Garbage Days Revisited #53: The Throbs - "The Language Of Thieves And Vagabonds" (1991)

 

"The telephone is ringin’, it sounds like a distant call/Little sister singin’, singin’ like a fire alarm…" - The Throbs - Comedown Sister

Similar to the case of Life, Sex & Death a couple of years later, the Throbs were a classic case of a label (Geffen in this case) investing a ridiculous sum of money into a band who they were convinced would be the next big thing (Geffen were talking about them being the east coast Guns 'n' Roses at the time) only to put out a decent album that sank like a stone. The subject of bands who get hyped to high heaven upon first making their entrance on to the scene only for the press to turn on them instantly has been a constant one throughout the last couple of years on both Sounds From The Junkshop and Garbage Days Revisited (These Animal Men, Birdland, Gay Dad) so it seems apt given that we've been covering a lot of underrated sleaze rock bands in GDR of late that we've found that particular movement's version.

The Throbs' origins lie in the mid-'80s New York sleaze scene that also begat the likes of fellow GDR alumni Circus of Power, the Waldos and Uncle Sam not to mention Michael Monroe launching his initial post-Hanoi Rocks solo run while living there). Unlike the West Coast equivalent, the New York scene still had half an eye back towards CBGB's heyday as the US punk mecca and the bands were just as likely to be influenced by the Ramones or the Dead Boys or the Dictators as they were the Sweet or Bowie (I was gonna say the New York Dolls as well but I think they pretty much influenced everybody in the sleaze scene to be honest!). And indeed, in the Throbs' early incarnation on their 1986 mini-album Proud To Be Loud, they were pretty much a straightforward "wun-too-free-for!" style Ramones style bubblegum glam-punk band (even down to cadging the odd Be My Baby style intro on songs like Nuclear Attack) which were a world away from the sound that the band would eventually settle on.

You may just have noticed that there's a massive five year gap between Proud To Be Loud (which was recorded literally a matter of weeks after the band formed) and their debut album proper, 1991's The Language Of Thieves And Vagabonds. During that time they went through a string of guitarists as original six-stringer Pete Pagan suggested the group get a second guitarist in which led to them poaching Roger Ericson from Smashed Gladys (another band who I’m sure we’ll see crop up in a future episode of GDR) only for Ericson to then oust Pagan and bring in Ginger Wildheart shortly after he'd left the Quireboys - Ginger would last a few gigs with the Throbs, realised he didn't get on with them (asked about it on the SilverGinger website a decade or so later, his response was “my time (with the Throbs) was a miserable one - they weren’t a real band…they were very bitter about nothing and had the biggest egos in New York at the time”) and thus returned to the UK to put the embryonic Wildhearts line-up together and the band would return to being a four-piece. Despite the instability, the group came onto Geffen's radar and were duly snapped up.

By the time the group made their return in 1991 in a wave of hype from their new label (see the beginning of this article), it's fair to say that they looked and sounded a bit different. Gone were the leather jackets and ripped jeans to be replaced by Dogs D'Amour style gypsy glam finery with the sound now being beefed up considerably. Frontman Ronnie Sweetheart's vocals had gone from a Joey Ramone indebted gabba-croon to a Zodiac Mindwarp style snarl but the overall effect saw them sound more like an early '90s version of imperial phase Rolling Stones (some time between Beggars Banquet and Let It Bleed if ya want the specifics) with a bit of the Cult in there (give Ocean Of Love and Astbury and co's Electric Ocean a listen back to back and you'll see what I mean). As we mentioned earlier, the amount of money Geffen invested in this album is staggering - Bob Ezrin and Dick Wagner (who’d overseen the imperial ‘70s phase of both Alice Cooper and Kiss) are on production and even Little Richard pops up to play piano on the frenetic Ecstacy. Lord only knows what the final recording budget ran to but they certainly probably had a claim on being the east coast G'n'R on that front...

Unfortunately, yup, you've guessed it, it was released just as grunge came in and basically scorched the whole sleaze rock joint mercilessly. To be fair, the amount of hype the Throbs attracted at the beginning arguably meant that The Language Of Thieves And Vagabonds was doomed from the get-go as the "build 'em up, knock 'em down" syndrome kicked in with the press and I've heard rumours that the band didn't exactly help things by often coming off as aloof, standoffish and difficult in interviews. Either way, things rapidly went south - I've had it related from someone who was there that when they came over to play Kentish Town Forum on their sole UK Tour (with no less than the Manic Street Preachers supporting!) the venue was about a third full. Even back in the States, most people just saw Thieves And Vagabonds, shrugged and went back to listening to either Use Your Illusion or Nevermind depending on what side of the glam/grunge wars they were on. With such a commercial misfire on their hands, it would unsurprisingly be all over for the band less than 12 months later.

Hands up, I can see why The Language Of Thieves And Vagabonds bombed - it's certainly not an all killer no filler record put it that way. But there's enough moments of genuine greatness in there that (similar to Birdland a few weeks ago) make you think that with a bit of refinement the Throbs would have been on to something - the spiralling opener Underground, the driving lead-off single Comedown Sister and the quite lovely Wild Horses soundalike Honey Child are fine stuff indeed even if for every great tune like those there's something a bit sleaze-by-numbers like Rip It Up or It's Not The End Of The World. As I say, it's sleaze-rock with a bit of a goth twist in there as evidenced with the icy Mission style guitars and the Coop style theatrics on songs like Strange Behaviour. It's just a shame that the band were never gonna get the opportunity to develop given the circumstances and the timeframe.

The Throbs have reunited on a few occasions to play some gigs for the faithful Stateside in the intervening three decades but something tells me a second album isn't gonna happen if it's not surfaced by now. And in a way that kind of works because The Language Of Thieves And Vagabonds is the sort of record that could only really have existed in this timeframe as a brave but completely doomed attempt to create the ultimate dark-glam-sleaze masterpiece only to fall halfway short and I can't really see how a follow-up could ever work. Aaaanyway, it's available on yer local friendly streaming service and I would describe it as a flawed but enjoyable album with at least five or six belters on it that are well worth a listen in amidst the filler. And you know what? Sometimes it's better to shoot the stars, miss by a mile and land back in the gutter than just be sat there wishing you'd been a bit more ambitious.