Downstroke Warlords: The Greatest Hits Of Hot Snakes
"Everybody get yourself pre-approved to be a stupid fucking jerkoff in somebody else's world"
The Greatest Hits compilation seems to be a maligned concept and I both understand why that is the case but also hate that it is the case. I have about 15 greatest hits CDs in my car at this exact moment. Sometimes all you need from a band is their hits (see: Phil Collins, Creedence Clearwater Revival) and sometimes a band’s hits are the best jumping off point to dive into their deep catalog (see: Johnny Cash, David Bowie). If you're not a "Big, Rich Rock Band" you don’t usually get to release a greatest hits compilation. So, in this ongoing series, I'll be making them on behalf of the overlooked, underappreciated or otherwise passed over.
Previously on Greatest Hits:
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Today: HOT SNAKES, a bi-coastal American punk band who have released 4 albums, 2 live records and multiple 7” singles since 1999.
The first rule I gave myself when I started doing this “Fake Greatest Hits” gimmick was that I wouldn’t do any of John Reis’s bands because I didn’t want to deal with the idea that other members of #TeamSwami would see/hear the playlist and think I did bad job. Well, one day I said to myself “don’t be a coward1, the best of Hot Snakes is achievable, rules are meant to be broken, just stay away from RFTC and you’ll be fine”, so here we are.
Hot Snakes was the first John Reis band that I got into after I opened the crazy Pandora’s box that is the non-Rocket-From-The-Crypt-John-Reis discography. This was in 2002, when Suicide Invoice was a new release. I picked it up along with Automatic Midnight at a Tower Records location while visiting San Francisco and immediately set about listening to both, on a hotel room CD player. In these times of yore, I was online enough to know this band existed, but not-online enough to know what to expect. I was immediately struck, of course, by the visceral and unrelenting intensity that is Side A of Automatic Midnight2 (and really every side of every record.) I don’t think I listened to anything else for the rest of that trip. This was love at first listen. This was a gateway drug to a great many other things. This was a revolutionary experience of the kinds that were on offer 35 years earlier in that same city of San Francisco.
Although Hot Snakes is not a supergroup (I have read many writers say they are) it does feature some highly pre-eminent musicians, perhaps most notably the John Reis-Rick Froberg partnership, which is now into its fourth decade as an essential element in the annals of American Punk Rock:
There’s the Rick Froberg and his unique vocal assault, a style that hovers in the sweet spot between singing and howling, needing - and achieving - the power that puts those vocals over the top of those guitar parts.
There’s guitar genius John Reis, who in Hot Snakes provides some of the most intricate, most simple and most incendiary guitar work of anything in his back catalogue, which is filled with rampant riffing.
There’s our favorite “possessor of a galaxy brain” Gar Wood playing organ on studio recordings, playing bass at live show and catching a gnarly tube on the Jericho Sirens album cover.
Depending on the album, there’s not one, but two, of the most furiously precise drummers on the planet in Jason Kourkounis and Mario Rubalcaba, both bringing almost exactly the same frenetic energy but filtering it through their own stylistic approaches to drum kit crushing.
While the studio recordings of Hot Snakes are truly magnificent, the live band is as good as live music gets. There are few bands, including most “supergroups”, in which the whole combines to be so much more than the sum of its parts, like this group does, especially when considering the solid-gold nature of these parts
To whit: I think Hot Snakes is the band I’ve seen play live the most in my life, and certainly the band I’ve seen play in the most different cities, and somehow never once the city I’ve lived in at the time3, including but not limited to: Newcastle, Glasgow, Liverpool, Leeds, London, Manchester, Long Beach and West Hollywood.
As so many of these involved travelling, they also provide a treasure trove of treasured memories. Here’s some highlights:
The Cluny, Newcastle, October 16th 2004 - My first ever Hot Snakes show. I made the drive up to Newcastle with my old pal Widge. We had a blast. I am looking at a signed poster from this show on my office wall as I write this. This was the first time I ever met John Reis. A momentous occasion dedicated by a grainy photograph taken on a disposal film camera:
Òran Mór, Glasgow, June 1st, 2005 - The infamous “Robot” show! In which the kick drum was sliding forward, likely due to a lack of carpeting combined with the furious drum style of Mario4, so a volunteer was sought to sit in front of the drum set and act as human ballast. This man’s name was Robert, but presented with a thick enough Scottish accent to be heard as Robot by the band. This was a really fun show, and that story will last a lifetime for anyone that was there.
