Random Records with Steve O

Hanson Brothers - Sudden Death

Steve O - October 2, 2013

Sudden Death

In honor of the start of the NHL season this week, Random Records is all about hockey. Which means the Hanson Brothers! Now would be a good time to mention that if you haven’t seen the movie Slapshot, drop what you are doing right now and go watch it. The Hanson Brothers obviously take their name from that movie. It’s the side project of the guys from Nomeansno, playing Ramones-core all about hockey and beer. Sudden Death was their second record, released in 1996.

It should be pretty obvious what kind of music you’ll find on Sudden Death. While Nomeansno tend to have rather intellectual songs, the Hanson Brothers are juvenile. Musically, they sound like every Ramones-core band. Lyrically, it’s beer, girls and hockey. The best part of the Hanson Brothers is all the hockey references. Sudden Death features songs like “Stick Boy,” “Third Man In,” “Rink Rat,” “Danielle (She Don’t Care About Hockey),” “He Looked a lot Like Tiger Williams” and their version of “The Hockey Song” (see below). Yeah, hockey’s great.

If you enjoy this, check out the other Hanson Brothers records, Gross Misconduct and My Game. Also check out the Hextalls, a band that does basically the same thing as the Hanson Brothers.