Revolting Cocks

Sexo Olympico

(13th Planet Music)

Record Review by Marcel Feldmar

This is probably best described quickly as TeknoIndustrialDiscoRock Explosion. Need I say more? Well, yeah – probably. Ok, so – I have to admit that my listening habits do not tend to include albums by the Revolting Cocks, but they do, sometimes, hit on some Ministry.

In case you don’t know, there is a connection. The Revolting Cocks, who are best known (well, by me…) for their song “Beers, Steers, & Queers” (although they might be known best in some circles for other little numbers, including their variations on the songs “(Let’s Get) Physical” and “Da Ya Think I’m Sexy”) have been a side project of Ministry’s Al Jourgensen for over 20 years. There has been a pretty impressive rotating cast of characters (and musicians) since Al first teamed up with Luc Van Acker and Front 242’s Richard 23 in 1985. There have been appearances by other Ministry members, Phil Owen of the Skatenigs, Gibby Haynes of the Butthole Surfers, Rick Nielsen (Cheap Trick), and Billy Gibbons (ZZ Top) - to name a few.

Now we hit 2009 with the hip and swingin’ new RevCo. RevCo is the Revolting Cocks, all cocked and loaded as per usual, with Al Jourgensen doin’ the dirty with sonic cohorts Josh Bradford, Sin Quirin, Clayton Worbeck, and Paul Raven. Raven, who passed away in October of 2007, was in a number of notable bands, such as Killing Joke, Pigface, and Ministry. He appears here on “Keys to the City” and “Wizard of Sextown”.

The CD starts out with “HookerBit 3000”, which kind of sets the tone for the rest of the album. It’s what you would picture playing at some post-apocalyptic sleazy disco, but with a little more animation. Like if you made a remake of The Crow, but made it more like Cool World and set it in a Mad Max world. If, of course, Mad Max was from Vegas.

A few songs in, and “Robo Banditos” hits with a slight Peter Murphy twist in the vocals, and a little trip towards some kind of south of the border hell-hole, and I’m kind of picturing From Dusk ‘til Dawn here. This is strangely cinematic music, though not in a melodramatic way. Still, plenty of movies out there could use a couple of industrial disco scenes (I’d like to see Back to the Future with an industrial disco scene thrown in).

There’s also a strong sense of the '80s mixed in with the post-industrial grooves. “Cousins” moves with a little Sisters of Mercy slide into possible John Hughes territory. “Touch Screen” is a little more on the Nine Inch Nails side, but still holding the disco, while “I’m Not Gay” is kind of like Electric Six, if they listened to a lot more Skinny Puppy.

Sexo Olympico is fairly solid listening all the way through. It’s definitely got that dark and hard Ministry kind of groove going on in the background, but twisted into something that would move a little less conspicuously across the dance floors. I know that there were some Ministry songs hitting the nightclubs back in the day, so this is actually kind of like listening to Ministry in an alternate universe, where after 1986 the band moved further into the realm of songs like “Over The Shoulder” and “Everyday is Halloween” instead of traveling towards the land of rape and honey.