PowerSolo
Gig Seeker Pro

PowerSolo

| INDIE

| INDIE
Band Rock Alternative

Calendar

This band has not uploaded any videos
This band has not uploaded any videos

Music

Press


"PowerSolo opening for Jon Spencer's Heavy Trash"

To dismiss PowerSolo as pure goof rock is tempting. After all, the title of the Danish band's first full-length, It's RACEDAY ... And Your Pussy Is GUT!, offers little reason to take the band seriously; sure enough, portions of it can be labeled mere overdone silliness. But it's impossible not to see omething more in the band -- the group is the
aural equivalent of that friend whose sense of humor is sometimes supremely embarrassing, but who's worth sticking with nonetheless. It's RACEDAY ... is very un-Continental-sounding swamp rock. A good portion of it sounds akin to something out of Old Time Relijun's catalog, or an update of the earliest rock 'n' roll, just after the blues had met country. Lyrically, the three-man
outfit takes on all things American with what seems a mix of jeering mockery, fascinated admiration, and puzzling absurdism. Some songs ("Hillbilly Child," "NASCAR") smack of straight-up satire and are ultimately a bit dull. But there are gems, too: The album's opening cut, "Baby, You Ain't Lookin' Right," is a straightforward great rock song, and the country ballad "Broken Wings" is a clever
and ambiguous parody.

PowerSolo trucks into town Tue., Sept. 18, supporting Jon Spencer's Heavy Trash, the band's labelmates on Crunchy Frog. The redneck jokes might feel tired now and then
(or maybe I'm miscalculating -- the show is right down the street from the Double Wide Grill, after all), but there's something to this band that goes beyond the shtick and will likely gain a good bit of attention, with or without the goof factor. - Pittsburg City Paper


"Powersolo – Egg"

Fuzzy, pompous, raunchy to the point of being overbearing and a dead ringer for a punk band covering the theme music to a Gidget movie: Yup, three more of Jon Spencer’s disciples have
been allowed to make an album. So, in other words, if you ever get sick of listening to The Blues Explosion, Boss Hog, Pussy Galore or Heavy Trash, here’s more of the same, except
with the faintest trace of a Danish accent. Which is not to say it’s bad, mind you; after all, Spencer would never stand for anything you
couldn’t blast from a car stereo whilst cruising for sexy chicks wearing aviators and a bomber jacket. SE
- The Reykjavik Grapevine Online


"Heavy Trash, PowerSolo At The Rock And Roll Hotel"

Maybe it's because I haven't seen him perform in such a small venue in such a long time or maybe it's because Blues Explosion hasn't been around in a while (though Spencer Dickinson did visit last fall), but this Heavy Trash thing seems to have rejuvenated
Jon Spencer. Punk Elvis was back in full-preacher mode when his honky tonk band took the stage at the Rock and Roll Hotel Wednesday.
It was like seeing Spencer front the Blues Explosion 10 years ago, though it was unusual to see him playing an acoustic guitar for an entire set. His familiar calls -- "ladies and gentlemen," "thank you very much," "Yeah!" -- were ever present, as was his rallying cry, "Rock and rollllll!" Also in place were his struts, his oral fixation with the mic (lips all around the head of that thing), and his familiar pattern of singing a line, dropping near to a knee and popping right back up for the next line. It
was a shame and a surprise, though, that the room was only at about a third of capacity. Those who did make the trek to H Street were rewarded and whipped into a near frenzy.

But it's not just Spencer's band, and any rejuvenation is at least in part due to the rest of the band, former Speedball Baby guitarist and Madder Rose bassist Matt Verta-Ray on lead guitar and opener PowerSolo filling out the lineup on baritone guitar, drums and upright bass. These musicians have a history of writing rootsy songs -- country, blues, rockabilly -- but
playing them punk and full of humor. And they've all rubbed elbows with sleazy R&B outsider "The Black Godfather" Andre Williams, and it shows.

