The Genders play trashy rock heavily indebted to the hard rock and punk rock styles of the 1970s on
Rockin' in Ramallah, with a healthy doze of sleazy attitude. Some may say it's an overdose, what with lyrics like "I'm a sex offender, full of sweet surrender" and "Honey, take my hand and put it on your mammary gland," and song titles such as "Swastika on Your T-Shirt" and "When I Grow Up (I Wanna Be a Fuckin' Stoner)." There's quite a bit of the early-'70s
Rolling Stones in the music (especially in "Come On"), as well as some
Lou Reed street toughness (the title track),
the Troggs ("When I Grow Up (I Wanna Be a Fuckin' Stoner)" vamping on the "Wild Thing"/"Louie Louie" riff), and
New York Dolls. They could easily pass for an American band with retro influences, save some quite irreverent references to their Israeli homeland that presumably do not fly well with every political faction at home or abroad. "Horatio," for example, rides a tank in the West Bank, gets "his kicks with the settler chicks," and performs "cunnilingus in exchange for fellatio." The title track, meanwhile, speaks of whores in Hebron and junkies in Jenin, and a girl the singer doesn't see much of these days, what with 19 roadblocks between him and her. Controversial stuff no doubt, though it could be said they're just placing themselves in the tradition of
Lou Reed's kinky narratives, setting the action in a more contemporary and upsetting setting. Those unusual lyrical angles aside, it's a fairly derivative and smarmy effort, by fellows who don't seem to take much seriously, even subjects seen as taboo by much of politically correct society. ~ Richie Unterberger