Albums by this artist

Make Up The Breakdown (2002)

Interviews

Breaking Up Is Hard To Do
October 22, 2003

Hot Hot Heat

Make Up The Breakdown

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» GRANT PURDUM | STAFF WRITER

Hot Hot Heat Make Up The Breakdown Sub Pop, 2002 RiYL: The Cure, XTC, Dismemberment Plan, The Faint

The Hottest of all Heats first whetted the taste buds of Cure-craving obsessives and garage-rockers alike with the fantastic Knock Knock Knock EP, and with the full-length Make Up The Breakdown, the retro dance party is on again. Packed to the brim with funtastic synthesizers whistling in and out of every track, Breakdown flaunts another dapper vocal performance by hiccup-y squeal merchant Steve Bays, as well as quasi ska rhythms that bob like old Specials break beats and dip dangerously like a homemade halfpipe.

Not by any means derivative, instantly recognizable touchtones will nevertheless leave many listeners playing Name That Sequence. When Bays wails "Walking so slowly, don't know anybody, feels like I'm in Cairo," one can't help but conjure images of the Clash's "Rock The Casbah." Amazingly, the entire package coalesces without sounding tacky, no matter how funhouse-quirky the instrumentation gets.

The lyrics? Hell, they're about girls, of course, and Hot Hot Heat's members have obviously dealt with some amazingly catty shrews in their day. One sanity-debilitating damsel "says she's got it all," but can't stop yearning for the attention of boys who don't even notice her; another lass goads Bays into crooning "You are my only girl, but you're not my owner, girl," over just-too-rich cowbell thumps.

Despite a traditionally vexed, jaded view of females, every arrangement is aloof and cheery as a neon-green pair of spandex shorts, and the mighty triple H hearken back to an era when neon-green spandex shorts might have seemed damn necessary. With two first-rate releases in tow, Hot Hot Heat may just be the zestiest spice on Sub Pop's ever-expanding rack.

GRANT PURDUM | Among the newest wave of NATN contributors, Grant Purdum bides his time at Washington State University.