Los Headaches - Hola Hola
Mexico City’s Los Headaches pay homage here to 60s garage rock, 70s glam and punk, and whatever else you’d find in an issue of Creem back in 1978. Safety pins, pomade, swtichblades hidden in ankle boots… it’s all here.
What’s great about this band is what’s great about rock’n’roll in general: the defiant glare, the curled lip, the willingness to provoke. Los Headaches have all of that in spades – they’re like four Mexican Johnny Thunders picking fights with dudes twice their size in some alley somewhere. They just don’t care about nothin’, man. You know how refreshing that is? I mean, that’s the whole problem with rock’n’roll these days: all the fucking caring. Who needs it? Not these dudes, and they prove it on swaggering tracks like I’m Dirt, I’m A Man, I Don’t Wanna Wake Up and (naturally) It Hurts But It Don’t Matter. And it don’t. I dig, daddy-o. (7⁄10)
Holy Life - Down With The Lord
Satanic creeps from Finland plying throbby, clutch-throttling hard rock that sorta sounds like sleazy pre-vampire 69 Eyes drowning in a vat of molasses, or maybe COC carving upside-down crosses in their foreheads. Almost comically sinister, this is cult-y downer rock for serial killer enthusiasts or anybody contemplating a cloak purchase. (6⁄10)
Hemmingway Hammers - The Good, The Bad, & The Hammered
This is boozy, punky rock’n’roll with lyrics about puking up pizza. There’s a good chance the Hammers have never heard any bands in their lives except for the Ramones, and maybe Bachman Turner Overdrive. We should all be so lucky. (6⁄10)
Clean Room - Weird Woman
Hot on the heels of their explosive Black Mountain Road album, San Diego budget-metal savages Clean Room return with a new line-up and another meaty fistful of corrosive cellar-dweller anthems. Hard to describe these dudes, but imagine your fave drug uncle ripping freaky guitar solos out of a practice amp on your lawn at 3am. Pretty much like that. (6⁄10)
The Super Secret Hot Girls Club - The Super Secret Hot Girls Club
These Portland snot-rockers aren’t hot girls, but the album is still a smoker: fast n’ loose and pissed off and loud. No idea what they’re yelling about in songs like Reproducing Warlock or Death By Denny’s, but I like it. Finally, a club worth joining. (7⁄10)
