Witch Hats
Wound of a Little Horse
In-Fidelity Recordings 2006

Listen, ok it is Springtime, and I’m having a big time stress fest because–you guessed it–my warm weather look is soooo tired, ’06 stylee that it simply WILL NOT STAND another year in the sun. Therefore, I am on the major new wardrobe warpath. Which is how I happened upon this great band… Ok, Now, if you are a buyer for Urban Outfitters, please STOP reading. For Real. STOP. I’m still bitter about having to trash my single strap yakpak in ’97 when they showed up in that fucking store window just two weeks after I ‘discovered’ them via my endless trolling of the NYC fashion underground! You may think me paranoid, but I swear those bastards have been stalking me for the last 10 odd years and biting my style for consumption by the urbanely outfitted masses at every turn. Seriously, they need to get off my nuts. SO, anyway, without giving too much away about my groundbreakingly original summer07 accessories dujour, I will just say that I happened to be online, innocently search around for a w____ h__, when I was led unfailingly by my physically prodigious and metaphorically sensitive-to-cool-shit nose to this young band of young Australian criminals: Witch Hats.

They are from Melbourne and should not be confused with Missouri’s prog/indie outfit Witch’s Hat. The group I’m talking about here just released their first EP Wound of a Little Horse on In-Fidelity Recordings late last year, and seems to otherwise be wrapped in mystery (at least in this hemisphere). They are not in heavy rotation on the sound system at Urban yet–at least not last time I checked (you jerks better have stopped reading when I told you!!). For me their sound recalls a lot of great American noise rock from the late 80s-early 90s–particularly the jagged brutality of Jesus Lizard‘s guitar and bass arrangements, and the fractured slap-back hysterics of Chrome Cranks‘ front man Peter Aaron. Their label’s marketing scree heavily hands you a Birthday Party influence, but I guess it amounts to about the same thing, since both the Jesus Lizard and the Chrome Cranks slouched over the ground originally broke by that band as well. Bravo for 30 years of AU-US cultural exchange. Wound of a Little Horse was co-produced by Birthday Party drummer Phill Calvert, so yeah, I guess it’s legit. Witch Hats brew up this 90s brutality with some really unexpected melodic moments of the sort that were more popular across across the Atlantic in the UK back in the day. The chorus of “Ma Birthday”–a 5+ minute lurcher that builds a sparse swampy rant into lush explosions of sound–in particular almost approaches the shimmering drone of My Bloody Valentine. Add to that more than a pinch of the cheeky-yet-sinister attitude that is every parent’s or late night stroller’s worst nightmare, and you should have an idea of how this record goes down.

With only five songs, Wound of a Little Horse left me wanting more for sure, so maybe with luck the shining future shall grant us a full length from them and maybe some New York shows??? Seriously, if Die Die Die can move up here for like a whole semester or whatever, the least Witch Hats can do is stop by for a shorter spell… And hopefully it will be before you-know-who gets wind of you know what, and I’ll still be the only kid in Williamsburg rocking one of these bad bad boys:

Witch Hats on Myspace
Witch Hats’ label page
Excellent selection of affordable, adult-sized witch and wizard hats

Track Listing:
1. Pepperman
2. Ma Birthday
3. Jock The Untold
4. My Heartaches
5. Stupid Arrangements