Revolting Cocks Bio

Most franchises have a face that goes along with their trademark name. Case in point - Babe Ruth and the New York Yankees, Ronald McDonald and McDonald's, Sean Connery and James Bond, and of course, Al Jourgensen and the Revolting Cocks. Since their formation in 1983, Jouregensen has been the only constant member of the popular underground industrial-dance band - along the way, issuing such classic releases as 1985's BIG SEXY LAND, 1990's BEERS, STEERS, AND QUEERS, and 1993's LINGER FICKEN' GOOD, among others. After a hiatus of nearly a decade, the group which is also known as RevCo rose from the ashes in the early 21st century, issuing such albums as 2006's star-studded COCKED & LOADED (which included appearances by members of ZZ Top, Cheap Trick, the Butthole Surfers, and Jello Biafra), and most recently 2008's SEX-O OLYMPIC-O.

But like all great franchises, there comes a time when the chairman must infuse it with new blood, and that's what Jourgensen is doing with SEX-O OLYMPIC-O. While still remaining the band's driving force, he explains, " I'm starting the process of turning RevCo over to a younger generation - much like Menudo does or Blue Man Group. I'm kind of franchising it out. It started with me, Luc Van Acker, and Richard 23 from Front 242. There were three of us, and now, I've found these other three young knuckleheads, that I think capture the true essence and spirit of being 'a Revolting Cock,' if you will."

And as evidenced by SEX-O OLYMPIC-O, the three lads that Jourgensen is passing the RevCo torch to - singer Josh Bradford, guitarist Sin Quirin, and keyboardist / electronic specialist Clayton Worbeck - are certainly qualified for their newly appointed promotions. In fact, according to Bradford, his and Worbeck's introduction to the wild world of RevCo was one of life's true miracles. "Clay and I were Mormons up in Canada. We came down doing our missions - on our bikes with bike helmets to El Paso. We knocked on Al's door - he was drinking, and he was like, 'Come on in!' We told him we were in a band [Stayte], and we ended up staying at his house for like two weeks. When we came out, Stayte was signed to 13th Planet and we were in RevCo."

On the other hand, Quirin's entry into RevCo came about a more traditional way. "I first hooked up with Al through our booking agent, John Finberg - around 2004. We remained in contact for about a year, then when it was time for him to put the RevCo touring line-up together for the 2006 tour, he had called and asked if I wanted to play guitar and come on board. That's how I got into RevCo, and then from that point on, that's how I got into Ministry, and here I am. Working with Al is a blast. I've learned so much in the past few years, just doing these past three albums, than I have in my entire career. As a producer, I've learned things that I hope to apply from now on. And more than that, he's a very encouraging person in the studio. He lets you do your thing, and he gives you your freedom. But at the same time, he pushes you in a very positive way."

As with most great rock n' roll bands, an eccentric and unpredictable singer is high on the checklist, and Bradford certainly fits the necessary frontman requirements for RevCo. "Recording vocals and writing, I was by myself, and trying to dig into the more demented side of the psyche," explains the singer. "I'm really glad I did it by myself, because I don't think Al would want me to be in the band anymore if he was there when I was trying to write the songs! Half the time, I was naked." Worbeck also points out Bradford's affinity for unconventional and daring lyrical topics as evidenced by such album standouts as "Hookerbot 3000" (a little ditty about 'robot hookers'), "Cou'sins'" (a track which sees the singer profess an attraction to a relative), and "Lewd Ferrigno" (a tribute of sorts to a certain muscular actor, who was often drawn to the color green). "Josh recorded a lot of these vocals in his apartment really thin walls with no soundproofing. He was tracking with headphones on, yelling these bizarre phrases that are in the song at the top of his lungs, in the middle of the night. If you think about it, the neighbors weren't hearing music, all they were hearing was him yelling these bizarre lyrics. His neighbors must think he's insane."

Despite SEX-O OLYMPIC-O being RevCo's most cohesive and focused album to date, it turns out that the band members wrote and recorded separately for the most part. "We have two houses that are right around the corner from each other," explains Jourgensen. "One is a pre-production house, and the other one is the main mix house. I'd send over stuff to the mix house on the days off that I had, where I wasn't working on other projects. I would lay my stuff over their stuff, send it back to the pre-production house, they'd add some more, then they'd send it back. It would go back and forth, and then we'd start a new song, and it would go back and forth. And meanwhile, whatever went back and forth between the two houses would then get sent to Josh's house, and he'd sing lyrics over there at his little pre-production studio at his house. Then it would come back to me, and I'd mix it over at the mix house. It was bouncing back and forth a lot. Josh lives about eight blocks from me the pre-production house is literally less than a half block away from the main house. It was out of necessity, because I was in the middle of three different projects at the same time I was doing the RevCo album."

With Jourgensen having recently completed Ministry's final world tour, the longtime bandleader has been focusing on producing (Prong, Ascension of The Watchers, a Ministry live album, Bradford and Clayton's band, Stayte, False Icons (Ministry/Killing Joke keyboardist John Bechdel's project), etc.) and running his record label, 13th Planet Records. "Well, I've run a label before - I did Wax Trax! in the '80s, so it's not like I'm jumping into this completely naive. The whole landscape of the music industry is going to shit and it's in the toilet, but we seem to be doing pretty good, because we're not a bunch of idiots like these major labels. We're very internet-friendly, we give a lot of excess stuff for kids to download, and we make our packaging good enough so that people actually go out and buy the CD. We have a really good internet plan with the Orchard for our label we're just getting it going. And that's one of the reasons that I've put Ministry to bed so I can devote a lot more time to producing bands on my label and releasing a lot more stuff. Like right now, we have six bands, but that's going to increase incrementally over the next few years.

And on an album that he considers a career highlight ("I think SEX-O OLYMPIC-O is the best album - including Ministry, Pailhead, Lard . . . anything - I've ever done, period"), does Jourgensen have any golden memories of recording SEX-O OLYMPIC-O to one day tell the grandkids about? "What memories? We got drunk off our ass! A memory of what? 'Oh yeah, that's the one I puked carrots up on! That one, oh no, that's the one I puked up bile and blood.' I mean, I don't know, what memories? You just do it you work, you have fun, and it's done!"