hot snakes hot snakes
Returning to eMusic with the same unassuming modus operandi that governed their entire career, the Hot Snakes are backbackback on the site, three albums of genuine perfection and one very good Peel Session (John Peel’s last, in fact) that pretty much defines everything that I love about music: staccato noise stark roughshod too fast slow songs too slow fast songs barking vocals lyrics that don’t matter reluctance cockiness “Salton City.” The one-two of Rick Froberg and John Reis played together in Drive Like Jehu (also perfection) and seeing them duet on guitars could be revelatory, one of the few times that something like “chops” actually mattered two bits to me, their playing so perfectly fused and balanced it was hard to tell where Reis’ ducktail ended and Froberg’s indie shag began.
“Salton City,” off of their debut, and “Lovebirds,” off of their finale, are by far my two favorite Hot Snakes tracks, both songs as much about form as melody and structure. They are deceptively slow — plodding, in fact — but balanced with an extraordinarily aggressive and energetic approach, and in that tension lies the whole secret to their (non) success. The Hot Snakes sound tough, more than anything — I’m reminded of a comment our Editor in Chief Michael Azerrad said about my kid brother’s band Tazer: “They sound like hoodlums.”
They aren’t, of course, but they are (relatively, for the space) old, and with that age has come a tremendous patience that enables them to lock into a riff/sound/mood/feel and ride it as long as they wish. They are done with audience pleasing (though that they do), playing fast (that’s for the kids) and playing hard (they do that, too). Instead, they play for themselves, like the grizzled record store dude who insists on playing 1940s Tahitian psych records at full blast in the store because that’s what he wants to hear — the kids can just deal.
And therein lies their demise, too, which sucks for all of us, but considering the output that resulted from their standoffishness, I can’t fault the Hot Snakes one bit.
(P.S. This means that, yes, Swami Records has returned to the site after going down a year or so back. Hallelujah!) (Also don’t hesitate to check out a lesser-known Swami release, the Penetrators. Sample a track here.)
Nice to see Swami back! I jumped on Hot Snakes’ Thunder Down Under (more radio sessions, recorded in Australia on their last tour) to round out my collection.
Awesome. I’m still bummed they broke up. I have to agree with you about “Salton City”, one of my favorites.
This makes me SO happy. Yay emusic!
Have to agree on the Penetrators. My fave swami releases are the 3 albums of long lost classic punk: Penetrators, Testors and Crime. Amazing stuff!
Before Jehu these folks were also in Pitchfork (yes this was long before the web site), whose output is also on Emu. Gotta love “Burn Pigs Burn” or “Rana.”
And the Snakes’ “If Credit’s What Matters I’ll Take Credit” is still one of the greatest opening tracks on any record. I listened to it in a record store wondering if it would be any good, and within 15 seconds I was floored.
I wonder if the internet has provided an accurate picture of how many people miss this band, because any random search on the web shows a wake of awed mutterings on people’s blogs that describe the band in hallowed terms. It’s like the collective whisper of the masses whilst describing a deity with mystical power.
I was fortunate enough to witness their last ever studio session at Triple J radio in Sydney, Australia, on their 2005 Australian tour – a friend knew some people and we were allowed into the studio to ‘hang out’ – I must say it is rather impossible to pinpoint what has made this band so good. There is literally nothing else in their presentation apart from their songs. It was simply four men, of nondescript appearance, turning up and plugging in. Had I attempted to pick their brains on an individual or group basis, it would still have been futile.
In 2007 we still talk of musicians of past eras with phenomenal abilities to capture the imaginations of so many people with their songs, as if they had sold their souls to the devil in exchange for this talent. What will we be saying in another 25 years about the Hot Snakes?
pitchfork were totally badass. i love em. thanks for mentioning them, greg.
and refugeenius, i agree on people always sleeping on the hot snakes. they never got that much attention from the press, maybe because they were older and not representing something “new” and “exciting” and blahblahblah? dudes have totally been shafted, that’s for sure.
p.s. i would kill for a hot snakes/shellac double bill.