3 out of 5

Label: Suicide Squeeze

Produced by: Hella

I remember when everyone and their pants were pissing themselves over Hella.  And thus did I avoid them.  I don’t know if I ever really had an understanding of their sound, as it’s definitely an oddity for Suicide Squeeze, but looking back, the two-man noise barrage had its day around then, with Black Dice and Lightning Bolt and Oxes popular namedrops and magazine references for a few days.  So, as I do, curiosity – and a Suicide Squeeze sale – brought me back around to pick up some Hella discs – including this EP, which I recall frequently passing judgement on the purchasers of.

But, yeah, time has passed, and Bitches ain’t not bad.  The group made its presence known for being a noisy spasm of guitars and drums, and they don’t disappoint, also including the kitchen sink: noise and NES on opener Ho’s in the House; bleeps and bloops on the title track; funk on Rich Kid.  While there’s absolutely an apparent method to the madness – Bitches and Rich are both mad jams but keep returning to a central theme – the EP leans a bit too heavily on a jam sound to really make a lasting impression.  Rich Kid comes across the best, as it has a sense of ebb and flow, and the opener shows a mastery of volume and manipulation, but the closer (with vocals) ‘Elkan Since Republic of R+B’ ends up sounding like someone singing over rehashed bits from the previous tracks and the title track, though well-balanced in its use of extras, plays itself out over seven minutes.  The sound is undeniably impressive, but distilled down to an EP it’s harder to spot the songwriting, and can easily just be mistaken for kids playing loud and fast.