Sounds From The Junkshop #90 - Murderdolls

 

"This is gonna hurt you more than me..." - Murderdolls - Twist My Sister

The Murderdolls were a band who genuinely surprised me when they first emerged in the early noughties as the prospect of a splinter group from Slipknot wasn't exactly something that set my pulse racing. I've not really mentioned Slipknot in any of these columns about the early noughties so far and the simple reason for that is that I just wasn't a particularly big fan. I knew a fair few goth girls who absolutely loved them but I just remember being introduced to them by the metalhead bassist in one of the bands I was in around this era playing me their then-single Spit It Out and my instant thought was that it sounded like an industrial version of the then-popular novelty song Cotton Eye Joe by the Rednex. I mentioned this to him and I seem to remember his response being "Oh you bastard...I'm never gonna be able to listen to that thing the same again now..."

Look, I'll demonstrate. You can thank me later.

So yeah, as I think we've established I wasn't exactly much of a Slipknot fan. They did a couple of albums and...well, I just found them a bit unlistenable to be honest despite various mates' repeated attempts to convert me. I understood where they were coming from - as I've mentioned before, I think some kids, especially those in the ‘rebelling against your parents’ phase (which counts for a lot of students who've finally broken away from the parental home and are belatedly discovering who they actually are) tend to be drawn to the loudest most disgusting music they can find. I was just lucky that I went through that phase a few years earlier and ended up a fan of W.A.S.P. and Fear Of The Dark era Iron Maiden because of it. But nevertheless, no sale. Some time around 2002, the band announced they were taking a short hiatus due to how intense touring the first two albums had been and soon enough, a couple of side projects duly emerged. Singer Corey Taylor would around this time unveil his new group Stone Sour whose album I remember listening to and it was basically Alice In Chains ten years too late - okay enough in a grunge revival sort of way but nowt special. However, drummer Joey Jordison's new group the Murderdolls...now that genuinely did make me sit up and pay attention.

Jordison had joined up with frontman Wednesday 13 (Joe Poole to his family) formerly of cult horror-punks the Frankenstein Drag Queens From Planet 13 for this group and quite simply, it was great fun - one part Misfits, one part Raise Your Fist And Yell era Alice Cooper, one part early 69 Eyes crashing together to form a gleefully offensive schlocky horror-punk outfit. Song titles like 197666, Grave Robbing USA, Kill Miss America and B Movie Scream Queen kind of tell you everything - I mean, you would literally have to have an IQ score that was negative not to "get" the Murderdolls but by that simple technique of bludgeoning every song into your brain with all the subtlety of a jackhammer combined with a swaggering "zero fucks given" attitude, they well and truly pulled it off on their debut album Beyond The Valley Of The Murderdolls.

It was arguably too good to last and predictably it didn't - a year or so later, Jordison had returned to Slipknot for their third album and the other Murderdolls were scattered to the four winds. Guitarist Acey Slade would go on to form the excellent scuzz-punk outfit Trashlight Vision with bassist Roger Segal and drummer Lenny Thomas (both RIP and much missed) for the excellent Alibis And Ammunition album before moving on to more goth/electronica waters with his next group the Dark Party who, to be brutally honest, I just wasn't a very big fan of, sorry. He's now a hotshot session musician.

Wednesday would go on to be a man with fingers in many musical pies, initially starting a solo career which birthed two fun albums which were basically straight continuations of the Murderdolls sound (2005's Transylvania 90210 and 2006's Fang Bang) before losing his way a bit with 2008's Skeletons which went for a more serious darker sound but sadly lacked the hooks of old. He would soon backtrack but sadly subsequent efforts never quite regained the sparkle of those earlier albums. En route he would also try his hand at everything from gleefully foul-mouthed redneck country with Bourbon Crow to straight up garage rock with Gunfire 76 and both of those bands also come recommended. Wednesday and Joey would even put the Murderdolls back together for the 2011 Women And Children Last album but this ended up lacking the sparkle of Beyond The Valley... not to mention the sales and further releases were not forthcoming with the band splitting for what turned out to be the last time in 2011.

Sadly the abrupt passing of Joey Jordison in 2021 has ruled any further Murderdolls reunions out (original bassist Ben Graves is also no longer with us having died of cancer in 2018). Although I've never been much of a fan of Jordison's main band, I'd never doubt the guy's talents as a drummer or as a guitarist and having seen him fill in for Lars Ulrich when Metallica headlined Download in 2004, it's to his immense credit that he more than held his own. Of course, Wednesday is very much still out there pushing his solo career although 2015's Monsters Of The Universe remains his last album to date. The Murderdolls then...they weren't big and they definitely weren't clever but by sheer dumb guts and silliness they somehow ended up being one of the better bands of 2002 and I'll always have fond memories of them. RIP Joey.