Sahara Hotnights
Jennie Bomb (Jetset)
Bangs
Call And Response (CD: Kill Rock Stars; vinyl: Punk In My Vitamins)
by Marc Hirsh

originally published in Space City Rock, Fall 2003

Sahara Hotnights, who hail from Sweden and thus lie twice before you’re finished speaking their name, are all Les Pauls and Marshall stacks cranked to 10. Despite their advance hype, their music isn’t punk, exactly, no more so than “Communication Breakdown” or “Paranoid”; they’re heavier than punk, less interested in velocity than in momentum. Jennie Bomb sounds like a Runaways party crashed by Elastica, and what pleasures there are to be found are mostly formal. The album’s production guarantees that each section of each song does precisely what it’s supposed to do, so that a track like “On Top Of Your World” becomes phenomenal due to the simple expedient of a chorus that throws it into a higher gear by slathering one more roaring guitar on top of anthemic chanting.

It’s ironic, then, that I recently discussed my disinclination towards jam bands with a friend on the basis of my formalist sensibility, and I now criticize Sahara Hotnights for appealing to nothing but. There it is, though, an album that would be fine if it had hooks (the nifty “We’re Not Going Down,” buried near the end, seems to have used them all up) or, better yet, songs. For the most part, Jennie Bomb lacks both, which prevents the album from providing anything more than modest kicks that exist entirely in the moment. The opening “Alright Alright (Here’s My Fist Where’s The Fight?),” which is easily the best song title of the year, seems to be one of Jennie Bomb ’s few standout tracks (assuming that we don’t count “With Or Without Control,” which distinguishes itself mostly by being what is surely the first Sleater-Kinney/Suede hybrid, linking the verses for “I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone” with the chorus of “Stay Together”), but that may just be a function of the fact that it’s the first one out of the gate, ensuring that it sounds fresh before the rest of the album devolves into formula. It’s not a bad formula, by any means. They just need to find something worthwhile to say with it.

Whatever it is Sahara Hotnights are doing, Bangs seem to be doing the precise inverse. Both groups sound like high school, but where the former are like the cool girls who’d just ignore you when their boyfriends aren’t pounding you in the kidneys, the latter make like the smart-ass kids who are a step away from nerdhood themselves and whose taunts are made even worse by being based entirely in truth. The Call And Response EP finds Bangs at an interesting juncture in their career whether they know it or not, and I don’t think they do. It’s simple: they must decide whether they want to remain steadfast and true as a punk band or delve into the dicier waters of pop production. The record’s production goes for punk immediacy and sacrifices detail, and it works for those couple of songs that simply crash and explode. In “I Want More,” new drummer Peter David Connolly earns his keep within seconds and spends the next two minutes putting a down payment on the future, while “Call And Response” has no real beat to speak of; it's all just Now! Now! Now! until the chorus, when Maggie Vail’s bass deliriously rushes the song along faster than it thinks it can go.

But if those songs can get away with being bursts of bratty cacophony, some of the other tracks suggest that the band’s beginning to experience ideas that would be better served by a sonic palette that goes beyond lo-fi minimalism. “Kinda Good,” which comes complete with electric piano, steps clear of punk to embrace a tender and unrepentant pop song. It’s reminiscent of “Undo Everything” (off of 2000’s superb Sweet Revenge ), but where that song’s trashcan production worked (coming off as an updated Shangri-La’s, who had lousy production themselves), “Kinda Good” flounders, fuzzing out the instruments and vocals alike when the song’s lyrics and melody beg to be accepted with a clarity that the band doesn’t permit. The 10” vinyl version of Call And Response adds a bonus cover of the Undertones’ “Get Over You,” and while it’s impossible for someone who loves the song to do it badly (and Bangs don’t even come close, despite a guitar figure apparently nabbed not from the O’Neill brothers but from the Buzzcocks’ “Boredom”), Bangs’ version subtly calls attention to the clean, clear production values of the original and how they crystallized rather than sanitized the song.

The closing “Dirty Knives” sums up Call And Response’s strengths and weaknesses. Zippy enough to be considered punk, it’s also a minor key pop song (albeit one with lyrics that are nicely evocative without suggesting what, exactly, they are evoking), with a catchy chorus filled out, quietly, with harmony vocals. They’re barely noticeable thanks to the production, and the energy and momentum of the song are more than enough to make it an instant highlight. But Bangs’ desire to start filling out their songs with small touches like harmonies and electric piano is a sign of expansiveness, that the songs that they’re writing are becoming sophisticated enough to benefit from better sonics like their Scandinavian sisters. Sahara Hotnights might have better production and therefore a better sound, but Bangs write better songs. And only one of those is enough to sustain a career.

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