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June 2 - 9, 2000

[Rock/Pop]

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Just a band, man

Trenton's Swingin' Neckbreakers wrestle with (cult) success

by Sean Glennon

Swingin' Neckbreakers You know what's great about Swingin' Neckbreakers frontman Tom Jorgensen? He's got exactly the right attitude. For despite his band's considerable cred within the garage-rock world, Jorgensen hasn't let it go to his head.

Certain realities have helped him stay humble -- namely, Jorgensen and his bandmates (drummer John Jorgensen and guitarist Jeff Jefferson) still need to work at their day jobs.

Every weekend, though, they drive from their home base, in Trenton, New Jersey, to gigs in cities along the East Coast. But rarely do the paychecks climb above the couple-hundred-bucks' mark. When you factor in travel and tech expenses, along with the time spent, these guys are working pretty cheap. "I figured it out one day: it's 13 cents an hour," Jorgensen says. "But it's no big deal. It's just a band. It's not a life-and-death thing. It would be nice to make a living at it, but right now we just do it for fun."

Perhaps that's the only approach that makes sense, Jorgensen points out.

"You've got a billion and one bands out there, and then there's maybe three percent of those that actually make it or even get to where they can make a decent living," he says. "We just wanna play music. That's really all I care about. . . . I had someone come up to me and say, `Live for Buzz [the Neckbreakers' 1993 debut disc, released by Telstar Records] is all I listen to.' That's pretty cool. If we can just have a cult following, that's enough for me."

And a cult following is exactly what the Neckbreakers have, which makes them about as successful as a garage-rock band can expect to be these days. After all, there's no radio support for the kind of hard-driving, back-to-the-basics, '60s-style, grind-it-out guitar music they make; and major labels seem more intent on signing the latest Korn-klones than on giving a damn about groups like the Neckbreakers.

So what? This music is good. It's got energy. It's got soul. It's made of sweat and spit and a fair amount of piss. And when it comes to real rock and roll, those are the only things that matter.

The band have proven how well they understand what's important through an ungodly number of live shows and four full-length albums. Their latest long-player, The Return of Rock (Telstar), was released in April.

Return represents a bit of a break from tradition. For out of 14 tracks, there's only one cover tune. A bit of a gamble, for obscure covers are almost a pre-requisite for hardcore garage fans. Subsequently, Jorgensen is a bit concerned about how longtime Neckbreakers fans will react. "I don't know if people who are core fans are gonna be disappointed," he says. "The purists of garage rock can be that way sometimes."

But the band didn't set out to placate the cognoscenti, he says -- they just wanted a good rock-and-roll record. Jorgensen, for his part, thinks they pulled it off. And he fires back at his would-be critics. "I think it's the most garagey stuff we've done, even though I wrote the songs," he says.

It's easy to agree: Return is a fine record, and one that finds the Neckbreakers in classic form. With each tune, the band renew their commitment to good old-fashioned rock and roll. One of the best tracks is "Hail to the Baron," a pounding, two-and-a-half-minute tribute to professional wrestler "Baron" Mikel Scicluna. This one could end up a classic, or at least a staple of other garage-bands' cover-tune repertoires.

Yet it's another Jorgensen-penned original, "I'm in a Band," that best sums up the Neckbreakers. "We've got a record/Ain't got no hits/Don't make no money/Don't get no chicks/We're out of gas/We need a place to crash/I'm in a band/Yeah, it's a laugh," Jorgensen sings. "I'm in a band/And he's in a band/She's in a band/Everybody's in a band."

Budding rockers, take note: if you can look at rock and roll that way and keep on going, that's when you know you've got your head on straight.

Swingin' Neckbreakers perform with Dimwit, Pathetics, and Downbeat 5 on June 3 at Dinny's. Doors open at 9 p.m. Tickets are $6. Call (508) 752-9667.

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