Canadian foursome attracting some Hot Hot Heat...
THE hotly-tipped Canadian funk punk band, Hot Hot Heat, released their
debut single, Bandages, on March 24, following months of airplay on
the likes of XFM, which has seen the track described by NME as 'the best rock
song you can dance to since Hotel Yorba'.
At this early stage, the band - comprised of Steve Bays (vocals, keyboards),
Dante DeCaro (guitar), Paul Hawley (drums) and Dustin Hawthorne (bass) - have
been favourably compared to The Clash, The Cure, XTC and Talking Heads.
Kerrang! has tipped them as a ‘Face Of 2003’, declaring 'it wouldn’t
be beyond the realms of possibility to see Hot Hot Heat nestling up alongside
The Strokes, The Hives and their skinny-hipped retro-rock brothers in arms
in the upper reaches of the charts over the next 12 months'.
The band originate from Victoria, at the southern tip of Vancouver Island.
Hot Hot Heat naturally made a lot of noise early on – punks with synthesisers
instead of guitars in what Steve Bays describes as a ‘technical synth-pop
math-rock band’.
When that became more constraining than liberating they changed. Their singer
left, Dante DeCaro was recruited on guitar and the microphone pressed into
the hands of keyboardist Bays. Emphasis changed, melody came to the fore,
people danced and it was, above all else, fun.
In April 2002, Sub Pop released Hot Hot Heat’s Knock Knock Knock
EP - five songs in 16 minutes, produced in part by Death Cab For Cutie’s
Chris Walla. The band toured, playing shows with Les Savy Fav, Radio 4 and
Pretty Girls Make Graves. And, similarly disaffected youth, bored to tears
with the arms-crossed prim restraint of perhaps the dullest generation ever
to grace North American rock clubs, came out in droves with their dancing
shoes on.
In May 2002, Hot Hot Heat headed into Vancouver’s Mushroom Studios to
record a new album with the legendary Jack Endino (Bleach, Nirvana).
The result, Make Up The Breakdown (released here on March 24) replicates
the breathless excitement of the band’s live show; 10 tracks of complex,
rhythmic art-punk.
Bandages is the first fruits of this session, an art-rock new-wave
anthem with a mad bit of reggae stuck in the middle.
More than New Wave revivalists with an innate talent for catchy songs, Hot
Hot Heat blend angular post-punk with danceable pop, making a good case for
punks to get on the good foot.
RELATED STORIES: Click here
for a review of Bandages...
Click here to listen to the single
in our AV Room...
Click here for a review of the debut
album, Make Up The Breakdown...
RELATED LINKS: Click here
for the Hot Hot Heat website...
Click here
to order the album, Make Up The Breakdown...
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