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The
hotly tipped Canadian funk punk band Hot Hot Heat released
their debut single ‘Bandages’ on March 24th. 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.
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