Hot Snakes
Hot Snakes guitarist-songwriter John Reis has lived a life steeped in rock ’n’ roll. From Pitchfork to Drive Like Jehu, Rocket From the Crypt and eventually Hot Snakes, Reis has ridden a continuous wave of beloved bands. With Hot Snakes, he stripped the rock ’n’ roll formula to its basic elements. “I think the band really embraces the convention of rock ’n’ roll,” said Reis. This focused approach garnered the band a rabid following over their initial five years. Since their 2005 dissolution, their following has grown to cult status.
After Drive Like Jehu wound down and Rocket From the Crypt went on hiatus, Reis began working on Hot Snakes with Delta 72 drummer Jason Kourkounis. “I had the sound and music in my brain,” Reis said. “[I thought], Let’s realize this and see what it actually sounds like once I get it out.” The sound shows a taste for obscurities—namely the surf-y dark punk of The Wipers and the psyched-out strangeness of Michael Yonkers. The latter’s obscure classic, Microminiature Love, left a huge impression on Reis. “Just a powerful record, powerful music,” said Reis. “It really made me look at guitar playing, songwriting and the sounds that the guitar is capable of in a different way. It expanded the vocabulary.”
The initial Reis-Kourkounis recordings featured attempted vocals by Reis. Though Reis was an experienced vocalist, he quickly found that his voice didn’t fit the project. His course of action was obvious. Rick Froberg sang in Pitchfork and Drive Like Jehu alongside Reis. “Rick was the first person I thought of,” said Reis. “He completely elevated all the songs, all the music; everything just got way better.” Gar Wood was added on bass to round out the lineup.
Over a five-year span, the band released three studio albums, one live album, toured relentlessly and recorded one of John Peel’s final Peel Sessions. With fatherhood on the horizon, Reis decided to end Hot Snakes as well as his long-running band, Rocket From the Crypt. “We met the people, we shook the hands, we kissed the babies,” said Reis. “It was a lot of fun, but it was just time for a new stage in my life.”
Though the Hot Snakes’ book was closed, it wasn’t closed tightly. Within a couple of years, Reis was back at it with The Night Marchers, featuring some familiar faces. “It became obvious when I started The Night Marchers with Gar and Jason from Hot Snakes,” he said. The seeds for the inevitable reunion were sown.
In 2015 and 2016, Reis and Froberg found themselves touring together for a series of Drive Like Jehu reunion gigs. These gigs became the spark that re-lit the Hot Snakes. Reis realized that he didn’t have to channel the past; the Hot Snakes’ sound was still alive and well within him. “The Drive Like Jehu reunion we did, it made me realize that, if I were to write new music, the music of Hot Snakes is still current to what I’m attracted to,” Reis said.
Never one to slow down too much, the past couple of years have been busy for Reis and the rest of Hot Snakes. They signed to Sub Pop, who recently reissued their previous three full lengths as well as the soon-to-be-released Jericho Sirens. The album’s singles, the straight-up rocker “Death Camp Fantasy” and the subdued “Six Wave Hold-Down,” offer up separate sides of the Hot Snakes’ musical equation, but just a small glimpse into the breadth of Jericho Sirens. “If that’s the only exposure that the person’s had when they put the record on, they haven’t really heard the stressful tension that starts at the very first note of the first song,” said Reis. “If anything, those first two songs that have been exposed offer the only kind of relief on the record.”
The 14-year gap between the band’s last full length, Audit in Progress, and Jericho Sirens doesn’t worry Reis. He sees the new album as a continuation. “It’s fun to evolve in a way that we don’t have to completely shed the skin to enjoy being creative and feel like what we’re doing is important to us” Reis said.
Hot Snakes play with Duchess Says and Meat Wave at Mad Planet on Thursday, March 15 at 8 p.m.