And PowerSolo's opening set showed why Spencer would seek them out for support. Both its R&B/soul-punk and its two guitars and drums lineup are a nod to Spencer's Blues Explosion and their shared affection for hill-country blues. But frontman Kim 'Kix' Jeppesen has a much goofier stage presence than Spencer, opting for the facial tics, clucks and barks of a trailer trash psychobilly rather than the cool, swagger of Sun Records stars. Jeppesen engaged the crowd, often
bringing his goofiness down from the stage. His band often thrashed through their songs, but at the same time, the roots -- the blues and country and soul and R&B -- remained the focus of the music, rather than merely providing the sketch of the
song and a taking a backseat to noisy rock and roll.
- www.nbc4.com


"Powersolo"

Tunes about truckin,’ fuckin’, and NASCAR, mopey C&W, amphetamine-laced rockabilly, and a jewel-case picture of the band
hanging off a tractor in the middle of a farm field. Where else could Powersolo call home than Aarhus, Denmark?
There is one point, three songs into Powersolo’s It’s Raceday . . . And Your Pussy Is Gut (Crunchy Frog) where you notice these guys aren’t good ol’ boys after all, and that’s on “Mr. Suit,” when vocalist Kim Kix pronunciates “problem” with a distinctly Danish accent. Other than that, these guys (Kix, guitarist Atomic Child, and drummer Jcbenz) sound like they could be from Mississippi, Georgia, Texas, or any number of states we identify with this kind of dusty, bluesy twang. They go even farther south than that on “Juanito,” a mariachi song about a sexed-up fella named Juanito who likes riding his donkey and
“fucking all the chicas from east to west.” The Powersolo boys might appear to be be infatuated with subjects Americans think are strictly red, white, and blue like Dale Earnhardt Jr. and burnin’ doughnuts in “NASCAR” and truck stops and highway 69 on “Truckin’,” but they also don’t try to hide their roots: the group call their sound “B-movie donkey punk from Denmark.”
Andre Williams apparently didn’t give two shits where they came from. The iconic musician lends vocals to “Hillbilly Child” where he urges listeners to “get hip to Powersolo” and later unleashes one of the oddest lines ever put to record: “‘Cause nobody knows where the nose goes, when the doors are closed." - Illinois Entertainer


"Powersolo: It has to be fun to make music"

It all began in quite a strange manner. It started with a guy who gate-crashed parties and concerts in Århus. With him he carried a kick drum, a hihat and a guitar. And on top of it all he was in a damn good mood!

The guy’s name is Kim Jeppesen, and even though he wasn’t invited he showed up the strangest places and began to play. Today Kim is the lead singer in the band Powersolo who closed down Roskilde Festival as the very last band Sunday night. And it is a job that requires some of the same guts that Kim had as a gate-crashing one-man-band in Århus.

– We think it was quite honourable. Some might say that the festival is closed when Orange Stage isn’t playing anymore – but that’s wrong. There was a very special atmosphere. When a concert ends at Roskilde, you can always hear noise from some other place. When we stopped playing, it was all quiet. The birds began to sing and the sun showed up, says Kim Jeppesen.

To smell each other
Powersolo’s concert at Roskilde Arena is so far the biggest culmination in a career that really speeded up when the song "Juanito" became a big hit on Danish National Radio’s P3. Still, Kim Jeppesen wasn’t afraid to get lost on the big stage, Roskilde Arena.

– We just piled up so we could smell each other. There really wasn’t that big a difference between this concert and other concerts we play at small venues. But we thought a lot about how to stay awake in the hours before the concert, says Kim Jeppesen who was saved by the natural nervousness and excitement which "appear a couple of hours before every gig".

Inspired by American music
Excitement and joy fill a big spot in Powersolo’s universe. The band moves ahead by improvising and they do what they find funny themselves. We don’t want too much framework, Kim Jeppesen says.

– If you’re writing songs in January, you might feel completely different about them when you have to record in August. All I know about our next album is that it will be different. It might be soul or maybe it will be more inspired by hip hop, says Kim Jeppesen who admits that the band has but one fixed place, American music.

– It’s difficult to say where we get it from. No matter which band I have been a part of, our roots have always been American, says Kim Jeppesen who is called "the president" by the other band members.

– I write the songs. I’m the one with the ideas but naturally we agree on most of them. If we didn’t cooperate, it wouldn’t be fun for the others. And we will keep doing it for a while longer. We will keep doing it as long as it’s fun. It has to be fun to make music, otherwise it will just be plain boring to listen to, Kim Jeppesen finishes.

By Sarah-Iben Almbjerg

- Roskilde Festival


"PowerSolo - YEEHAA (in danish)"

Danske PowerSolos debut på Crunchy Frog er et skrupskørt mix af garage-rock, blues, country, punk, surf og rockabilly, der er lige så svært at beskrive i ord, som det er at formidle et billede af Salvador Dali gennem stepdansens ædle kunst. De oplagte sammenligningspunkter vil være The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion eller Beck, men PowerSolo er andet og mere end bare en dansk udgave af disse kunstnere.

