classic albums, atsonicpark edition # 3: hot snakes - sucide invoice
 

HOT SNAKES "SUICIDE INVOICE"
Swami Records, 2002

1. "I Hate the Kids"
2. "Gar Forgets His Insulin"
3. "XOX"
4. "Who Died"
5. "Suicide Invoice"
6. "Paid in Cigarettes"
7. "LAX"
8. "Bye Nancy Boy"
9. "Paperwork"
10. "Why Does it Hurt"
11. "Unlisted"
12. "Ben Gurion"

I rarely call an album addictive. I have heard many albums I've liked a lot that I'll put once or twice a year or so, but few that I put on repeat over and over and over... however, Suicide Invoice is one of those albums that I just couldn't (and can't) ever get out of my CD player. And I'm not totally sure why. 5 years after first hearing it, I listen to it today and still love it but ask myself if I'd love it that much if I'd just heard it today... well, yeah, probably, but...

Hot Snakes are a very very very influenced-by-Wipers (seriously, the riffs are identical!) punk band from two old members of Drive Like Jehu, usually incorporating somewhat simple song structures, short song lengths, driving rhythms, catchy riffs, anthemic choruses, and cool lyrics. This album is just.. yeah.. anthemic. I always have Who Died, LAX, XOX, and Why Does It Hurt? in my head. While most of the songs have a pretty straight-ahead rock sound, there are subtle and interesting uses of keyboards... it's all so interesting and perfect.. well-written and uhh... I dunno, I hate sounding like a rock critic.

Just a good band with good music. That's all there is to it. No gimmicks, no 67098740978 time changes, no glitch breakdowns, no screaming at the top of their lungs with mirroed canary tattoos, just straight-up good music. And it's lasted and lasted and lasted in my mind for years and inspired me in many ways. So, I consider it a classic.

Didn't really like it.

fucking love this album

Are the atsonicpark editions suppose to be in the wrong forum?

Oh, uh, what forum are they supposed to be in?

Non-sonic sounds..?

Oh yeah..

Hahah..

Dumb me. :(

they put that one on in one of the stores i was today.

good, but for some reason, i've always felt the snakes were only going at it at half their capacity.

Something weird I noticed is almost every Hot Snakes song has two verses and two choruses. They'll often have other parts, but... two verses and two chorues.

I think that's what I like about Hot Snakes... Drive Like Jehu was complex and ridiculously talented... Hot Snakes is like, "Okay, we did that. Let's keep it simple now." So, I think they purposely did it at half capacity. But ... I dunno. It's all good music. It's weird. I totally see what you're saying.

well, the feeling i get from them is that they know they can deliver simple, effect, catch and dissonant rock and crush buildings with their energy, yet they go thru the songs like if they're just going thru the motions, like saying "good enough, next song"

i and they knew they could blow anybody away if they wanted to put their hearts (and hurts) into it, but they didn't. they must have gotten tired of going all balls out with jehu and the crypt and decided to take it easier with the snakes.

still, they were a good band, better than the crypt by far.

Most definitely.

What I find humorous, and I said this above, is how much their riffs sound like the Wipers (mixed with Girls Against Boys - Let Me Come Back)... and Wipers have a song called "past life" and hot snakes have a song called "Past Lives"... it's cool cuz I love the Wipers... (though their name sucks. Wiper my ass).

But yeah. Too bad Hot Snakes broke up, I don't know what the fuck any of those people are doing now.

I actually thought the Hot Snakes were much more into it than Jehu, or even Pitchfork for that matter (btw, i've always preferred pitchfork over jehu).

To add: Hot Snakes started with Gar Wood (ex-Fishwife/Tanner/beehive + the Barracudas), who IMO is a better guitarist than Reis, on bass and the old Delta 72 drummer, who went on to join Burning Brides.

