Record of the year: HTRK's "Marry Me Tonight"

(Image borrowed from Emma Pop via BoingBoing. This picture does a very good job of conveying what this band is like in concert, and so I hope all parties involved are ok with me reposting it!)

When the Horrors opened for the Kills and I first heard that song "Mirror's Image," I kept telling everyone at the show how they were "missing the 2nd Best Band in London!!!!" Well, HTRK are the #1 Best Band in London, and in my heart. People who have been with this blog from the start have been treated to a seemingly endless non-variety of posts fawning over this Melbourne/London threepiece. And so far most of the physical recordings I've so eagerly anticipated from the group have not lived up to the gloom-heavy, intense atmosphere of the live performances, and all the YouTube videos have bad sound. But now, thanks to wonderful Mute imprint Blast First Petite and Birthday Party guitarist Rowland S. Howard (who produced HTRK's recent full-length Marry Me Tonight), you too can experience that ominously grinding noise-rock-on-Sizzurp sound in the comfort of your very own home!


This band gets a lot of comparisons to Suicide, which makes sense, and I think there's a certain similarity to Swans in the darkly sexual nature of some of their tracks. (But then again I would find a similarity to Swans in anything if I could.) Check out Rent Boy, for an example, on the HTRK MySpace page. This track has always been a favorite of mine. You really need to buy Marry Me Tonight so that we can talk about this album. Especially Minneapolis people--I feel like there would be a lot of people into this sort of thing, even though it is a little bit (lotta bit) dirgier than your everyday DANCE NOISE ROCK (kidding, kidding!). I did find my favorite track from this release, "Shoot You Up," available to hear on Amazon.com, where they have humorously assigned it the more family friendly name of "She's Seventeen." It opens with the lines "Outside your house/where have you been/I'm hanging out/to get closer" and you know this isn't like just sitting on your front porch to hang with your best bud and have a few beers. It's kinda scary--but scary good. I LOVE YOU HTRK!!!!! Seriously, everyone buy this record now.

Side note: Sorry this post is in no way funny or really entertaining. That would entail me picking my tongue up off the floor and being witty. And I am saving that for this weekend when I go on a CHICAGO ROADTRIP.