HOT HEAD SHOWer

Wonderland

2011-03-22T15:39:00.000-07:00

Thank you Mr/Ms. Extremities for your gallant cinematography, your no-nonsense approach to video editing, and your evidently advanced sense of Bang. And there were we thinking that evening at Wonderland was destined to pass unlogged into the midnight depths of forgotten history. NOT SO says the man with the video-recording telephone.

Everybody Do The Max Party Shuffle

2011-03-10T13:17:00.001-08:00

Beatamax went and made a Banger. If any of you are aware of a sassier tune ever having been recorded, we'd like to know about it.

BUMMER

2011-02-10T05:16:00.001-08:00

Mechanical Marinade

2011-02-01T18:21:00.000-08:00

HOT SHOW VINYL this way comes. Seven inches of shiny black bang bang, carved and bagged and ready to rotate right there on your residential record rotator. Test pressings have finally been APPROVED by the Show, and will be on sale from February 14th - the very date, by no small coincidence, that these two songs will become available on iTunes, Spotify, and whatever.

Here's a preview of the freshly remastered, omnispectrally superior recordings:

But what you should REALLY be riding right now is the REMIX lovingly choppastricated by A MECHANICAL MARINER:

AND! - the VIDEO will be up NEXT WEEK oh boy:

Thank you Ratface

2011-01-21T03:57:00.000-08:00

It would seem that a young man known as RATFACE83 had his videorecorder trained on a couple of bangs in Nottingham. Includes an HILARIOUS kick pedal mishap and strangely nautical vibe:

Kitty

2011-01-08T08:04:00.000-08:00

Our bass player has written a Taoist song, our first foray into such forthright philosophising. It is very nice.

Little Kitty by HOT HEAD SHOW

GOING NORTH

2011-01-06T11:34:00.000-08:00

Next week, after an unprecedented amount of time at the drawing board, the Show returns to stages ACROSS ENGLAND. Three NEW TUNES and a full range of MERCHANDISE will be available at all engagements.

To make this poster we took a photo of Vaughn taken by Barry before our show in Koln last year. Max leaped with ferocious enthusiasm immediately to the Hue/Saturation controls, and tweaked those electromagnetic vibrations for a good 45 minutes whilst Jordan and Vaughn were in the other room learning to simultaneously sing and play Jordan's new tune, which right now is called Hello Doctor. On returning to the Poster Issue, after some deliberation 40pt was ultimately proved ideal for the events themselves, though the cities and dates would require an 80 caliber Georgia Bold, whilst a mere 36pt seemed more than sufficient for explanatory details. The band then took an unsettling communication from the Manchester promoter, from which it was decided that the Manchester date on the 18th could potentially end up being woefully unfun, and should probably be cancelled. But then, to the unconcealed delight of all present, it was revealed that five dates on a poster actually looks better than six dates on a poster. Amid wildly affirmative cries and buoyant libations, the Quality slider was slid all the way to "highest"on the jpeg exporter, and the conversation drifted briskly elsewhere.
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What key is it even in?

2010-12-08T08:07:00.000-08:00

Hearty lolz on exhuming an old classic:

lemonz prax by HOT HEAD SHOW

Bodie and The Word

2010-11-14T13:55:00.001-08:00

Hot Headquarters having just this week found itself in a position to offer the discerning young composer both the technical wherewithal and the motivational gumption to record bits and often silly pieces right here in the cozy confines of a room above a betting shop in E9, Jordan and Vaughn have settled comfortably into a shift scheme whereby each will fire up the Recording Device during the other's hours of work for the Man. And so two songs have emerged, one of which might one day find itself being performed by Hot Head Show, whilst the other will almost certainly languish on some virtual shelf in an impossibly dustless digital database for a very long time indeed.

