Recently, during one of my daily bouts of procrastination, I somehow found myself surfing through www.rockcritics.com (curse you, Internet!), revisiting the history of mid-80s indie rock as documented in the Canadian music tabloid Nerve (an earlier, superior predecessor to today’s Exclaim! magazine). These were my formative years and my first published music criticism appeared in the pages of Nerve (a review of Pussy Galore’s latest album, natch). I was but eighteen years old and fully immersed in a self-directed education about all things guitar and post-hardcore. Ever so often I pull out records from that time – Nice Strong Arm, Live Skull, Band of Susans – but now that all my LPs are buried in the basement, I might never listen to them again. Maybe that’s why when I first heard this record by the Hoa Hoa’s (Oh, what a horrible name! Change it now!), I didn’t hear anything special. It took a couple listens for me to recognize the old pleasures, to admit to the idiosyncratic delights of slow burning guitar rock. It first reminded me of the girl group Scrawl, and then the Fall, and sometimes Sonic Youth (before they became old and self-important). It made me want to dig up compilations on Homestead Records and Blast First. There was a time when these labels were like a religion to me; I would worship their every release. The HH’s take me on a trip down that memory lane. (Terence Dick)
CD, Yummy Recordings, www.yummyrecordings.ca