In Detroit's racial hall of mirrors, the Doll Rods' rock'n'roll minstrel show registers about as much as another building collapse. Forget their Brother J.C. Crawford moments on "Open Up Your Door" and their pseudo-spiritual, plantation-aping "ain't nobody do me like Jesus" "Medley"; they have still duller weapons in store. Among them: Ramones familial surnames, Stooges attitude, and New York Dolls boy-as-girl-in-the-city (or Joan Jett, girl-as-boy-in-the-city) looking for action. Their sex life could be as fictional as their Doll Rod last names-- even if they play shows without clothes on, and call their new record There Is a Difference, as in two gender-opposite kids looking down their little shorts.
Remember how on-the-way-to-school-we-broke-all-the-rules we once were? Sometimes I think I do-- on "Where My Baby Be", say, where they do the chorus like debauched Angels, or on "Booty Call", where she calls Danny Doll Rod and says she wants action, and he tells her action is his middle name, and I imagine this happened to me once. Is "action" anybody's real middle name?
Lies do clear the way for good fiction. Demolition Doll Rods tell a bedtime story, the only one: Getting laid, over and over again. Drummer Christine Doll Rod is a Meg White-like bass-and-tom kicker, steady and pumping, though she's not really any good at the instrument. Add that to infinitely repetitive hooks, like "She don't like nobody but me" ("Baby Say Unh!") and "Honey yeah I wanna take you home" ("Take You Home"), and loop the same blues lick they stick between each one, and you've got yourself a decent approximation of your standard missionary old-school sex-rock. OG jaded pervert Iggy Pop took 'em on tour with him once, and he would know.
Suppose they're not very likable, and they're nihilists in their endless focus on one idea-- fucking-- till it seems as tired as brushing your teeth, and their blues revival screech and three-chord skronk and big chorus are pushing for the grave faster every time they do them. Suppose that's the big idea. "The first thing that you'll know? You'll be ready for the grand finale, so come on baby let's go let's go let's go let's go."
