The Heat Is Rising
According to their myspace site hot new Canadian band Hot Springs don't want to be your facebook friend. They don't care about what haircut you have. They don't care about your blog (talk about biting the hand that feeds you!). They simply want to freak you out with their debut album 'Volcano'.
This is a band that surprises, astonishes and astounds, if for no other reason than they are a band from Canada that has the audacity to sound nothing like Arcade Fire. (Why is it that the reference point for all bands from Canada is Arcade Fire? It's like referencing the Beatles when reviewing any band from the UK, i.e. pointless. But since when has being pointless stopped the critics (or the Devil come to think about it)?).
Like a kleptomaniac chameleon bilingual singer songwriter, anti right anarchist militant activist, Giselle Webber (who looks like the result of an experiment to cross breed the Yeah Yeah Yeahs Karen O and ex Pixie Kim Deal) takes on various guises and borrows different personas, from the ex singer of 1990s Welsh pop rock wizards Catatonia, Cerys Matthews ('Fog and the Horn', and 'Fantome Dinosaur') through P J Harvey ('Tiny Islands' & ode to the joys of lesbianism 'Pink Money' with it's opening line of 'Clitoris en feu') ending up with Joanna Newsom after a year long diet of raw meat ('Annimystique' & '38th Adventure'). Surprisingly given the various influence the album, which starts with a guitar crunch like the first bite into a choc ice, the album is coherent and there isn't a weak track to be seen (or heard). What seals the deal for the Devil is that the album is equipped with a booklet containing all the lyrics (even if some of them are written in French!)
This is one of the best debut albums the Devil has heard in a long time and if any of the latest crop of Canadian bands can repeat the worldwide success of the aforementioned Arcade Fire then it is Hot Springs.
Go Try
MP3 - Hot Springs - Headrush
Go Visit
The Hot Springs - Myspace // Website
Go See
25 Oct 2007, 20:00, Vieux-Clocher, Sherbrooke, Quebec;
26 Oct 2007, 20:00, Le National, Montreal, Quebec;
27 Oct 2007, 20:00, Théâtre Petit Champlain, Quebec, Quebec;
28 Oct 2007, 20:00, Théâtre Petit Champlain, Quebec City, Quebec;
3 Nov 2007, 20:00, L’Azile, Joliette, Quebec;
If you like these then you'll no doubt want to rush over to ITunes to get this album...
MP3 - Catatonia - Road Rage
Buy Catatonia 'International Velvet' from Amazon
MP3 - Joanna Newsom - Emily (Live)
Buy Joanna Newsom 'The Milk Eyed Mender' from Amazon
MP3 - P J Harvey - Dress
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