Hot Snakes – Suicide Invoice – Review

Hot Snakes

Suicide Invoice (Swami)
by Craig Regala

I never heard Automatic Midnight, but this one’s pretty good. Much like The Means’ Vil/Viol, Suicide Invoice owes less to established punk genre norms (see the Warped Tour for plenty of that) than the idea of straight-up energized guitar-based rock’n’roll. These guys have members of other bands which you needn’t know about to latch on and enjoy its pensive and heartfelt strumming, burring whiz bang. I mean, if I had to say what “it is,” I’d say the clean brooding of The Wipers is similar to this as is the emotionality and non-linear quality of the Jawbox’s DeSoto label’s bands, while being more streamlined. The groove is ropey and lightly held, closer to Queens Of The Stone Age than “punk rock,” just on the edge of jangling. This is good ’cause you can get mileage out of these lines, look to the early Talking Heads recs for a lesson in simple and effective placement. I’ll bet they’re great live.
(PO Box 620428 San Diego, CA 92612)