Toronto trio The Bats Pajamas’ new full-length – No Hello – just released on cassette by Fleeting Youth Records, is truly a terrifying collection of songs. In fact it’s a perfect soundtrack to sit around and peruse a copy of William Blake’s The Marriage of Heaven and Hell and it will have you looking over your shoulder at every creek and bump.
Just turn it up, it sounds better really loud anyway.
The lead off track – Feel Like Shit – conjures up visions of grinning demons presiding over the damned as they hammer away in the underworld. Witch Way, a standout track, pounds like Ministry slowed to a crawl – distorted howl and all, and it reminds me of a less irreverent version of the obscure Jolly Tambourine Man classic – The Apple Strudel Man.
Things pick up a bit (ha!) with the Stooges-like rage of TV Sheets, the sludgy Danzig metal of Fibres and the downright poppy (well for The Bats Pajamas maybe) This Ain’t No, before Sky Hooker slows things back down with its Weezer in a drone machine throb. Yr Porno – the fastest song of the bunch, thrashes like early Misfits, before the crushing doom metal of Wrong House. The record ends with You and Me Both, a creepy ode to The Cramps and dancing skeletons everywhere.
No Hello is a long way from their Steve Albini produced garage punk debut back in 2010 – but I personally love the direction The Bats Pajamas is going in – akin to the Melvins playing Bauhaus covers or as they call it – “witch punk”.
The Bats Pajamas were featured here back in January, and although they remain a mysterious entity, with an album this strong and hypnotizing they will have to emerge from the bat cave for a tour this year.
You can download – No Hello – for free from Bandcamp or buy a cassette from Fleeting Youth Records (link below).