Udstyret med masser af rumklang, b-filmsattitude og et legende, men også kærligt, forhold til den amerikanske musikkultur leverer trioen i løbet af albummets 36 minutter den ene rå og skæve perle efter den anden.

Med frontmand Kim Kix's gennemført skizofrene vokal i forgrunden formår PowerSolo uden problemer og med stor autenticitet at spænde fra manisk bluespunk på 'Mr. Suit', over ualmindeligt funky headboppers som 'Kat Nazer' og 'Fertilizer Baby' til mere countryinfluerede numre som 'Oak Tree Girl' og 'Hillbilly Child' - det sidste med en veloplagt gæstevokal fra blueslegenden André Williams.

'It's Raceday and Your Pussy Is Gut!!!' er kort sagt et
fantastisk velskrevet, stilfuldt og gennemført album fra et lettere vanvittigt band, og man må konstatere, at Crunchy Frog med PowerSolo igen har signet et band, der lugter langt væk af
international succes. - Soundvenue.com


"Powersolo : Tractorpullin' Kicks For Hellraisin' Hicks!"

After Godless Wicked Creeps psychobilly bubble sadly burst Powersolo was born. The strange entity came crushin' into the Danish scene with odd formular of twangy C&W, rootsy rock'n'roll, rockabilly and a....eh....rather perculiar sense of homegrown child-like humor.
Their "Lemon Half Moon" debut album of 2001 probably suffered a bit from too many infantile in-jokes makin' them look a not too serious novelty act in the eyes of many. They even had a giant donkey on stage! But Powersolo didn't give a damn, they toured on like hell, winning skeptics over by displaying an impressive range of genres and musical abilities and they had that crucial knack for writing catchy tunes. Their brand new "It's Raceday And Your Pussy Is Gut" album is minor masterpiece and vastly superior to their debut, "Lemon Half Moon", the album even has American R&B legend Andre Williams singin' on a track, what a scoop! 2004 seems to be the year Powersolo will break into a much broader audience, so I had a little chat with Kim Kix (lead vocals, guitar, bass) about the upcoming world domination. Other Powersolo hillbillies; Jcbenz (drums) and Atomic Child (guitars, bass).


LC: What are your influences, the press material lists Beck (!?) but I think you come across as a mix of Southern Culture On The Skids and Hasil Adkins?

Kim: Beck is just one of a thousand ways to describe a fracture of PowerSolo's sound and is maybe a name more people can relate to than Hasil Adkins or S.C.O.T.S. But we're are much inspired by the crazy universe of Hasil Adkins, Legendary Stardust Cowboy and even a bit of the S.C.O.T.S. I get in trouble every god damn time I'm asked to explain PowerSolo's sound, ha, ha..People sometime compare our sound with names and bands I've never heard of or never listened to. That's interesting!

LC: I think "Its Raceday..." is a major improvement over your debut album, the music's better and the humor works A LOT better on this one?

Kim: Thank you, so do I. The first album was, like a naked ass in the cold wind, for many people. It was in fact a demo that got released on a label. Ever heard that excuse??? In fact that's the truth. I was touring almost constantly with the Creeps at that time so I thought - Well what the hell, let's get the fucker out and se what happens. Never think that way!!!!! Anyway this little bastard has brought to where we are now and actually got a good handful of good reviews and it's still selling. It's got a distribution deal in France a few months ago and got great reviews. They fuckin' love it??!" MERCI!

LC: Andre Williams sings on "Hillbilly Child", and he did a cover of "Stupid Little Bitch, how did you meet?

Kim: Last time Andre toured in Europe we got to play with him in our hometown Aarhus. I've been a long time fan of his music and I just wanted to meet him and play our songs for him. We got an opening act and a bottle of booze - and after the show he came down and gave Bo and I a big greasy hug and a kiss on the cheek and said. "You two brothers are two hell of some good kickers - I wanna records that "Stupid Little Bitch" song for my next record!"
We couldn't believe it! We hung out and talked about music, fortune records, Ike Turner (He's long time friend at Motown), Detroit and the booze - he'd got soo much to tell.

LC: Helle Hellcat of The Untamed sings backing on "Don't Hate Me Baby", her probably biggest vocal accomplishment yet?

Kim: Yeah! We needed a hysterical woman for that track! Ha, ha…It was fun. She came to the studio with her big belly, she was pregnant in 9th. Month. We were a bit scared that she'd deliver the baby when she sang the last part of the song where she really goes off! The song came out just fine and so did her baby I heard. Bless her.

