the odd compilation disc aside - thanks Steve), so it's a revelation to finally wrap the ears around them in a substantial way. Their recorded works did make it to stores outside their home country, courtesy of a Voxx release about which the band wasn't entirely happy. This posthumous compilation (on the label run by Stomachmouths founder Stefan Kery) corrects any mastering problems. It compiles the pick of their singles and three albums, tossing in some songs by Kery's later band, the Tonebenders, for good measure. As you'll hear, there were two distinct phases of the Stomachmouths, the fuzz guitar era from 1986-87 and the latter period when the sound was fleshed out by the keyboards of Anna Nystrom. As the band developed, a more soulful, R & B influence is evident and Kery clearly toned down the snarl quotient. But it's all uniformly excellent.
