THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Prominent Danish retro-rock group The Tremolo Beer Gut have resurfaced with their first new studio album in over 13 years. You Can’t Handle… features a slew of notable guests including founding member and now alumnus Sune Rose Wagner (Ravonettes), Jon Spencer (Blues Explosion, Heavy Trash, Pussy Galore), Cristina Martinez (Boss Hog), Evan D. Foster (Sonics, Boss Martians), Chris Barfield (Huntington Cads), and The Courettes among others.
These 16 tracks of instro-mental surf, twang, and rock ‘n’ roll bang that are crammed full of luscious, reverb-drenched hooks, furious fuzz and surfin’ snare are more than enough to please even the most discerning of Dick Dale, Davie Allan and Duane Eddy fans. The music draws inspiration from garage rock, the surfy side of the Pixies, indie rock, and spaghetti westerns. Also, TBG is quite cinematic and evokes film composers such as John Barry, Henry Mancini, Lalo Schifrin and Ennio Morricone as well as the music and sounds of Phil Spector, Brian Wilson and Joe Meek.
The album was recorded in August 2020 during a heatwave in Malmo’s famous Tambourine Studios, which is co-owned by TBG bassist Per Sunding. It was tracked on two-inch tape through a fine old Neve console — old-world style. Only good-looking mics were used, as usual.
The process was quite different from previous TBG recordings. The band entered the studio without having rehearsed the songs due to Covid-19. For each song, the band sat at a table, the originator of the particular song played his demo, and explained the chords and melody. Then they went into the live room of the studio, rehearsed, arranged it, then hit record and recorded it live. Some were nailed in two takes; some slaved over, requiring 10 takes in the sweltering heat (AC had to be turned off while recording, hence the title for one of the songs). During a later session, more guitars, vocals, organs, percussion, and theremin were recorded to tape.
Most special guests sent their contributions to the band from different parts of the world. In November, the album was mixed “live” (not on a computer) over three long-ass days with little sleep. In short: A very old-school, raw and spontaneous process relying heavily on the band’s two decades of playing together, touring the globe and building that mysterious telepathy that just makes a band into a great band — as well as the strength of the songs.
The Tremolo Beer Gut were founded by Jesper “Yebo” Reginal and Sune Rose Wagner in 1998 and have made quite a name for themselves ever since. After The Ravonettes took off in 2003, Sune had less time to play with TBG, so their producer and sound engineer The Great Nalna took over lead guitar duties. They’ve toured all over the world from the U.S.A. to Russia and back, and even opened the 60,000 capacity main stage of the Roskilde Festival back in 2000. Also, they were the first band to release a mono album in the new millenium. Unlike most bands, they’ve used the same photo for every studio album cover.
The Tremolo Beer Gut is Jengo (guitar), The Great Nalna (guitar), Sunding (bass) and Yebo (drums).”
