How do I love HTRK? Let me count the MySpace pages.

I am obsessed with the band HTRK (See HTRK: best band of our time?). I absolutely love them. Apparently so does the Birthday Party's Rowland S. Howard, who produced one of their many unreleased recordings, and Liars, with whom they are currently touring Europe (See When awesome things happen to great people).

Now this may come as a shock; HTRK are a band from this century. They are not from the time period between 1978-1981, and still I love them! Of course, if someone combined Swans with Suicide and Siouxsie and the Banshees and the Cocteau Twins' Garlands album and something else really dark and loud and droning, with super depressing, misanthropic lyrics, I would love it. I'm predictable like that.

But you know who's not predictable, who's totally a loose cannon who refuses to submit to any preconceived notions of marketing, releasing records, or creating MySpace profiles? Well, HTRK of course! Like the Hip Hop Owl I once drew on a setlist for my first band, they just don't give a FUUUUUCK and they're gonna have as many damn MySpace pages as they want.


To date, there are MySpace profiles for just plain old HTRK the band, HTRK's sadly unreleased LP Marry Me Tonight, HTRK's general unreleased material (a profile appropriately named "HTRK-Unreleased"), and HTRK's only actual release, Nostalgia. Unfortunately, because this is confusing and weird, until recently I had never checked out any of the profiles apart from the original band one. And therefore I had been missing out on a cornucopia of reverb and vague creepiness. In an effort to get more people to like the best band I have no one to talk with about, I'd like to present this
User's Guide to the Many MySpace Pages of HTRK.*

1. The tour begins with the band's official MySpace profile. It lists upcoming tour dates, the official non-MySpace page website, and has a few tracks from Marry Me Tonight. None of the recorded tracks here really have the intensity and overwhelming noise of the live show, but it's all good because there are still three, yes, that's right THREE more MySpace pages of HTRK material.

2. The page for 2005's Nostalgia, the band's only physical release contains a few record reviews and the eponymous punisher "Hate Rock Trio." Plus a totally unsexy, totally nude picture of the band trying to out-skeeze Throbbing Gristle. Mission accomplished!!

3. Next stop: the page for HTRK unreleased. No threatening nudes here, just stone cold jams. I don't know what a "ksext true mix" is, but I like it! "Honeymoon" is another delight, with singer Jonnine Standish promising to "bruise your ego/'cause I like your face." Good stuff!!!

4. We wrap up our tour of the HTRK universe with a visit to the Marry Me Tonight page. Both songs are pretty good, but "Rentboy" is my personal favorite. It's about time someone wrote a decent track about keeping an emotionally atrophied dimwitted slut in the futile hopes of offsetting the misery of a soulsucking job and terrible life.


*4 realz, yo, could someone please release their record so that I can stop clicking play on the little MySpace player?