LC: Your new hit music video, "Juanito", is made by the same guy who did the cover of Godless Wicked Creeps' "Smile" album?

Kim: That's right. He did it in record time for some 150kroners in material and help from good friend and his girlfriend Sarah. Tor Fruergaard is WICKED! He also stars as "Juanito" in the video.



LC: Any major change of being on Crunchy Frog than ESP/Kick Music?

Kim: Major change for us because we finally got a dedicated label. We really feel like part of the family at Crunchy. Hat off for those guys, they deserve all the success they have!

LC: Is Siberian Mad Dogs history?

Kim: No, the Mad Dogs is the playground for my inner psychobilly or rockabilly and I still love to slap my old dawghouse bass, there's some good slapping on "It's Raceday…"too. We play shows now and then. When there's time or somebody asks us to. And playing together with Alex is a fuckin blast!

LC: What do your old psychobilly friends think of Powersolo?

Kim: Some think it's really cool and some don't care to much….

LC: What the craziest thing you've experienced on the road, Spinal Tap-worthy?

Kim: That might have been in 2002 on the PowerSolo tour in Europe. Bo and me had been driving my old Volvo 242 for 11 hours or so, coming from south of France heading for Gent in Belgium. We were late and suddenly the exhaust pipe broke. It broke by the manifold and therefore it was impossible to go on unless it was fixed. So I got under the car and Bo was handing me the tools, a hammer and a screwdriver! I twisted, I hammered for one and a half hour to make the broken piece fit into the what there was left of the exhaust and I took a guitar strap for suspension and a e-string to tighten the rear silencer. The only thing I needed to do was putting a piece of rubber between the pipe and the bottom of the car so it wouldn't bang against it when we rode over a bump. So I took the biggest screwdriver I had and forced in between the bottom of the car and the pipe to make a gap for the rubber piece and the motherfuckin' screwdriver slipped hand hit me right in the forehead and made a deep hole. The blood was pouring out and I was cursing and kickin the car so that a couple of kids who'd been watching the hole thing from afar eating ice cream, started crying and ran over to their parents sitting in their Mercedes Benz. After that I was so tired that Bo had to take the wheel and as we were three hours late with 150 kilometres left he just stepped on it. When we arrived to Gent we couldn't find the damn club and in confusion Bo passed a red light, and thank to the Lord above, two cars coming from each side of the cross road just missed us. It was SO close! After that day and that incident we take it more easy on the road. That WAS a road story, wasn't it!? Ha, ha, ha.

LC: Future plans, anything to add?

Kim: Thank you and I wish you all the best luck in the future. See ya in the contray…..

- Lowcut Magazine


Discography

BLOODSKINBONES - [cd/lp] Crunchy Frog Recordings
2009

Himmerland Orig. soundtrack, DD, CRUNCHY FROG SOUNDTRACKS
2008

Split 10" with Heavy Trash [CD/10"]
Rhythm Island
2008

Egg - [CD/LP]
Crunchy Frog Recordings
2006

Snot Dum - [CD-EP/12" EP]
Bad Frog Recordings
2005

A Decade Of Crunchy Music...[Compilation]
Crunchy Frog Recordings
2004

IT'S RACEDAY...and your pu..y is GUT!! [CD/LP]
Crunchy Frog Recordings
2004

PowerSolo vs. The Real Moneymakers [7" EP]
The Mastermind Recording Company
2004

Got a sacko' dope hidden in my ass [7" EP]
The Mastermind Recording Company
2002

Lemon Half Moon [CD]
E.S.P Recordings
2001

Aarhus Aandergrund [Compilation]
Beostaer Records
1999

Videostreams: Plasma Crystal Dope, Knucklehead, Mr. Suit, Juanito, Oak Tree Girl, Kat Nazer and Mean Ol' Cat, Knucklehead and Plasma Crystal Dope.

Photos

Bio

What do you think of when you hear the name "PowerSolo"? 'Round Denmark way, the moniker apparently conjures the trash-rock psychobilly legacy of Hasil Adkins, the Cramps, and Southern Culture on the Skids. PowerSolo may be a power trio, but in this case, the prog-metal acrobatics of Rush are replaced with something they call "donkey punk." Two tremolo-loving chicken-scratch rail-thin guitarists Kim Kix and the Atomic Child and drummer JC Benz playing his trade on just a snare, bass drum, and floor tom. It would've been well enough had Powersolo hailed from the Land of NASCAR, but the fact that this exercise in B-movie punk-a-billy is coming from Aarhus, Denmark, adds plenty of delicious cognitive dissonance.

