The Bosshoss - Stallion Battalion
Reviewed on Jun 16, 2008 by Kirsten
The “Texans-from-Germany” bring us their third full-length which, unfortunately, is filled mainly with their own songs. For those unfamiliar with this band: picture 7 guys with Stetson hats, playing hillbilly-styled covers of famous pop songs. The crew is led by Boss Burns on vocals/washboard and Hoss Power on vocals/acoustic guitar. Lately Hank Williamson replaced Hank Doodle on mandolin/washboard and Russ T. Rocket took the place of Russ T. Nail on the electric guitar. They are completed by Sir Frank Doe on drums, Guss Brooks on upright bass and Ernesto Escobar de Tijuana on percussion. Live it all comes together in a full-blown frenzy of “real” American music, loads of beer and preferably some pretty girls dancing on stage.
On their previous albums they’ve had some songs of their own but the focus was on the covers, among those were Donna Summer’s “Hot Stuff”, Outkast’s “Hey Ya!” and Britney Spears’ “Toxic”. It’s got to be said: those are genius. Their latest effort is called “Stallion Batallion” and has only 4 covers and 10 songs of their own. Not that these are all bad, it’s just… different.
What hasn’t changed is the style of the opening song: as always it’s an up beat story-like song about how the Bosshoss will come to kick your ass. The second song, “Monkey Business” (don’t get your hopes up, it’s not a Skid Row cover) is their first single of this album and narrates about their experiences in the music business. A quite mellow song, well written, but nothing special. The next three songs are also by mister Hoss Power, but thank god they’re a lot faster. Especially “Shake and Shout” would make a great live song and is also their new single: a proper up-tempo rock song.
“Polk Salad Annie”, the first cover, is originally by Tony Joe White but also frequently sang by Elvis. It’s a real hillbilly-classic and although I didn’t know the original song at first, it’s still quite enjoyable. As for great live tracks off of this album the next one, “Omniscient Lover”, is a definite candidate. Starting with a catchy guitar riff it builds up to a rocking chorus, with a harmonica solo in the bridge.
And just when you’re starting to think, “This is not that bad, if they write songs like this, having a little less covers is fine”, Depeche Mode’s “Everything Counts” cover screws it all up. It’s slow, dreary and completely unnecessary. To make it slightly worse the following song, some kind of sailor love song, is not much better, although it is slightly faster. The last couple of songs on the album that they wrote themselves can’t save them either: Though “Truck’n’Roll Rules” is quite good, “High” is funny lyric wise but musically boring. Their last resort, “Jumpin’ Around”, is again not a terrible song and it will probably make a great live track, but just doesn’t cut it on CD.
But do not despair, all’s not lost yet, because between the last songs there are also 2 covers: a wicked and fast version Electric Six’s “Gay Bar” (yes, it’s got a banjo!) and a very funny interpretation “Drop It Like It’s Hot”, originally by Snoop Dogg. These, however, are a painful reminder that, even though the “real” Bosshoss songs are not all bad, this really is what they do best. In that light it’s a real shame that it’s 10 of their own songs versus 4 covers on this album. But in the end this is the band you want to go and see on your summer festivals: Even though you might never have heard of them they’ll rock your socks off with songs that sound strangely familiar.
Album Information
| Best Song: | Gay Bar |
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| Medium/Type: | Full-Length |
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| Released: | October 26th, 2007 |
| Record Label: | Island Records |
Related Links:
| Viewed: | 279 times |
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Tracklisting
- Stallion Battalion
- Monkey Business
- Shake & Shout
- José And Myling
- Free Love On A Free Love Free Way
- Polk Salad Annie
- Omniscient Lover
- Everything Counts
- Goodbye Mary
- Gay Bar
- Truck'n'Roll Rules
- High
- Drop It Like It's Hot
- Jumpin´ Around
