Rockbites: Sahara Hotnights scorch new ground on US debut

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Sahara Hotnights scorch new ground on US debut
18 September 2002

The hottest guitar rock quartet in the world also makes some pretty good music.

Robertsfors, Sweden’s Sahara Hotnights, four girls now in their early 20’s, got together in 1993 when they were all 11 or 13 years old. Two sisters (guitarist Jennie Asplund and bassist Johanna Asplund) along with a couple of friends (front woman Maria Andersson and drummer Josephine Forsman) started making rock inspired by the US grunge scene (they cite Nirvana) as well as by a desire to overcome the boredom of their northern-Sweden small town life.
    A native gift for writing songs and five years of playing the fuck out of them paid off in ’97 when, as winners of an unsigned band competition, they got to record and release a small-label debut EP. Titled 'Suits Anyone Fine,' it’s now out of print; but it led to a major label signing to BMG for their home country.
    The rest of the world didn’t start to find out about this northern wonder (named after an Australian racehorse according to one online source) until 2000 and the release of their debut LP, C’mon Let’s Pretend.
    But perhaps their gender, perhaps their unfashionable sincerity, perhaps no good reason at all, kept them locked out of the US scene until New York city indie label Jetset Records signed them this year for the release of their second LP and US debut, Jennie Bomb. The new 11 song album came out last week for the US on Jetset, following an August 2001 release for Europe (with different cover art and additional songs) on BMG, and a March 2002 release for the UK on RCA.
    Jennie Bomb—recorded in Vagnharad and Gothenburg, co-produced by Chips K (Hellacopters, Nomads, Plan Nine) and the band—positively bristles with melodic hooks. Their noisy, exhilerating take on rock is distinctly postmodern, drawing from (in reverse chronological order) Bikini Kill, The Avengers, and (don’t cringe) Heart, blending it all up into an electric cocktail that stings and effervesces as it slithers its way into your system.
    While the music here is nothing new, it is heartfelt. And rock is all about the songs—which on Jennie Bomb are great, and ya can’t get ’em out of yer head so don’t try.
    Now, while the band appear as a pre-fab marketing ploy—four cute girls from Sweden playing metal-punk-pop for the boys—they’re really not. Johanna told the press this year “We make all the decisions about our band, we won’t do anything we don’t want to do. We write our own music, we always play live, and we’re not manufactured—we’re a rock band.” This summer she told London-based ezine StudentUK, “It pisses me off when people buy the record cos of the phenomenon that we are girls and don’t listen to the music.”
    A great party record and something to get your eyes open in the a.m., we’ll give Sahara Hotnights’ 'Jennie Bomb' three bites out of five.

Rockbites ratings  5: life changing, 4: stunning, 3: captivating, 2: amusing, 1: annoying.

Sahara Hotnights start a month-long US/Canada tour on 25 September in Los Angeles, playing all dates with New York’s The Moony Suzuki. Check our link for details. | Sahara Hotnights | | Jetset Records | | interview from StudentUK | | tour dates | | top of page |

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