The Kazimir, Liverpool, December 10th 2011 - This was one of the first shows they did after Hot Snakes became a going concern after a few year long hiatus. As noted in the “Best Of The Teens” piece I wrote, this is one of the best shows I’ve ever seen in my life. A phenomenal experience. I cannot locate any photos, sadly. (Also one of the best home-cooked dinners I’ve ever eaten outside of my own home5.) We went a few days later to see them in Leeds and while it was still a great show, it wasn’t as good because you can’t capture a perfect moment in time twice in three days.
Kings College Student Union, London, June 1st - I forget where this was. A student union, somewhere off the Northern Line, I think? Maybe you can tell from this very crappy photo? (Edit: Thanks to Sam on the Swami Records FB group for the correct date and venue!)
This one was fun, but imagine being sober and trying to wrangle two wildcard drunk dudes that haven’t met before, but have the exact same chaos energy. I’m not complaining, I loved it. I’d pay money to see those dudes right now (Hi Dan, Hi Simon.) There’s always been a weird thing at UK Hot Snakes of people yelling “Garrrrrrr Woooood” in-between songs, but this was the time Simon turned the volume up to 11.
The Troubadour, West Hollywood, November 10th 2017 - My first time at the legendary Troub. The Snakes were very Hot on this evening. I’d imagine its easy to be excited to play at a venue with its own special place in the history of rocknroll? Had a fun dinner at a Brazilian place before the show with some friends old and new, truly a treasured memory. Also saw them the night before at Alex’s Bar, but as good as that was, the Troubadour show is more memorable. They also played the Troubadour again in May of 2018, but I have almost no memory of that show. Not sure why, sure it was great.
Alex’s Bar, Long Beach, March 2nd 2020. The last show I went to pre-covid shutdowns. At least I went out on a high. This was when Tommy from Night Marchers and CPC Gangbangs was filling in for Gar on bass. This was also the only time I’ve even been to a Hot Snakes show by myself. Hopefully the next time will be a big group love-in.
I now present to you, unofficially released via YouTube on my imprint label Chapterhouse: Whitehead Records…THE GREATEST HITS OF HOT SNAKES.
(Note: As was also the case with the Greatest Hits of Dan Sartain piece that I wrote, the Thunder Down Under album could exist as a pre-Jericho Sirens Hot Snakes best-of. I highly recommend checking it out, it’s very good. (So is the Peel Session EP, which I believe was the final Peel Session ever recorded.)
1 & 2. If Credit's What Matters I'll Take Credit / Automatic Midnight (Automatic Midnight) - Peeling off three songs fast and hard is a hallmark of the first three Hot Snakes albums. It’s a fine tradition, like getting the first three batters in your lineup on base right away. These are the first two such songs. No Hands (the third) is conspicuous here by its absence, but frankly I gave myself a hard cap on 15 tracks and everything else felt more essential so I dropped it. Regardless these two songs are a hell of a way to introduce yourself as a band. Oft seen opening a set, as well they should.
3. 10th Planet (Automatic Midnight) - From the first time I heard it until always and forever, this is the first song I play on new speakers/headphones. It uses almost every part of the sonic spectrum and slowly layers in each piece on top of the last. To (yet again) break my rule of “lyrics are the least important part of any song”, I present the perfection the lyrics to this song are.
4. Six Wave Hold-Down (Jericho Sirens) - At the 2017 Alex’s Bar show, the first I attended to feature songs from Jericho Sirens, this was the first new/unknown song that really “popped” and seemed like an instant classic. This is perhaps the high-water mark (get it?) on that record.
5 & 6. Suicide Invoice / Paid In Cigarettes (Suicide Invoice) - The middle section of most Hot Snakes records usually features a couple of slightly lower tempo6 songs and I think this one-two combo may represent the clearest example (from any of the albums) of that dynamic switch-up.
7. US Mint (Swami Sound System Vol 1.) - A true fan favorite deep-cut, with one of the single greatest lyrics of all time (as featured in this article’s sub-title.) Oh, and have I mentioned that if credit’s what matters, then I take credit for this song resurfacing in live show set lists? (The Thunder Down Under version of this one really kicks ass too.)
