Tweet

Album Details

• Artist: The Hendricks Trio
• Album: The Jerks Win Again
• Label: Merge
• Year of Release: 2003
• ME Rating:
• Reviewed by: jparker on 2003-08-13

Your first response to a band named after one of its members might be a) this guy has a big ego, b) this guy has a name I should recognize from some previous, more well-known band, or c) it takes balls to name your band after yourself, because you have nowhere to hide. But the Karl Hendricks Trio a) isn't a vanity project, b) isn't an offshoot of some other band, and c) is honest, unpretentious guitar rock. So what about the 'trio' part? It's not jazz: it's just plain disclosure.
They didn't come out of nowhere. The KHT, from Pittsburgh, have released 6 albums, and toured relentlessly. Though the lineup has changed over the years, their solid musicianship is evident on every track. There's no room for slackers in a three-piece. Hendricks' guitar has an anthemic ring to it, alternately snarling and droning, with enough personality to lead but not so much it overwhelms. His workaday vocals (and I'll take them over showy vocal "stylings" any day) fit somewhere between Stephen Malkmus (without the coyness), and Nick Cave (with a head cold). No guile here. Caulen Kress's bass is self-effacing and spare, Jake Leger's drumming is versatile, consistent, and understatedly excellent.
This album won't bowl you over on first listen. But every song goes somewhere - even if it's nowhere grand, it's genuine. These are scenes from real lives, their lives. There's a lot of empathy here, whether contemplating the frustration of Black Flag's bass player in "Chuck Dukowski Was Confused", the plight of overweight lovers, or identifying with insecurity in "The Night Has No Eyes" and "I Think I Forgot Something... My Pants." "New Wave Situation" looks at delusions of individualism - the memorable couplet "Making do with approximations / It's just that or nothing" encapsulating what every rocker over 30 knows in his heart. The truth hurts. An incredible, poppy guitar riff opens "Thank God We Have Limes," a tribute to the power of positive drinking.
"The Jerks Win Again" is an album to hang out with, have a drink with, and contemplate your life with. A bittersweet pleasure, it's the everyday life you don't value until something really bad happens, the friend who moves away making you realize how close he was. Yeah, maybe "punk rock lost", but the Karl Hendricks Trio is past that now - and whatever this is, it's not an approximation.

User Reviews and Comments

Log In or Register to Rate Albums