By Brian Wallace
Originally appeared in DIW
Members of Hot Snakes are so geographically spread out-not to mention busy with other projects-that the few weeks of the year they actually spend together take on an accelerated pace. Productivity is a priority. Still, that didn't stop frontman Rick Froeberg from killing bassist Gar Wood.
While recording vocals for a dizzying new track later named "Gar Forgets His Insulin," Froeberg started screaming, "Gar Wood/ Gar wouldn't listen/ He's in an airlock, he's in an iron lung, he's on a gurney, he was warned/ He's in a drawer, he's in a bag, he's on a Lazy Susan, he's on the slab."
"Gar and I were in the control room," guitarist John Reis recalls from his San Diego home, "and I was like, 'Man, it sounds like he's saying your name, Gar.' And he's like, 'Nah, I think he's saying a guy, like some guy-a guy would.'" So when Froeberg took a cigarette break, Wood sought (and found) the truth in singer's notebook. "I don't know how I would've taken it, but I thought it was pretty funny just because of the way that it all went down," says Reis, who spends the bulk of his time fronting brassy punks Rocket From the Crypt.
Though there's nothing funny about Hot Snakes' ominous sound-blitzing, downstroke guitars, rumbling organ and foaming-at-the-mouth vocals-Reis points out that Suicide Invoice (Swami), which also features drummer Jason Kourkounis, definitely has a sense of humor. "Maybe on the surface it seems dark, but I think if you kind of inspect it a little further it becomes obvious that a lot of it is a bit melodramatic."
"Some of it is," agrees fellow Drive Like Jehu alum Froeberg, calling from New York. "Some of it's definitely intended to be pretty humorous, and yeah, melodramatic. A lot of songs on the last record [2000's Automatic Midnight] were intended to be that. Some people, that just does not register with them."
But not all of the many references to death on Suicide Invoice are tongue-in-cheek. The album has its share of morose elements. "Well it wasn't a fantastic year, was it?" explains Froeberg. "I saw a lot of death and destruction this year. I personally firsthand watched the World Trade Center go down. There's been a lot of idiocy and a lot of things that have just really scared me or pissed me off recently. More than normal."
thanks brian for sending this in