Hot Hot Heat is a rock band from Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. The band is currently comprised of Steve Bays (vocals andkeyboards), Paul Hawley (drums), Dustin Hawthorne (bass) and Luke Paquin (guitar).
Hawthorne and Bays had been in many different bands together since 1995. In 1999, Hawley bought a Juno 6 keyboard and asked Bays to try playing it, as no one else knew how. Hawley took over the drums from Bays and Hawthorne played bass. Matthew Marnik, who was a friend of the band, sang vocals. The band’s original sound can be considered synthpunk.
The band soon changed direction to a more melodic, pop-influenced style, losing Marnik and adding guitarist Dante DeCaro. Strongly influenced by the New Wave sound of 1980s bands XTC, The Clash, and Elvis Costello and the Attractions, the new lineup, with Steve on vocals, quickly released a series of 7″ singles and toured extensively in Canada and the American Pacific Northwest, joining up with similarly-styled indie rock bands such as Les Savy Fav, The French Kicks, Radio 4, Ima Robot, and Pretty Girls Make Graves, and opening for established Canadian rockers Sloan on a national tour.
The band’s touring exposure attracted the interest of Seattle record label Sub Pop, who signed Hot Hot Heat in 2001, leading to the 2002 release of EP Knock Knock Knock, produced in part by Chris Walla of Death Cab for Cutie. Although Hot Hot Heat got its start as a hardcore band, by the time it made contact with Sub Pop, its sound had mutated into what would soon be known as dance-punk. The band stood at the forefront of a movement that would explode on the indie rock scene within another year. That release was followed by the band’s first full-length release, Make Up the Breakdown, produced by Nirvana and Soundgarden producer Jack Endino.
That album quickly found critical acclaim, and its singles “Bandages” and “Talk to Me, Dance With Me” received regular airplay on MTV and radio, including influential Los Angeles, California station KROQ, on whose charts both reached No. 1.
In 2004 Make Up the Breakdown won “Favorite Album” at the Canadian Independent Music Awards by popular vote. Guitarist Dante DeCaro announced his departure from the band in October 2004, but stayed to complete their next album. That album Elevator, the band’s major label debut, was released commercially by Warner Bros. in April 2005. Dante handed over to replacement guitarist Luke Paquin when the band started their 2005 tour.
The follow up to Elevator, Happiness Ltd., was released on September 11, 2007. In late March 2007, the band posted the song “Give Up?” on their MySpace page as a sample of the album, and it was released on iTunes as a single on May 15th. A second single entitled “Let Me In” was released in July 2007.
Tags: Music
