Retro Reviews > The Distillers
The Distillers’ Punk Rock Swan Song
By Skwerl
Sunday, August 31, 2008
I have a problem. It’s an ugly habit that is destroying my life. When everyone else hates an album I love, a syndrome kicks in- its severity proportionate my peers’ collective hatred for said album- and I find myself compulsively determined to convince everyone that they’re wrong, that they just need to give it a truly objective chance.
May the Lord forgive me for my shameful sins. I’ve been to rock bottom and back more than a few times. Why, I once tried to convince everyone that has-been 90s alt-rockers Silverchair deserved a closer look, and I damn near lost an arm. And oh, how I’ve been disciplined by the wrathful flames of the internet by harboring sympathy for pariahs such as Hanson and Biffy Clyro.
But I must sin again. Forgive me, but I am unable to stop loving The Distillers’ 2003 album Coral Fang. I know they’re supposed to suck. Everyone I know scoffs when they’re referred to as a “punk rock band.” I know better than to trust Wikipedia, which says that frontwoman Brody Dalle wrote all the songs, played all the guitar, and sang all the words- I know the truth, that she was nothing more than arm candy for true punk rocker Tim Armstrong, Courtney to his Kurt, spinning his genius scraps into bronze. I know that doesn’t make her a legitimate musician. I know that The Distillers just, like, ripped off Rancid, and her new band Spinnerette will just rip off her new boyfriend’s band. I’ve been reminded of this and scolded by every credible, passionate, experienced, fucking brain dead punker I’ve encountered in my travels.
But Coral Fang is a great album, and I need to try and convince you of this. In 2002, I was with you; I couldn’t get behind The Distillers’ kiddie punk thing. But then Coral Fang broke out and picked up where Joan Jett left off. I don’t know where the little something extra came from. I don’t care to know anything about Brody’s relationship with Tim Armstrong, or their breakup earlier that year. Maybe it was bad. All I know is that Coral Fang hits the ground running at full speed. It maintains an energetic punk rage with mature rock dynamics. Punk rock gang vocals and breakdowns are backed by harmonies and runaway vocal deliveries that prove Brody’s right to the stage.
Here’s the video for the opening track & single, Drain The Blood. Ignore the 2003 punk rock fashion, and just focus on the music… and/or Brody’s ass:
The first three tracks could rightfully be charged with assault. It’s a dense eight minute steamroll, climaxing at a minute twenty into the third track, Die On A Rope, when the guitars drop out, and Dalle wails a battle cry:
I want to draw the blood from your neck, spill the lies in your bed.
I will give you a holy white rose, cut the tongue from your head.
A minute or so later, this bridge is revisted, with different lyrics that are likely not what every single lyric site and Distillers fan site report them to be. I’m pretty sure she’s screaming something about resent (not ‘red scent’), and then there’s something about primal black eyes and a scarlet letter on her chest.
Sounds something like rebellion and martyrdom, and that brings us rather naturally into track four, The relatively gloomy The Gallow Is God, one of two tracks that prevent me from calling the album completely relentless. That one, and The Hunger (track six) both give you a little room to breathe, and maybe some time to find the shoe you lost in the pit. With that said, The Hunger is actually one of the more noteworthy tracks on the album, managing to be a bit of an acoustic ballad without being cliché or cheesy. Here’s a pretty hot live version I found somewhere:
When I need a kick in the ass, this is one of the albums I look for. Anything by Clutch, maybe Use Your Illusion I, anything by Electric Six, anything by The (International) Noise Conspiracy or Refused, or Coral Fang.
Anyone can play fast and loud, but the menu is short when you need some real nutrition, and some spice to get the energy levels up.
- 01. Drain The Blood
- 02. Dismantle Me
- 03. Die On A Rope
- 04. Gallow Is God
- 05. Coral Fang
- 06. Hunger
- 07. Hall Of Mirrors
- 08. Beat Your Heart Out
- 09. Love Is Paranoid
- 10. For Tonight You're Only Here To Know
- 11. Death Sex
Slash might hate you, but you are 100% right on the money with this one. I got this record right as it came out, and I still rock the living shit out of it. I don’t give any of the credit for this to Tim Armstrong, because it’s cooler than any Rancid album could ever be. Unfortunately I’ve not been impressed by Spinnerette, but I’ll have to hear the whole album.
i tried, they still suck, and by all accounts she’s a suckubus cunt.
Holy shit, when I discovered this album 3 years too late I fell in love with it. And I’m so glad you put up the live video of “Hunger” up. Hunger is probably my favorite song on the whole album.
I also heard the new song by spinnerette, “Valium Knights”. You can go to their website and drop your email down and they send you the song. It’s pretty decent, and takes a step in a different direction than Distillers.
You have it exactly right.
Coral Fang is great and everything else they’ve done is shit.
I bought it the day it came out after hearing the single and ate up the whole record. I basically wrote them off at the start when I heard the “my name’s Body” song, but that record changed my view.
“Die In A Rope” is their best song by far.
I am personally a bigger fan of SING, SING, DEATH HOUSE. (It’s not “kiddie” stuff as you so dismissively said. It’s a fully formed, mature, and intelligent record) but this record definitely has its charms.
Skin, from Skunk Anansie, is what this demographic is hungry for.
This shit is just too average. Musical whippits.
I wouldn’t write off their earlier work like such songs as “Red Carpet and Rebellion” and “Seneca Falls” inspired by Bloody Sunday 1905 in Russia and Seneca Falls Convention for Women’s Sufferage. As well “the Blackest Years” where Brody compares here self to Cold World era Berlin.
However Coral Fang is as visceral as it comes, but “Beat Your Heart Out” has relatively got to be their kiddiest moment yet.
[...] Ghetto Love. We’ve been following Spinnerette on Antiquiet, starting with a retro review of the last Distillers album, through an appearance with Queens Of The Stone Age and Spinnerette’s first shows in [...]
#1-You damn near got maimed over Silverchair? *snicker* I like Silverchair; they were never has beens, just not-beens outside of Aussie. #2- I checked out Brody’s ass without having to be told to. It just seemed like the right thing to do.
That’s right..I’m a girl and checked out Brody’s ass sans shame.
[...] the ’80s (and don’t you dare say Courtney), Brody led the Distillers through three blistering albums and a relentless touring schedule that helped define modern punk, but eventually gave way to the [...]
Wait, she really didn’t write those distillers songs? (arm candy)really? I mean I thought it was all rumor that’s all, that kinda changes things for me…
no, it was sarcasm. she wrote the songs.
Im a diehard distillers and spinnerette fan. I love every note of music of vocals brody dalle has produced. i also am a moderate rancid and josh homme fan. you can definitly tell that tim and josh both had an impact on brody musically. but by no means is this RIPPING OFF. she was inspired to work with, artisically, with the man she loved/loves. Love sparks her creativity. this makes perfect sense. its not grounds for questioning genuineness or authenticity. Brody and completley ligit. since day one.
i never got to see the distillers live. for i was too young to travel away from the small town where i grew up. however i recently got the privlage to see spinnerette. and they are sooooo amazing. brody and cohorts, have matured artistically soo much. the album is a masterpiece.
Good post, I favorited your blog post so I can visit again in the future, Cheers, Sha Riase