Hot Snakes - If Credit's What Matters I'll Take Credit

I will never forget the bus ride home from Leeds where I first heard this song. I was 16, at college, and working at KFC part-time. Being able to spend my hard-earned till-bitch wages on punk rock records in Out of Step every weekend just about made it worth smelling like chicken grease 24/7. The day I bought Hot Snakes’ Automatic Midnight, put it in my CD player, pressed play and heard “If Credit’s What Matters I’ll Take Credit” I fell in love with the band forever. There’s no warning; no clicks, no hiss, feedback, nothing. You press play and are immediately hit with one of the greatest riffs ever to be wrangled from a lifeless lump of wood. The guitars on this album (all played by John Reis) are immense. There’s no bass, and while there’s organ on there, I have no idea how they got this song to sound so huge. You get about 15 seconds of wind tunnel guitar destruction, and then Rick Froberg’s vocals come in. He has the ultimate throat shredding voice and without disappearing too far up my own arse, his phrasing is fantastic. The lyrics, the way words are repeated and stressed is extremely simple but incredibly rhythmic. I want to say it’s like rapping but that’s not right, really. You need to hear it.

And Christ, I haven’t even said how great the drumming is. Jason Kourkonis is a monster, my favourite drummer of all time, and he’s probably amazing in the sack, too. I make a lot of mixtapes/CDs, and when I do one for someone else, “If Credit’s What Matters…” is the first place I turn to for a ballbag-crushing opening song. Everything about it is designed to grab you by the bowtie and not let go for 2 minutes and 32 seconds, by which point, I’m usually reaching over to skip it back to the beginning. I must have listened to this song 10 times on that bus ride back from Leeds.

The only thing wrong with this band is they will ruin you, ruin you, for anything else in this vein. It’s like all those post hardcore dudes that claim to be influenced by Refused. None of them are even remotely as good. Hot Snakes are in a league of their own.

I quit the KFC job after a few months, but I still listen to this record 7 years later. The sad thing is I don’t get that bus ride revelation with a new album anymore; all I’ve got is an ipod and so I have to wait until I get home for the first listen. On the other hand I don’t have to suspend an ipod in mid air so it plays without skipping. Every cloud…

If you like this song, you should pick up Automatic Midnight. The whole album is as good except it’s half an hour longer. Here’s some live You Tube videos and a great interview where John Reis and Rick Froberg talk about the band. All three of these songs are on the record…

The mp3: Hot Snakes - If Credit's What Matters I'll Take Credit (MegaUpload link)

YouTube: Interview with John Reis and Rick Froberg
"If Credit's What Matters I'll Take Credit"
"No Hands"
"Salton City"

P.S. - Aswell as the MegaUpload link, I've set up a Muxtape that will collect the first 12 songs I post up here, so if you just want to stream this bad boy, click here:

Muxtape Link