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Originally Posted by atsonicpark
Nah, I didn't mean say they didn't have their heart in it, just that they wanted to relax from the "prog" of Jehu.. and I think Everyneurotic was just saying they seemed to be capable of doing something even more amazing but just settled with their sound... (if you were responding to our posts, I mean)
In a lot of ways, I prefer Hot Snakes... and in other ways, I prefer Jehu... the Pitchfork stuff was good but seemed held back by .... something. (the weakness of youth?)
GAR was the fucking man.
One interesting thing about the Hot Snakes.. "Automatic Midnight", the bass parts were all keyboards/organs right? Because the "bass" on that album is overbearing, and I remember reading that it had sometihng to do with the low synth tones supplying the bass lines. Then, "Suicide Invoice" came out, and there was obviously Gar playing bass, but there were still keyboards on that album, subtley... there were less keyboards on the next one, but who can forget "Lovebirds"?
I went back and listened to everything the Hot Snakes did today... my favorite tracks are: Why Does It Hurt, Who Died, U.S. Mint, Let It Come, Audit in Progress, LAX, Bye Nancy Boy, No Hands, Plenty for All, Kreative Kontrol, 10th Planet, and my all time favorite... Our Work Fills the Pews.
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I think alot of it depends on when you got into what band. I was very fortunate to see Pitchfork play at the end of their run and then to see Jehu play was great (Night Soil Man were awesome too), but Hot Snakes was a bit of a rejuvenation/rebirth of both Rick and John. To say they "held back" is just ridiculous...Hot Snakes were not about that. Hot Snakes were about straight-ahead rock & roll in a more punk rock fashion. The songs were much shorter, to the point. totally different band, totally different approach.
If you know John Reis, you'd know the guy is much more than "caress". The guy was always about "rock & roll" and punk rock.
To expect "rome plows" out of every John Reis band is like expecting "Breadcrumb Trails" out of every Pajo band, which would never ever happen. I'm sure you get the point though.
Originally, Hot Snakes was supposed to be an "instrumental" project of Reis's, but new it needed vocals. He didn't feel his vocals would go with the music as well as it would with Rick's, so he asked Rick to sing on some tracks and the rest is history.
Hot Snakes ALWAYS had a bassist. Gar was playing bass from the beginning (I was at their 2nd & 3rd shows ever). They did have organs though. I thought the bass was way too warm and overbearing too.
As much as I loved Jehu and those tunes, there are definitely some Hot Snakes tunes that I would pick over some Jehu tunes too, but as far as live, I'd see the Hot Snakes 10 times over a Jehu show. Mike just wasn't much of a presence on stage for Jehu.
And yes, GAR IS THE MAN! I used to see old Fishwife shows when he played just guitar and the guy was fucking incredible, blew me a way.
if you get a chance, gotta check out Fishwife's "RITALIN" or "SNAIL KILLER".