Little did anyone know it, but when brain-flayingly brilliant San Diego rockers HOT SNAKES entered the hallowed Maida Vale Studios towards the end of October 2004 to record a session for John Peel's programme, it would end up being the very last committed to tape before the great man shuffled off for his first lengthy broadcast in the sky.
Most of us round here are still struggling to get over Peel's loss, but certainly Hot Snakes' revved'n'cranked four-track offering sounds like a hell of a send-off for our hero. Their third album "Audit In Progress" was just about hitting the shops at the time, and from it we get the pummelling "Braintrust" - where the choppy guitars are tighter than a glassblower's cheeks and Speedo yelps the "Don't go to Harvard! Don't go to Yale!" chorus like his balls depend on it - and the chugging., insistent "This Mystic Decade" with its' cheesewire guitars and the lung-scouring Speedo roar coming across loud and clear.
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Both are cool, though arguably the revamped selections from HS'S debut album "Automatic Midnight" are even better. "No Hands" is sinister and groovy slampunk with Speedo's vocals bouncing off the walls, while "Automatic Midnight" itself is simply ball-busting ramalama at its' best. While it certainly wasn't designed for the purpose at the time, "Peel Sessions" works beautifully as a frantically fond farewell and leaves us in no doubt John will still be cueing these up and playing them for a whole new audience somewhere better than this.
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