It's been nearly three years since Milwaukee's Head On Electric released their last record, Sleep Slaughter Sheep, a fitfully scorching album of grunge-kicked garage-punk, and there's still no target date for a formal follow-up. Last month the band posted something that should help ease the wait a bit, however: a nine-song set called Daddy's Home that's too unfinished to be considered an official album but too solid to be dismissed as mere demos. As drummer Cole Juntila explains, it was at one point intended to be their follow-up to Sleep Slaughter Sheep.
"We recorded that 'album' almost two years ago at our friend's cabin in central Wisconsin, and have been sitting on it for a long time," he explained. "It had a concept, a title, and art, but nothing ever happened, and we just started writing new stuff."
At times the album's lack of finish actually works in its favor. It's rawer and shaggier than Sleep Slaughter Sheep, and—either by accident or design—more acoustic and country-leaning, lending songs like "Prairie Run" and "Canberry Road" the feel of campfire hymns. Even with all the strummy guitars and rustic harmonicas, the temperamental ferocity of the group's last record remains intact, and singer Erik Oley's seething yowl remains as biting as ever. Head On Electric is one of those rare bands that somehow sounds more sinister during their quieter moments.
You can stream Daddy's Home below, via Bandcamp. And you may be hearing different versions of some of these songs sometime soon. Oley says the band has re-recorded a few of them for a pair of planned 7-inches.