Hot Snakes blew away both Jehu and RFTC live hands down without question, largely in part of Gar's presence. Every time I saw Jehu, it was all too serious and they just didn't all look like they were into it except rick & john and at times not even rick was into it. infact, the reason why jehu broke up was because of lack of desire to play/tour (and the fact that trombino was always producing and busy and it took forever to write songs).

with hot snakes, they all looked like they were into it, they toured and played their asses off, which tells me they were much more into it than jehu ever was.

anybody who says they didn't have their hearts into it doesn't know shit about jehu or hot snakes.

As far as what they're doing, John will always have bands, i think he still has The Sultans still going on, he runs his own record label (Swami's) and even has his own radio show on 91X in sd. Rick probably will retire, Gar will still go on with Beehive and probably something else, Mario (ex-clikatat ikatowi/411/blackheart procession/mannekin piss) is doing EARTHLESS(i think?) and briefly joined PINBACK, although I just saw Pinback last saturday and he was not drumming for them.

Nah, I didn't mean say they didn't have their heart in it, just that they wanted to relax from the "prog" of Jehu.. and I think Everyneurotic was just saying they seemed to be capable of doing something even more amazing but just settled with their sound... (if you were responding to our posts, I mean)

In a lot of ways, I prefer Hot Snakes... and in other ways, I prefer Jehu... the Pitchfork stuff was good but seemed held back by .... something. (the weakness of youth?)

GAR was the fucking man.

One interesting thing about the Hot Snakes.. "Automatic Midnight", the bass parts were all keyboards/organs right? Because the "bass" on that album is overbearing, and I remember reading that it had sometihng to do with the low synth tones supplying the bass lines. Then, "Suicide Invoice" came out, and there was obviously Gar playing bass, but there were still keyboards on that album, subtley... there were less keyboards on the next one, but who can forget "Lovebirds"?

I went back and listened to everything the Hot Snakes did today... my favorite tracks are: Why Does It Hurt, Who Died, U.S. Mint, Let It Come, Audit in Progress, LAX, Bye Nancy Boy, No Hands, Plenty for All, Kreative Kontrol, 10th Planet, and my all time favorite... Our Work Fills the Pews.

I think alot of it depends on when you got into what band. I was very fortunate to see Pitchfork play at the end of their run and then to see Jehu play was great (Night Soil Man were awesome too), but Hot Snakes was a bit of a rejuvenation/rebirth of both Rick and John. To say they "held back" is just ridiculous...Hot Snakes were not about that. Hot Snakes were about straight-ahead rock & roll in a more punk rock fashion. The songs were much shorter, to the point. totally different band, totally different approach.

If you know John Reis, you'd know the guy is much more than "caress". The guy was always about "rock & roll" and punk rock. To expect "rome plows" out of every John Reis band is like expecting "Breadcrumb Trails" out of every Pajo band, which would never ever happen. I'm sure you get the point though.

Originally, Hot Snakes was supposed to be an "instrumental" project of Reis's, but new it needed vocals. He didn't feel his vocals would go with the music as well as it would with Rick's, so he asked Rick to sing on some tracks and the rest is history.

Hot Snakes ALWAYS had a bassist. Gar was playing bass from the beginning (I was at their 2nd & 3rd shows ever). They did have organs though. I thought the bass was way too warm and overbearing too.

As much as I loved Jehu and those tunes, there are definitely some Hot Snakes tunes that I would pick over some Jehu tunes too, but as far as live, I'd see the Hot Snakes 10 times over a Jehu show. Mike just wasn't much of a presence on stage for Jehu.

And yes, GAR IS THE MAN! I used to see old Fishwife shows when he played just guitar and the guy was fucking incredible, blew me a way.

if you get a chance, gotta check out Fishwife's "RITALIN" or "SNAIL KILLER".

Terrible band, terrible record.

you listen to the yeah yeah yeahs.

And?

need a map?

10x10, 3x3, watch this twat climb the tree.


have you ever heard that one?

you listen to the yeah yeah yeahs.