Bodie Doesn't Take It Sitting Down by HOT HEAD SHOW

the Word is God by HOT HEAD SHOW

Red Ball, Brown Curtain

2010-10-17T12:30:00.000-07:00

Built with You in Mind

2010-09-19T06:32:00.000-07:00

So Vaughn Stokes is back and settling in nicely to his former routine of sofa-slumbering till 3pm followed by alternate hours of bass-practicing and spotify-jockeying. Since we left him in New York three months ago, the only obvious differences are a slight thickening of his ambitiously groomed facial hair and a new appreciation for Chick Corea.

In other news, Jordan has been moonlighting on recordings helmed principally by Jonah "The Truth" Brody of Super Best Friends Club. His (Jordan's) Mbira chops only really come out to play on these rare session gigs, on this occasion committed to binary in the brand new recording facility deep in the guts of Homerton Psychiatric Hospital, after the Chilean sound engineer's ultimately job-costing decision to leave the band alone in the building whilst he (the sound Chilean engineer) went to pick up his girlfriend (an accomplished klezmer cellist) from the night bus stop:

The Return

2010-09-13T23:55:00.000-07:00

This week Vaughn Stokes will be once more in our midst. He's flying Victoria to London via like Belgrade, and will arrive probably Thursday. I'm sure he'll be giving y'all a thorough report once he himself is back in the Smoke - we here at the Show know very little of his movements since the end of the US tour. We know he stopped off briefly to visit the love of his life in Montreal, and that he then continued west in search of further coital opportunities. We heard a rumor he was living with a midget on the beach north of Seattle - some say he's strung out on some esoterically morbid mysticism, but we find that hard to believe. He was apparently sighted early last Sunday outside a burlesque club in Vancouver, in a compromising position with a beautiful double-amputee and a suspected racist. That story would seem to jive with this photograph, which reached us a few days ago:

Al Green

2010-09-11T17:13:00.000-07:00

The Lemon EP

2010-08-29T09:38:00.000-07:00

After many happy downloads from the Soundcloud player, we've now moved the Lemon EP over to Bandcamp, which we're told is what all the hepcats are doing. You can still download it for free, you just need to join our mailing list, which is really a win-win from your point of view.
Soundcloud.com/hot-head-show is still the place to go for live tracks, rehearsal jams and other obscurities, which will still be downloadable for nothing.

<a href="http://hotheadshow.bandcamp.com/album/the-lemon-ep">The Whole Lemon EP by HOT HEAD SHOW</a>

HEAD HOT ROAD SHOW #2

2010-08-19T18:08:00.000-07:00

BEHOLD:

Niagara

2010-08-19T06:02:00.001-07:00

Look what Barry done dug up from the bottom of his suitcase...

The American Opinion

2010-08-02T14:14:00.000-07:00

Thought you might enjoy some highlights of the various bits and pieces we were accused of whilst in the states:

FrantikMag.com 02.06.10

"It takes a lot to surprise people in London. Nonetheless, Hot Head Show are apparently turning heads with songs that Time Out London could only describe as "genuinely fresh" and "appealingly bizarre". Les Claypool, the muso demi-god responsible for plunging his mighty fingers into the confused bubble & squeak of London's burgeoning avant-rock scene and plucking forth this odd trio, describes them as "stupid, unclean, helpless geniuses". Having spent the first part of the year parading Hot Head Show around Europe, Claypool brings them now to the US for their first stateside tour."

Pittsburgh City Paper 03.06.10

"Opening for Claypool at Greensburg's Palace Theatre tonight is a new act worth special notice: Hot Head Show, a London-based trio whose erratic grooves and twisted lyrics combine elements of Captain Beefheart, deranged ska, The Birthday Party and Tom Waits. To quote singer Jordan Bennett's monologic lyrics, "Run for the early train that gets you there before the rush / 'Cause then the entrance fee won't sting so much."

Tiny Rager blog 08.06.10

"It is a wonder that Les Claypool doesn't understand the crowd's reaction to his music when he invites groups like this to open for his show. Personally, this was just a loud 30 minute mess used to get us rowdy. There was a pretty bass solo at one point but other wise the music was a headache. An utter headache. After reading about them, their reviews are actually positive... UGH! I am sorry but I really hate being screamed at by a band on stage."

