HOT SNAKES c/d

I have no idea if RFTC are consciously avoiding being "Too Rockabilly or Too Garage or Too Punk or Too Boogie or Too Ska," but maybe they're trying to be, to paraphrase F. Scott Fitzgerald, a "well-rounded" band, which is ultimately way too limiting. Oh, and their fans do get excited about them, obviously, as the whole Rocket tattoo deal shows.

John's motif of "taking the rock n' roll ride to the edge of explosion only to take a step back when it beckons" has been a cursing and blessing, I think. We've gotten a lot of different side projects and a lot of great music out of it, I believe. (Why does no one mention the Sultans or Back Off Cupids?), but perhaps sacrificing making that one little dent that no one will ever forget?

Why Chuck doesn't like RFTC: 1)he don't wanna 2)bassist Petey X is indeed the least effective musician in the band, a big qualm for Mr. Wiggle Hips 3)their rhythm is closer to (in Chuck's Stairway words) Big Black's "jerking" of the beat than most garage rock. It's headbanging music, up-down-up-down. Like Ned, I have to MOVE to it when I hear it, usually by headbanging, pogoing, air-guitaring or pummeling my legs with my fists (leg-drumming?). But I can't really twist to it. But I can't twist to White Light/White Heat either, and he claims to like that...

Easy-way-out-don't-know-what-they're-talking-about critics oft mention bands that LOOK like RFTC when detailing the band's "influences," which is likely to piss off a real hep-cat-the-groove's-where-it's-at guy like Chuck. If the band didn't dress like a soul revue, he'd probably leave 'em alone (in fact, he might like 'em more if they looked like Die Kruezen but had a horn section, just cuz it'd be so perverse). I appreciate Chuck pointing out the lack of BOTTOM in RFTC's stuff, but I think he misses how much they've got on the TOP. There's treble hooks flying ALL OVER THE PLACE in their music, and Camp X-Ray, like Yancey said, is where they finally get as much meat in their lyrics as in their sound (though "Outsider" is painfully incoherent). Though I still feel Chuck would also give them a break if their lyrics were sex-slobber or life-gets-you-thoughtfully-cranky Dag Nasty/Everclear stuff, you know, something he could IDENTIFY with. RFTC may just be too inchoate-or-welladjusted for him p.o.v. wise.

And I did some J. Geils vs. RFTC spinning yesterday. Freeze-Frame holds up ("Centerfold" is a fine example of how UNSTOPPABLE RFTC would be if the rhythm section was swingier - THE BEST band rather than one of the best), but RFTC wipes the floor with the Atlantic best ofs. Punk inspired, well, BOTH bands to tighten up. And your unproven claims of minstrelsy seem pretty weird coming from a guy who'd rather have us listening to Peter "Whammer Jammer" Wolf.

Yeah, let me second all that. Been a denizen of the RFTC mailing list that Donut Bitch runs for years now, and they're a fine and dandy bunch over there, passionate about their music (including a lot of the bands that Chuck likes in comparison!) and friendly as hell at the shows even while everything's going nuts. Never had a mosher land on my head at one of them, for a start.

Yeah, what he said! (He said while listening to "No Hands.")

HOT SNAKES

Yes.

do people like night marchers and/ or obits?

No

without the bold red font and the exclamation points it just feels like something is lacking.

so i just learned that rick froberg made his national television debut with the obits on the jimmy fallon program two weeks ago. they played "fake kinkade" and it was kinda boring. then jimmy fallon came out and called them "my brothers" (cause he's from brooklyn, i guess).

I think "LAX" pops into my head on a weekly basis

L.A.! L.A.!

something about the oppressive low end on suicide invoice is so weird. i like it, but it's a genuinely weird sounding rock record, like it was mastered using some secret NASA-grade technology and now as a result there's this totally out of control, artificial-sounding mix when played on common peoples feeble home stereo systems. juxtaposing it with freakin melodica on the first track only enhances the weirdness.

automatic midnight is sorta the same way, but it's so much more lo-fi that its brutal mix sounds natural by comparison. still, even that album has the distinctive honor of slowly but surely eviscerating the stock stereo speakers in my poor old honda.

Salton City!

never as big a fan of these snakes as i feel i should have been. "oppressive" is an OTM way to describe their sound. that suffocating sonic blanket coupled with froberg's unrelenting hostility makes for an uncomfortable listening space, unless i'm in exactly the right mood. have similar problems w early mastodon. makes me feel like that woman with a boot on her head.

but salton city is a jam for life

true, easily one of the top 10 songs to ever rhyme gasoline with deir yassin

Clearly not as good as Yank Crime was, but really good nonetheless.

This band, I mean.

Still listen to the three records all the time.

discovered that I never got suicide invoice for some reason. *rectifies*

Word is that Rick Froberg is dealing with a viral heart infection right now. Godspeed, sir!

good post, del

Couple new tracks and a new album on the way

https://hotsnakes.bandcamp.com/track/i-shall-be-free
https://hotsnakes.bandcamp.com/track/checkmate

oh that Poison Ivy/RS Howard guitar always works for me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hS1nvjW-7DM

here's the bag digest of what John, Rick, and Jason (Gar had something more important to do) slipped into their bags when they visited the now-closed am03ba h0llyw00d in early M@rch.

• James Brown Love Power Peace: Live at the Olympia, Paris, 1971 (1992)
• Bo Diddley Another Dimension (1971)
• Battalion of Saints Second Coming (1984)
• Ethnic Folkways Library Music of Indonesia (1950)
• Freddie King Let's Hide Away and Dance Away with Freddie King (1961)
• Bert Jansch Rosemary Lane (1971)
• Bert Jansch L.A. Turnaround (1974)
• Parliament Osmium (1970)
• The Parliaments Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (2018)
• Träd Gräs och Stenar Gärdet 12.6.1970 (1996)
• The Taj Mahal Travellers July 15, 1972 (1972)
• Ali Farka Touré Savane (2006)
• John Prine Sweet Revenge (1973)

Stoked that Reis gave such gushing love to Bo Diddley. I love Bo and love when other people love Bo.

when rick pulled out those bert records i was like oh man you are in for a treat

one of the greatest bands of the 21st century. this is one of those groups where i absolutely remember being stopped dead in my tracks the first time i heard them ("Our Work Fills the Pews", on KXLU.)