Die Hunns
Long Legs (Disaster)
by Duke Crevanator
In general, I’m a cynical bastard. Pretty much everything that crosses my path is looked at with a disdainful snort and a haughty glare. However, my mentor, 78 year old Dr. Charles Leighton, refers to this as “being a fucking realist, there’s no such thing as cynicism.” Since he grew up in Southie WAY back in the day and still got his Ph.D. from Harvard, I figure he must be correct.
In any event, I’d heard through the L.A. grapevine how great the band the Hunns (now Die Hunns) were now that Duane Peters had brought in Corey Parks of Nashville Pussy to play bass and do some vocals. It’s exactly this type of information that causes me to temporarily lose my cynicism (or realism) and get absurdly high hopes. Because, in the end, my love for music gets in the way. Far too many times I’ve been left horribly disappointed by something that sounds incredibly good on paper. In the case of Die Hunn’s latest release, I’m very grateful that the product lives up to the hype.
Long Legs, in my view, is a great fucking rock-n-roll album. Best of all, it’s not one of these “full-length” albums that’s only 20 minutes long. You’ve got 15 songs (10 originals and five covers) running the gamut from hardcore to punk to quasi-surf to flat out ROCK. And it clocks in at about 40 minutes (plus a video of “Hate and Love”). The most surprising aspect of the record is how well Parks’ and Peter’s voices work together when they split vocal duties. The opening track, a cover of the Chambers Brothers’ “Time Has Come Today” is one of the best songs I’ve heard in a long, long time. Other covers include songs by the Sex Pistols, the Wipers, and the Undertones, and they’re all well done.
Of course, there are songs that may not be my favorites (or yours), but I can honestly write that there is not one BAD song on the record. For example, politically-motivated songs “Ameri-Nightmare” and “War of the World” didn’t float my proverbial boat, however, they’ve grown on me. I’m sure any songs you don’t like on the first listen will eventually convert you as well.
One word of warning: If you’re hoping this sounds at all like Nashville Pussy, it doesn’t. But in my view, that’s a good thing. Die Hunns stand mighty tall on their own.
(Box 7112 Burbank, CA 91510)
