Hot Snakes
Audit in Progress
Swami, 2004
http://www.hotsnakes.com/
http://www.swamirecords.com/
Man, this CD never gets old.
Hot Snakes was more or less formed from the remnants of the early 90's guitar juggernaut Drive Like Jehu. That's not an easy act to follow. DLJ was known for their punishing and technical six to ten minute tracks that, no matter how much I love them, pushed the limit of my attention span. When DLJ disbanded, John Reis took their complex and chaotic sound and refined it into a f***ing laser beam of frenetic energy that was compressed into three minute songs.
Audit in Progress is one of those albums that makes you feel out of control. In a good way, of course. Like if you're listening to this in headphones walking down the street, you feel like you're going 40 mph. This is the music of high speed pursuits and runaway locomotives.
Besides being a great band, John Reis and Rick Froberg are just two of the coolest people ever. Period. Every band they've ever been involved with has been phenomenal. John Reis is rock n' roll incarnate (he and Froberg are the self-proclaimed "Downstroke Warlords") and Froberg is a twisted, creative genius whose visual art has always been inseparable from his musical projects.
This is a great album from an immensely talented group of guys. I miss this band like I miss indoor smoking. A lot.