Hot Snakes - I Shall Be Free 7" - Pink Vinyl

PU (2020)

I consider myself very lucky to have found Rocket From The Crypt in the mid 90s.  It led me to the Atomjack email listserv when I was in college which led to the RFTC phorum and the Swami forum.  All three of these places are gone now, but the friends I have made in Swami land over the years have stuck around.  Be it on Twitter, that Swami group on Facebook or directly texting with friends made along the way, I am very thankful to be part of this community.  I've been to a lot of Rocket/Hot Snakes/Assorted John Reis shows over the years.  I've often heard him bantering on the stage about the people at the show being family.  I believe every word of that, I have acquired a second family along the way and they are all the fucking best.

If not for said family, I would not have been able to get my hands on this 7".  It was sold at Hot Snakes shows (Remember shows? They were like records only louder with the sound coming out of people instead of the vinyl) and that particular tour didn't make it out east.  Luckily there are kind hearted folks in this world and I was able to add this to my collection.  It was supposed to be the second of four 7"s, one for each of the four seasons (this one is spring) that would lead into the next Hot Snakes full length.  Who knows what happened to that plan with the world being as crazy as it is right now.  As I type this sentence there's one of those fire alarm/air raid sounding sirens going off in my town.  Totally fits the 2020 vibe.

The record itself is great as always.  Hot Snakes doesn't write songs I don't like and both of these fit neatly into their existing catalog while making me hungry for more.  I don't expect shows to start up again anytime soon.  Selfishly, I hope that we don't have to wait for the pandemic to clear before we get more Hot Snakes music, but I also know that it's likely a bummer to put out a record and not be able to tour it.  Chaos all around us.  Hopefully we can get through it soon.

Hot Snakes - "I Shall Be Free":
https://hotsnakes.bandcamp.com/track/i-shall-be-free

Hot Snakes - Checkmate 7" - Blue Vinyl

P U (2019)

Oh those Joh Reis bands.  Always putting out records to sell at shows that are difficulty to acquire.  While I am all about a tour only release, it always seems to feel like it is in conjunction with a tour that's not stopping by me.  That just might be me complaining, but I've bought far fewer myself than those that had to be bought for me. 

This 7" was released as part of a UK tour and I was lucky that a friend of mine was willing to pick up a copy.  However, once they got home, Hot Snakes actually sold a handful of these on their website.  That's the first time one of these tour releases was made available online.  I hope that's a trend that continues, or that they make these exclusive releases more available for the East Coast tours.

The two songs on the 7" show once again why Hot Snakes are one of the best bands on the planet.  "Checkmate" is a middle tempo track that reminds me a little bit of "Hair and DNA" as far as the way that the chorus hits.  The verse is a bit more dynamic in the way that the guitars interplay.  "Not In Time" is built off of straight ahead guitar downstroke riffige, maybe a little similar to a song like "Why Does It Hurt?"  Both songs are stellar, just like pretty much everything else in the Hot Snakes catalog.

It makes me wonder if this is leading up towards another album.  Jericho Sirens came out in 2018, so 2020 sounds like a good year for the next record.  I am hopeful that I'll get a new Rocket From The Crypt record at some point, but I'm certainly not going to complain if we get another Hot Snakes release this year.

Hot Snakes - "Checkmate":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLusfdv5_iU