8. Audit In Progress (Audit In Progress) - This one time, I had to deal with being in charge of an audit thing at work. After it was over, with a successful outcome, I played this song in a triumphant manner. I’m sure that was what they had in mind when recording this one.
9. This Mystic Decade (Audit In Progress) - Not sure why, but ask me to name a Hot Snakes song, I might say this one first. This song seems to float into my brain a lot at random intervals. I’m particularly partial to the live Peel Session version, not least as it was recorded on the anniversary of my birth.
10. Jericho Sirens (Jericho Sirens) - Oh look, we hit for the cycle on tracks bearing the album names. In 2020, in the deepest depths of my anxiety pit, I decided that all of the horrific things that were happening were sign of the impending doom of our society, planet, etc. and that the warning signs we ignored were the Jericho Sirens. Woof, 2020 was no fun.
11. Past Lives (Automatic Midnight) - I think this is the song that highlights the unusual yet inspired choice for the studio recordings to have the low end noise be coming from an organ and not bass guitar. It adds a primordial aspect to the whole thing. Play this one loud on good quality speakers and revel in that choice.
12. Hatchet Job (Audit In Progress) - If there’s a song on here in which you can accuse me of going with a personal favorite, it might well be this one. The dynamics of this one are like an object escaping the orbit of a planet, building up with more and more fury and acceleration for the first 3 minutes or so until making it into the vacuum and beginning a slow fade in the final 50 or so seconds.
13 & 14. Unlisted / Ben Gurion (Suicide Invoice) - An inseparable double shot, with Ben Gurion here as a closer that fails to close7 (just like on my Best of The Marked Men comp.) There’s some really interesting guitar tones/noises on Unlisted, with what I can only describe as a ‘bending’ quality. Never quite heard that anywhere else.
15. Let It Come (Automatic Midnight) - Possibly the single greatest album closing track of all time, possibly the greatest song in the Hot Snakes catalog, possibly the greatest song of all time. There’s no other way to close this out. Rejoice in the downstrokes, the chaos, the glorious noise that is the Hot Snakes.
As a general rule, when I’m making these greatest hits playlists, I don’t start out with a list of my favorite songs by the artist. I try to chose the songs that I think best represent the full back catalog of the band (which may or may not be my faves.) Then I try to track them in a way that mirrors the approach to album tracking used by that artist on their records.
If I was throwing in some other personal favorites, honorable mentions to: Hair and DNA, Reflex, Psychoactive, Light Up The Stars and I Hate The Kids. Any song you think I should have included probably should have been included. But I try and keep the number of songs to around 30-40% of the total output of the band. With all of these comps, and especially this one, listen to every album front-to-back, one after the other, then start all over again. Lather, Rinse, Repeat.
The Hot Snakes albums are basically perfect and will stand the test of time for the rest of the (presumably short) time humanity has left on this earth.
A note-to-self I made as encouragement. As sloppy as my hand normally is, this is an extreme level of sloppiness. But, hey, like Froberg tells us on Six Wave Hold Down: you get no points for style!
It’s kind of like if Side A of The State Of Art Is On Fire was on the 1986 Hulk Hogan steroids.
This is, somewhat a technicality of the winding borders of the cities within Los Angeles County: Long Beach and West Hollywood could potentially be referred to as “LA” by someone with less of a geographical attention to detail than I. (Such a person might also refer to Palm Desert as Palm Springs, for example.)
This could only happen to Mario, right?
Lower tempo in this case merely being taking your foot off the acceleration pedal when already going 90mph.
So many baseball references today!
I find it odd that I actually found out about Hot Snakes through GTA V (This Mystic Decade being on one of the radio stations) and not you Chris.
Well done. Not an easy task. Your sloppy handwriting does look a lot like Swami's so before reading the whole passage, I thought that was a note to you from him. My most minorest quibble is I agree with the guy on the Metaverse who said it should have been the TDU version of Let it Come. I do think that is probably the greatest recording ever made by human beings. My wife witnessed that session in person.
I was so into Rocket that I never wanted to be let down by his "side projects". (I've never claimed to be smart or have anything resembling sense.) When I finally put in Automatic Midnight after buying it from Exclusive Company in Madison, WI and was Literally (and I do mean literally) blown away by the force, I was hooked.
What a fucking band.
Glad NP is back. Cheers.