Wall Street Journal .com 04.06.10

"Hot Head Show was the ideal opening act for Claypool and Co. The trio makes funky, zig-zaggy rock, though it tosses blues and ska into the blender as well, with lyrics from the Zappa/Claypool school of sophomoric humor. If you didn't make it to Montclair, the double-bill plays the House of Blues in Atlantic City on Sunday and the Brooklyn Bowl on Tuesday."

The Sonic Abyss blog 07.06.10

"Every once in a while a band comes along with a sound so insane (yet so undeniably well done and totally pro) that one's head just spins in wonderment until you realize you can do nothing but laugh, enjoy, and go with the flow... I’ve never heard anything quite like this before and I really can’t compare it directly with any one band. Absolutely one of the most fun bands I’ve ever heard in my life. As esoteric as any Frank Zappa album ever was (albeit with simple guitar/bass/drums instrumentation)... slips from garage to ska to twisted rock to avantgarde effortlessly, with one of the most fun and playful bass guitars I’ve ever heard and sharp British wit. No kidding…this is a fiercely original sound that has to be experienced. Guaranteed to make you smile, confuse and confound you. And the musicianship is just ludicrously top notch. I’m amazed at how addicting this sound is."

Pittsburgh Music Report 11.06.10

"The opening band Hot Head Show did not impress. The vocals were near indecipherable, they constantly started / stopped, and changed pace throughout the song. I had a hard time getting in to the groove."

AssociatedContent.com 04.06.10

"If the generic, bland sounds of American Idol are getting you down about the state of the modern music scene, then check out the wildly innovative music of Hot Head Show. This unique trio from London, England is never going to end up on any Top 40 playlist, and that's only one of the things that makes them so great. Hot Head Show plays music that defies any easy description, taking cues and influences from diverse sources such as the blues, ska, alternative rock, funk and psychedelia. Thrown together in a crazy musical stew and seasoned with witty lyrics and terrific vocals, their music will get your feet moving at the same time your brain is trying to process just what exactly you're hearing... at a time when mediocrity and blandness seem to dominate the music scene, it's wonderful to hear a band that just goes out there and plays their own kind of music."

2010-07-12T11:39:00.000-07:00

Yo here's what America looked like yo:

So the state of play

2010-07-10T07:56:00.000-07:00

currently is this: Betamax and Jordan are now back in London, but Vaughn decided to go from New York to Toronto in order to make love to the young lady he's been pining for since he arrived. Once he's done that a few times, he'll go back to Vancouver Island to rekindle his relationship with a large glass bong apparently superior to anything that has ever existed in Europe. Then, hopefully, he's going to book himself a flight back to London.

In the mean time, Betamax is living in his van and spending a lot of time on his fairly banging side-project Soccer 96, whilst Jordan finally has some time to figure out whether a brass slide might be better than a traditional glass bottleneck. When Vaughn returns, he will go from the airport directly to meet us in the recording studio to lay down Fingers and Bethany, so that we can push some new product to the people before the summer's out.

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He Used to Make My Big Toe Shoot Up In My Boot

2010-06-29T17:40:00.000-07:00

2010-06-08T14:45:00.000-07:00

New York City

INCOMING

2010-05-30T13:06:00.000-07:00

Going to New York tomorrow. Three dudes and a makeshift manager versus the mighty US of A. That's assuming they let us in - both Betamax and Vaughn Stokes are currently sporting the wrong sort of beard, and Jordan is bound to cause offense one way or another.

But assuming we do make it to the 3000 heads unknowingly awaiting us at Show #1 in Buffalo, we'll be banging out a couple of new ones, one of which is pretty odd, and then we'll probably do something like this too:

Should you see us wondering the streets of Manhattan, Buffalo, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Covington, Brooklyn, Manchester Tennessee, New Hope Pennsylvania, Philadelphia again, or Toronto, do please come say hi. We'll probably give you a lighter that says Hot Head Show on it.

