04.16.11
Great Band Names from Texas — Too great, so they changed it
Good news, lads! Good news! Tough women with lotsa dangerous tattoos!
Twelve minutes of off-the-cuff documentary video taken at SXSW in Austin showing The Hot Things, Texas Terri Bomb, and Pentagram
Even though the audio is far from sterling, the first six minutes — shot at a record store called Cheapo — efficiently delivers on the volcanic white trash rock. Part of it, the delivery of The Hot Things, the backing band.
From Humble, Texas, outside Houston, The Hot Things may be one of the most poorly marketed bands, ever, considering their former name — Shit City High and the best hard rock T-shirt ever.
Now I want to visit Humble, at least for a weekend.
Obviously urged internally or externally to undertake a name change, an interview with them at a Houston newspaper is here.
An excerpt for explaining that which did not need it:
Irony is what we do best, as you can tell with our band name and song titles. Besides that, I wanted a name that captured the “filthy-trashiness” of every city and to me, every city is a shit city and every night is a “shit city high!” And, luckily, SCH won over “Diabolical Dick Suckers!”
[Vocalist “MansRuin”: I wanted the Diabolical Dick Suckers but the guys weren’t going to have that!
RO: Wonder why that was? Seems reasonable enough.
MR: I did like The Bloody Lips as well. Shit City High is cool.
Right away you know why I like them. If DD’s your stage name, how can you not like a band whose frontperson’s moniker is “MansRuin”?
QED.
The Hot Things (nee SCH) had an album released recently. You can listen to around half of it here. Damned if I can find a physical copy, though.
On YouTube there’s way more video under the easily searchable “Shit City High” than under the not-so-search-friendly “Hot Things.”
And all of it is shockingly under-appreciated, something this blog will endeavor to change. If only briefly. OK, readers, don’t lemme down. Tick this next one. The zany photos with jiggle effect are perfect!
And shot in superbly appropriate blurry artificial black and white:
Lyric, I think: Your ass is hot, so who can blame us/We came from Venus to destroy your anus…
Invigorating stuff! Makes me young again. I’m serious.
The third act shown in the Austin clip is of Pentagram, a heavy metal band fronted by a fellow named Bobby Liebling.
And of them, I wrote years ago:
Thirty years in the business, almost twice that many records sold—or so it seems. But for Pentagram, persistence of vision works. The collection is mid-’80s Cotton Mather-inspired sludge ‘n’ cack, a style absolutely no mass demographic is or was interested in—shunned even in Britain, where this band of Virginians was mystifyingly sent to market. “Vampire Love” is a catchy trudge-metal classic; “The Ghoul,” Edgar Allan Poe for those prone to tattooing themselves using the nibs off fountain pens. And Bobby Liebling is a Roky Erickson type who mixes blues mumbling, I’m-living-in-a-ram’s-head black metal dogma, and Johnny Cash storytelling in the space of an hour and a half.
Watch that segment. You’ll have to agree I was spot on re the Cotton Mather part. (Still puzzled by the reference? See here.)
Still mystified? OK. Next.