HOT SNAKES c/d

For being a non-technically proficient son of a tuna fishing Portuguese immigrant from the wrong side of the San Diego docks, he does play himself a mean guitar. Almost up there with the LA rocker hotshots that San Diegan rockers feel intrinsically inferior to.

This was with Drive Like Jehu, but still worth posting here I think:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AlDJuvHwzjM

and it may interest Hot Snacks fans (and long-time Rocket from the Crypt fans for that matter) to know that during the midst of the recording sessions of the new album, John's trusty Les Paul was stolen and subsequently recovered. When it happened, I'd read something about street justice, like straight up fisticuffs, but apparently that's not exactly how it went down

https://www.nbcsandiego.com/blogs/sounddiego/Swami-Gets-His-Guitar-Back-429116473.html

the Suicide/Wipers simultaneous riff tribute moment on the last song on the new one is pretty neat.

the LA rocker hotshots that San Diegan rockers feel intrinsically inferior to

Who are you referring to?

xp i was at that show!

Who are you referring to?

I am referring specifically to none other than Tracii Guns, who owes me $700 btw.

i was at that show!

I love the small world in which we live.

I'll take it you don't have a serious answer Del

that's seriously how he spells his name - look it up

I woulda said Rikk Agnew, but he's Orange County.

You from LA, Del? Just talking trash?

The idea of John Reis feeling inferior to Traci Guns is the most hilarious notion.

"Hot Snacks" is a great band name

i hear jericho sirens

You from LA, Del? Just talking trash?

Sir, I grew up in El Cajon, California (maybe you've heard of it it? it's rough) and I currently live in San Diego, California.

I just wanted to say, as a result of my birthright I've been a huge John/RFTC fan since my formative teenage years, but it wasn't til my early twenties, when I really gave a good hard thought about music, that I realized I really fucking loved the Hot Snakes.

Mostly this love was expressed through my consistent consumption of everything Reis/Froberg-related: RFTC albums and tshirts ordered online, all-ages tix to Rocket shows at the now-defunct Empire Club in North Park or Street Scene gigs by the C Street trolley stop downtown, appearances at mid-afternoon all-ages shows at Off the Record (where I'd show up scared of being beaten up by older, more drunken, more tattoed bros, for some reason).

I'm already weirding myself out just posting this post, but I'll save it the unsavory middle. It mostly involves absolutely loving the goddamn shit out of Automatic Midnight and Suicide Invoice. Who wouldn't? Idiots, that's who. People whose blood has never pumped at the same pace, for the same reasons. But anyway, the point I'm making is, has anyone outside the digest-it-and-forget-it world of print media bothered to take a second sonic glimpse at this Death Camp Fantasy? Eh? Really listened to it in 2019? Because yeah, the album itself is not the best thing they've ever done, but fuckin' a, have you listened to this song?!

Here's the album version (for curious people with weak blood):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCH9zKFw954

Here's a live version (for people with blood rich with disinfectants, who currently are NOT inconvenienced). You'll notice the beauty of this particular song, based on how they all start to play it. First of all, Jason Kourkounis starts the song. This was the guy who played on Automatic Midnight, not Suicide Invoice. I'm not good at describing the visceral differences you get from different drummers, but I think it makes a difference. I've watched live videos and this guy does something with crossing his arms during cymbal contact that simply makes it better, I don't know. He just, rules. Anyway, one of the many reasons this song absolutely kicks ass is the fact that it's just Jason and John doing drums and guitar. For several bars, like a minute. Rick sings over it, cause he's just that kind of guy, of course he does. Then, at precisely the right time for this sort of song, Gar comes in. Of COURSE he does. "Have I been preyed upon / have I been prayed upon?" is sung before Rick lets the single-coil treble attack into the mix, into what I guess could be called the third pre-chorus? The part before the Big Chorus? I don't know what you call it at this point. It's just the point before the Big Chorus. I'll let it Rick take it from here. By the way, his lyrics are my favorite for those designed to be matched with guitar parts this loud. I loved every word of Drive Like Jehu, but this is some special stuff:

(the moment the bass kicks in for the first "have I been preyed upon"? the point of having fucking ears)

Death, you read the Bible
Death, you read the lease
Assuming your survival
Depends on things like these

Have I been preyed upon
By Darwin, Disney and Freud?

You know I rest it on the scaffold, baby
I look for greetings to avoid

Have I been preyed upon?
Have I been prayed upon?

I feel preemptive forces
Standing in my way
Here it comes
My death camp fantasy

best live version I could find!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rbeg8KK4tig

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.)