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Story by Charlotte Whitelock
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’.
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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.
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