When you’re young, notionally independent and unencumbered by the domestic, vocational and economic ties that come with age, a long holiday is a wonderful thing. Buy a one-way ticket, put all your stuff in a bag and head off into the distance, with ne’er a care for anything – other than, maybe, a passport and some cash. But eventually the long holiday can mutate into a trial, with attendant tribulations: logistical dramas, disgruntled fellow travellers and a general frustration with life on the road.
Thankfully, there’s none of the latter with Long Holiday. Listening to it does, however, transport me back to a time a couple of decades ago when holidays were devoid of the administrative and domestic complexities of the modern era. It’s a time when L7, Babes In Toyland, Nirvana and Soundgarden defined the musical zeitgeist, when the flannelette shirt was a fashion icon and political agnosticism was an ideological statement.
You can feel that slacker punk thing all through Hate Potion No.8, replete with sharp riffs to spit abuse over anyone caught in the band’s way; She Ain’t Dead (But You Are) builds to a crescendo, like a spurned lover presenting a case of emotional assault. Hit Machine is a pop song to die for – with a hint of Bo Diddley, The Yardbirds and David Bowie somewhere in the mix – and Garden Of Evil is all thrashing heads and Pixies guitar runs.
Army Of One is solitude in its ideal sludgy Pacific North-West guise, Red Eye stumbles through a morning after the night before with bleary eyes and frontal lobe crushing set of riffs. Salt is soft to the touch, and light to the ear; this is the holiday to which the band must be referring.
But it’s over soon enough, and Blood From A Stone returns to a basic linear rock route, before Cola Pop finds solace in the pop corners of Olympia. The darkness of Silver is compelling, the thrash, grind and grunge of ‘Round Again is arresting and Your World is the logical link between The Runaways and Lita Ford’s ‘Queen Of Metal’ days. With that, the holiday is finished, but the good memories remain.
BY PATRICK EMERY
Best Track: Hate Potion No.8
If You Like These, You’ll Like This: L7, BABES IN TOYLAND, PIXIES, RIVER OF SNAKES
In A Word: Grunge
