These stylishly ghoulish guys and gal come from Cagliari, Italy. It's in Sardinia, an island rather cut off from the rest of the country. You know what they say about Italy looking like a boot? well, this boot looks like it's kicking Sicily in the nuts - kind of symbolic of the opinion many Northern Italians have of their Southern compatriots. Sardinia just sits at a safe distance watching the scene, content to be forgotten. I myself couldn't tell you much about it - except maybe that a disproportionate part of pizzeria owners here in the Netherlands seem to come from there. Can't be the richest place in Italy if everybody's emigrating to the North. But from the photos I've seen it looks like an idyllic place where one can relax and enjoy the sea view with some wine and nice sea food - or, indeed, pizza. The last sound you'd want to hear when you're relaxing like that is The Hangee V. They derive their inspiration from the noisiest 60's garage punk groups like the ones featured on the classic Back From The Grave series. Their vocals are raw and primitive and punctuated by loud screams, while their playing mostly emphasizes punky aggression over skill. But when they do try to play well, as in the two surf instrumentals "Space Rats" and "Batman", they show they have the chops. "Black Cat" and "Praise Yourself" are crude punkabilly, while "Mirror Lies", "It's Not Time" and "Stolen Minds" remind me of 80's garage revivalists like The Stomach Mouths and Gravedigger V. My personal favourites here are the groovy Farfisa-led "Cherry Lee" and Sonics-like "Go Away" - actually a cover of The Plague - those 60's "superstars" who only managed to release one single. Hangee V seem to love losers. The punkish R&B stomper "Show You Love" that closes the album was originally written by the equally "prolific" Tikis, while the 3rd cover here belongs to The 4 Of Us who actually managed to record 4 sides (i.e. 2 whole singles!). Compared to their forefathers, The Hangee V have done incredibly well, still going strong after 12+ years and 3 albums. Persistence is certainly one of their virtues, even though originality isn't: they don't have anything to distinguish them from 100s of other bands in the same genre - no, wait! I'll take that back. They have a chick for a drummer! C'mon guys, there's only one girl in the band and you're burying her behind the drums at the back of the stage? That ain't right!
**** for Go Away
*** for Cherry Lee, Mirror Lies, Space Rats, Black Cat, Batman, Show You Love
** for It's Not Time, Stolen Mind, Praise Yourself
No comments:
Post a Comment