Dead Hookers
The Burial/The Rebirth (Dead Beat)
by Hansel Merchor
Dead Hookers come from Wisconsin and make the sort of noisy, fuzzy, hairy, garage rock that’s only fucking good when you turn it up really loud. Seriously, if you play this at low volumes, like anywhere within the range of six or lower, this sounds as aggressive, shapeless, and fucked up as grindcore. But once The Burial/The Rebirth is played, as it should, at deafening volumes, its amorphous structures jump right at you, dry hump you, and then abandon your lifeless body in a dirty alley amongst big trash cans of Chinese leftovers. The Burial/The Rebirth is fast and hard, the tracks are short and concise, the sound vibrates, the deranged screams of vocalist Howlin’ Trav claim for psychiatric help, and yet the Dead Hookers’ rock and roll just falls into the right place every single time. Slap dashes of psychedelia circle around some guitars, the blues of “I’ve Got Something For You” is a profane desecration to Screamin’ Jay Hawkins’ “Come Back Here and Face Me” and is not only looking for a brawl, but is claiming for a beat down, and the surprisingly subtle “What You Wear is So, So Right” quietly sneaks its place to the top of your priorities. Dead Hookers are one more reason to believe that music isn’t going through a bad phase: Far from it, you’ve just got to look for the good stuff in the crevices.
(www.dead-beat-records.com)