Hot Hot Heat are from Victoria at the southern tip of Vancouver Island. Victoria, no major metropolitan city in its own right, is close enough to Vancouver and Seattle, and yet also far enough away to afford resident artists and musicians a bit of space. And this sort of isolation can lead to weird and sometimes wonderful evolutionary development. Hot Hot Heat naturally made a lot of noise early on - punks with synthesisers instead of guitars. When that became more constraining than liberating, Hot Hot Heat mutated. Parting ways with their singer, recruiting Dante DeCaro on guitar and pressing the microphone into the hands of keyboardist Steve Bays. Emphasis changed, melody came to the fore, people danced and it was, above all else, fun.
Hot Hot Heat were reborn and the new songs owed much to the tuneful complexity of The Clash, Elvis Costello, Talking Heads and dare we say The Cure?
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", shows a seemingly effortless ability to craft melody, the kind that doesn't merely get stuck in your head, but that moves in, makes a cup of tea, puts down roots and starts a family. "Make Up The Breakdown" replicates the breathless excitement of the band's live show; 10 tracks of complex, rhythmic art-punk. Most of these songs have to do with sex and/or frustrations of life in "This town"" And, really, what's more important? 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.
In April 2002, Sub Pop released Hot Hot Heat's "Knock Knock Knock" EP: 5 songs in 16 minutes, produced in part by Death Cab For Cutie's Chris Walla. It came to be described by SPIN as, ".the sound of punk teaching itself to dance." The band did what bands are supposed to do - they 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.
PRESS RELEASE: "these bandages cover more than scrapes, cuts and bruises, regrets and mistakes"
Hot Hot Heat "Bandages" - March 24th 2003
The hotly tipped Canadian funk punk band Hot Hot Heat will release their debut single 'Bandages' on March 10th. The single, described by NME as "the best rock song you can dance to since Hotel Yorba" has already caused tongues to wag from airplay on Radio 1 and XFM where it recently won the listener vote on the music:response chart. At this early stage the band have been favourably compared to The Clash, The Cure, XTC and Talking Heads. Kerrang! have 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: 5 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 March 31st ) 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.
www.hothotheat.com