Oh yeah! Now what?? Yep the Danish Leather Zombie cracksmokin’, heroin shootin’ combo PowerSolo is what everybody fears! Two unpredictable brothers with glue in the pocket and a pair of scissors in the lung... and what’s worse. Yes we’re talkin’ about the Atomic Child and Mr. Kim Kix. They’re skinnier than the skinniest motherfucker you ever saw, but they have more bone than the fattest motherfucker that ever fucked you!! The nerdy birdy drummer JC. Benz with the motto: “I love cheep”. Yes he is insane and he cuts his Samson wig twice a week just to keep him cool, calm and collected. YES! Mr. Kim Kix, The Atomic Child and JC Benz are the real deal, mothers!

PowerSolo was formed back in '96 by Kim 'Kix' Jeppesen, in Aarhus. A midsize city in Jutland, Denmark – the land of the great Vikings and Hamlet. With a beat-up guitar, homemade maracas, a comb, a drummachine, a "cigarette amplifier", a plastic microphone, a delay pedal and an old 4-track tape recorder by his side, he recorded more than 50 songs from '96-'98. With role models such as Hasil "Haze" Adkins, Johnny Cash, Bo Diddley, Carl Perkins, Legendary Stardust Cowboy, Link Wray, The Meteors, The Cramps and Kim Kix's deep roots in rockabilly, he adapted the raw and simple expression. Rockabilly, country, blues and surf mixed with punkrock, were the power that should generate the one-man band...or was it?

In late '98 changes were due... PowerSolo moved on from performing at small happenings, buskin', and doin' "Crazy man show at your best buddies' drinkin' party". But in order to go beyond just charming women with severe drinking problems, it had to kick some serious ass! The call was easy. Bo 'Atomic Child' Jeppesen (Kim Kix's kid brother) stepped in as the drummer and new member of PowerSolo.

The hot summer of '02 brought changes yet again...PowerSolo wanted even more power! They needed a second guitarist and searched all over the world, but only Erihg Klabton was available!?! In lack of guitarmen, Atomic Child switched instrument --from drums to guitar--, and Jens ‘JC Benz' Soendergaard took over the barrels. With his big hair, long-time love for Slayer and experience from his other band 'The Broken Beats', JC Benz brought energy, power and new inspiration....

Towards the signing on Crunchy Frog Recordings in 2003, PowerSolo had been rockin' all over, performing with artists such as; Detroit legend André "Mr Rhythm" Williams, T-Model Ford, Bob Log III, The Hives, New Bomb Turks, Billy Childish and Junior Senior. In the spring of '02, they successfully toured France, Germany, Holland and Belgium, and furthermore performed at Roskilde Festival and Midtfyns Festival. Not even The US could avoid PowerSolo. In March '03, they performed at SXSW in Austin, TX resulting in great reviews. Local newspaper Austin360 wrote: "probably the best country-porn act at SXSW".

On March 8th 2004 PowerSolo released their second album entitled "It’s Raceday…And Your Pussy is GUT!!” on Crunchy Frog in Denmark. The album, guest staring legendary André Williams, was followed by massive touring in Scandinavia together with Bob Log III. At the highly acclaimed SPOT Festival in Aarhus, Denmark, PowerSolo gave a killer concert and afterwards the band was rated “Best Act” by the entire French media delegation – in front of the 92 other bands on the bill..

Through out June ’04 PowerSolo played in 19 German cities convincing an ever-growing crowd of their irresistible rock’n’roll. While conquering Germany, first single of the album; “Juanito”, made it as that year's psychedelic summer hit on Danish National Radio getting maximum airplay. France also got it’s share of PowerSolo, as they performed at Transmusicales which brought them back for a tour in April and October 2005, promoting the release of “It’s Raceday…” throughout France.

In 2005, PowerSolo performed at SxSW and CMJ Music Marathon, New York, where legendary Jon Spencer got a first hand experience of PowerSolo, resulting in a support tour for The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion in Scandinavia and Great Britain. PowerSolo and Jon Spencer also became label mates as Crunchy Frog, signed the rockabilly duo Heavy Trash, which consists of Jon Spencer and Matt Verta-Ray of Speedball Baby. Kim Kix and J