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London Rumble

2010-05-17T11:26:00.000-07:00

So the show tonight is at an underground wrestling event in Hackney Wick - 92 Whitepost Lane E9 5EN - look for handwritten signs guiding you in off the street.

It cost a tenner and the only rule is that if you come in, you have to fight. We'll be playing an extended set with a heavy jam feel in keeping with the action as it happens. Should be a banger.

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The Lemon EP

2010-03-29T06:08:00.000-07:00

Here at last the Lemon EP is made fully available for listening, downloading, embedding, inbedding, inthekitchening, or wherever. The first track is the whole EP as intended - one seventeen minute strip of ballsout bangbang. But for those who'd rather have the tracks individually, the record can now be downloaded as such from this same player. It's all free, but should land right there in iTunes next to the music you paid good money for. The HARD COPY of this EP, costing about a tenner, will contain three extra tracks - Ritalin, Some Money, and Circumspangle #1, and probably a lovely sticker too. It will also be housed in appropriately nifty packaging, which is being scored and die-cut as we speak:

couple more live ones

2010-03-28T16:59:00.000-07:00

   HOTEL ROOM - Live in Berlin by HOT HEAD SHOW


   PAYLOAD - Live in Milan by HOT HEAD SHOW

Back

2010-03-27T08:59:00.000-07:00

Now back in London with a cup of Normal Tea in an honest block of flats. Europe was overwhelmingly good to us. Those European people laughed at all our jokes and enthused mercilessly. They gave us more beer than we could drink, more ham and cheese slices than we could fold into little baps, and they bought more CDs than we had to sell. We had to get another 500 made in Berlin, pressed by a nice girl who apparently sounded hot on the phone.

The shows were occasionally shit but mostly hella. Live EP and various bits & video pieces are now being masticated furiously, should be ready soon. And then there's this next tour - Colonel Claypool has now formally requested that we open his shows in the US this summer. Which begs the question - are the people of America ready for bang bang? Whilst we scratch our chins over that, why don't you look at these:

Tour: Germany

2010-03-20T10:14:00.000-07:00

Tour: Day 592

2010-03-15T12:37:00.000-07:00

Its all in Italy. Init!

2010-03-12T14:23:00.000-08:00

Hot Head Show! Capisce!

KOKO

2010-03-10T13:58:00.000-08:00

Claypool Tour Day 1:

What Goes Round

2010-03-03T18:41:00.000-08:00

Finished another tune today, soon to be on merch stands across Europe. Thought I'd stick it up here first, just for those of you brave enough to have ventured beyond the myspace...

What Goes Round by HOT HEAD SHOW

In just over two weeks we'll be performing this song in this building in Koln, Deutschland:

Fuckin Hella.

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Readying for the Road

2010-03-01T09:34:00.000-08:00

Much to do round here. Fresh bouquet of new tunes to prune, all manner of emails to people big and small, and which of these lighters is better....?

Tea Time

2010-02-15T07:42:00.000-08:00

Autocare

2010-02-09T10:40:00.000-08:00

The soiled remnants of a party above an auto shop, deep into a January night in Clapton.

That Betamax Sound

2010-02-04T13:57:00.000-08:00

This week, my word - for the first time in the history of Hot Head Show, our drummer showed up at Headquarters proclaiming that a song had been written and that he himself had written it. He tried to explain his concept for the tune, which made no sense at all. But knowing the boy to be a better drummer than he is an explainer, the recording machine was wheeled into the room, and Betamax laid down first a guitar part, then the drums.

Max's Rhythm by HOT HEAD SHOW

It needs a little work, but is going to be very banging indeed. This is one of five new tunes now being whittled lovingly in a basement in Dalston, splurges of which are bound to end up on here over the next few weeks. And I'm pretty sure I've got a new batch of live videos knocking around here somewhere.

