CHAINSAW HOOKERS

CHAINSAW HOOKERS
CHAINSAW HOOKERS
(Blood Rock Records/Firestarter)
****

It’s been a pretty good twelve months or so for local rock monsters Chainsaw Hookers, with a steady gigging schedule spiced up with some high profile support slots - Dropkick Murphys, anyone? - and now culminating with this, their debut LP. So how do the Hookers, a pretty damn great live act, translate to a recorded medium?

Remarkably well; the album has all the energy and fury of their live set. Lyrically, there’s not much in the way of subtext going on here - let’s be honest, there’s not even much in the way of text. The Hookers know what they like, and that’s what they sing about: horror movies, girls, violence, drugs, booze, and more horror movies. Their self-titled album is a lightning fast - only one song clocks in at much more than three and a half minutes - paean to grindhouse, grindcore, and crotchgrind. With songs like Never Sleep Again (A Nightmare on Elm Street) Santanico Pandemonium (From Dusk Til Dawn) and Texas is Hell (The Texas Chain-Saw Massacre) it’s clear that these boys are the Video Nasty generation come home to roost.

Anyone complaining about the lack of complexity is missing the point; Chainsaw Hookers are peddling beats for the brainstem, appealing on a pure, primal, eat/fuck/kill level. As an anthem for anyone who rooted for the serial killer in horror movies, this album is damn near unbeatable.

_TRAVIS JOHNSON

BALLS OF STEEL

Hair metal throwbacks Steel Panther are “more infectious than a bad case of herpes” and they’re set to bring the love back to Perth this year. After rocking the main stage of Soundwave back in March, the LA rockers will hit the stage of Metro City on Wednesday, October 10.

RIDE WITH ME

Do you remember what you were doing in 1992? Well, Mark Gardener does: he had just released the masterpiece Going Blank Again with his British alt-rock group Ride. To celebrate that momentous year, Gardener is heading to Australia on an acoustic tour where he will revisit some of that shoegaze classic as well as other hits from across his career.

BAKED SALMON

With his name synonymous with The Scientists, The Surrealists, Beasts Of Bourbon, and oh so many more, Kim Salmon is one of the most influential musicians ever to have cut their teeth Perth. He promises to “guitarfuck” Perth when he drops by The Bakery on Saturday, July 28.

SKY’S THE LIMIT

Combined their talents on full length album Songs Of The Southern Skies, Katie Noonan and Karin Schaupp are now joining forces for an Australian tour. The album features contributions from the likes of artists Iva Davies, Gurrumul, The Living End’s Chris Cheney and heaps more.

GROWING UP

You may have seen them on the Rage couch over the weekend, but you will have to wait until August until you see them again. They are Melbourne rockers Children Collide and they’ve just released their third album Monuments.

SKULL CANDY

Fresh from the announcement that On The Bright Side is taking a year off, we get one more Splendour In The Grass sideshow announcement. UK trio Band Of Skulls are returning to our shores for their Sweetening Up Winter tour and they will step into The Bakery on Monday, July 23,

SMILING POLITELY

It’s official: there is not going to be an On The Bright Side festival in Perth this year, but we can tell you that at least one of the Splendour In The Grass headliners is making their way to Perth in 2012! The Smashing Pumpkins are true survivors of the ‘90s grunge movement.

WAKE ME UP

After pulling the pin on his proposed stop in WA earlier this year due to a stirring bout of pneumonia, George Michael has announced dates to make up for it, including a stop in WA which will go down in history.