It's Official

2010-01-27T08:38:00.000-08:00

So yeah, we're going to open for Les Claypool across Europe in March. The tour starts at Koko in Camden on the 8th March, from whence we'll proceed unto the Continent. Ten cities in twelve days.

This all started a few weeks ago, when we managed to score Mr Claypool's email address, and took it upon ourselves to pitch him our shit. As it happened he had a European tour coming up, and the need for a nifty little trio to warm up his crowds whilst they're checking their coats and getting a round in. But between the Yes from Les and the final confirmation there has passed a tense two weeks of Probably Maybe, whilst the booking agent and promoters checked the myspace, weighed us up against their favorite local bands, and punched numbers into the calculators on their blackberries, all the while murmuring secretively.

But as of this afternoon, it's officially a thing. Koko is already sold out, and the other dates are going fast - if you're an Italian Head or a German or Swiss Head, you best run straight down to the ticket shop. For American and Canadian Heads, and our original UK Heads who bin there from day, there will inevitably be a steady stream of blog continuing to gush frantically at your face and dribble down your chin and onto your trendy little shoes. There will also be MUSIC - our most pressing objective, before we start thinking about how we're going to feed ourselves on this tour, is to bang out some new SHOWTUNES.

Here's Jordan and Vaughn discussing concepts:

And Betamax is considering doing this in one of the new tunes:

So watch out for that.

It's Mungrul Music

2010-01-25T07:06:00.001-08:00

THIS WEDNESDAY:

It's MUNGRUL MUSIC

It's MUNGRUL MUSIC.

HOT HEAD SHOW | MySpace Music Videos
HOT HEAD SHOW | MySpace Music Videos

House

2010-01-24T07:25:00.001-08:00

Newsflash

2010-01-23T06:37:00.000-08:00

It's looking increasingly likely that Hot Head Show will be touring Europe with Les Claypool in a few weeks' time. Hoorah. More soon.

Leeds

2010-01-22T11:28:00.000-08:00

Played MOOSEWRENCH up in LEEDS. Looked a lot like this:

[click them and they get bigger]

Brixton

2010-01-21T16:44:00.001-08:00

Snow

2010-01-15T04:32:00.001-08:00

The LEMON EP

2010-01-10T17:51:00.003-08:00

That old link to the old EP now having reached its download quota, here's a new link to the old EP, with the new EP set to be released within the next couple of weeks. Listen right here, or download and open in iTunes or whatever.

The Lemon EP by HOT HEAD SHOW

One Opinion

2010-01-10T06:16:00.001-08:00

Moose Factory Top 10 Live Acts of 2009 [Click Here]

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wha wha wha whaaa

2010-01-06T02:20:00.000-08:00

Donkey BVs by HOT HEAD SHOW

Transit

2010-01-04T04:27:00.001-08:00

Big Bear Mountain

2010-01-02T04:15:00.000-08:00

Los Angeles

2009-12-31T13:58:00.000-08:00

Some Photos

2009-12-29T01:18:00.000-08:00

Drugs are not the only solution

2009-12-07T11:20:00.000-08:00

Kitchen Show

2009-11-30T18:33:00.000-08:00

A few minutes of footage have surfaced, recounting this peculiar outing in glorious low-definition. It was a few weeks ago now - after a pretty deep Super Best Friends Club show in Dalston, we darted across town to this basement kitchen to plant some bangers and mash right there on the lino.

The Daddy

2009-11-21T17:46:00.000-08:00

This is being put up here partly to counter Vaughn's grizzly little video selection a few days ago, and partly because it might actually be the best music film ever. Spiritually, Hot Head Show is little more than a Raymond Scott covers band - we're willing to own up to at least a third of this video's 82,000 views, and would advise you to google that shit.

2 Shows and another 86 hours in the studio

2009-11-16T05:29:00.000-08:00

In summary:
The new guy is so right on you wouldn't believe.
Betamax's girlfriend's band is also actually pretty good.
Jordan is nearly ready to stop arsing around with the new tracks, but not quite.
Drummer and bass player now live in small flat above a Costcutter with only mild
rodent infestation, though unless bass player finds a job pronto he'll be back on
guitarist's sofa, where rodent issues are more severe, before the end of the month.
Here's what it all looks like:

The Lemon EP

2009-11-05T09:36:00.000-08:00

Our first batch of recordings are now being offered to you here, on the condition that you pay us absolutely NOTHING, but that you also resolve to attend a real live HOT HEAD SHOW before you find that you are old and think the kids on X-Factor are actually not bad.

Click the thing up top there, whack it on your iPod and incorporate these five odd little songs into your civilian activities as best you can.

The plan is to make an expanded version with extra tracks and **!EXCLUSIVE VIDEO CONTENT!** available as a physical CD release some time soon. And then there's these new tracks we've been recording:

Those ones are being mixed every day after school, and should be ready for you to play to all your friends within the next couple of weeks.
Love,
Jordan

Week One

2009-10-24T10:39:00.000-07:00

So the kid arrived. And we like him. He came pre-loaded with all our material as played on the record, so in theory all we have to do is cover the directions things are likely to go once we get to Showtime. This shouldn't pose too much of a problem - it seems that against all odds, and in addition to his ninja skills, Vaughn Stokes is a bit of a badboy on the bass.

At some point we're going to have to turn our attention to his need for a job and somewhere to live, but for now he seems happy to potter around Hotheadquarters humming Jaco Pastorius licks (a habit I'll soon beat out of him) and scoring gigs - the kid must have emailed 50 promoters in his first two days. Hard as I try to break him down with dirt and disillusionment, he continues to splurge smiles and enthusiasm all over every challenge in his path - at 18 years of age, he is an unstoppable torrent of Yes.

What ever happened to Hot Head Show?

2009-10-11T13:15:00.000-07:00

Things have been relatively quiet in the HHS corner for a couple of months now. The more astute among you may be wondering what happened to that groovy little band to which you once so heartily headscratched.

The bald truth is that there have been some personnel changes here at HotHeadquarters. Bass Player Number One, Mr Stan Dudley, was discovered to be making unnervingly gratuitous films about fruit juice that were so off-brand, so genuinely disturbingly sticky, that we had to let him go. His replacement, the Most Deeply Progrooverant Jonah Brody, ended up getting sponsored by the Balinese government to relocate to the Indonesian School of Gamelan and Shadow-Puppetry, where he now lives in a mango grove reading Anna Karenina and nursing chronic diarrhea.

There is however a glimmer on the horizon, a glimmer which we might suppose by the nature of its approach to be of not inconsiderably monstrous significance. A young Canadian player by the name of Vaughn Stokes, having caught wind of the low-end deficit crippling his favorite band, has taken it upon himself to leave his home town of Victoria BC, to travel the 4769 miles to East London, leaving behind his hot girlfriend and his steady job scrubbing woks in a noodle franchise, in the hope that Hot Head Show will accept him into its ranks. Hot Head Show has vigorously discouraged all such folly, but Vaughn Stokes has made up his mind.

We, the two surviving Showmen, have thus far never met Mr Stokes. Since his first email correspondence with us just a few weeks ago, we have been assured that he knows the parts inside and out. The data from Youtube's analytical tools, which show hundreds of plays of our various live videos to have originated from an IP address in British Columbia, would seem to at least reinforce the possibility.

But can the kid really play? What are the chances of his not being a ignant little shit? Might he to any extent be homicidal? The fate of this band has taken such strange turns of late that it seems sensible to begin some record of this here henceforth. As I type, Vaughn Stokes hurtles high above the Atlantic - in a few hours he'll arrive in London with nothing but a duffel bag, a black fretless Fender Jazz bass, and this band. Surely he won't last long.