Hot Hot Heat - Scenes One Through Thirteen

2001 debut album from the Victoria, British Columbia No-Wave Post Punk. 13 tracks in all. Ohev Records. Album Description

 i actuallly really like it
when i first bought and listened to it i was confused, its soooo different than the hot hot heat nowadays. but i really like it. Matt Marniks voice is unique, and sounds good for the sort of screamo sound of the whole album. It also sounds super neato and different since theres no guitar, and is mainly synth based. my favrites are "fashion fight pause" and "spelling live backwards" i would say it's worth buying for sure. July 21, 2006

 Strangely wonderful!
Truthfully, when I first listened to Scenes, I was, well, shocked. Could this possibly be the catchy, poppish, wonderful Hot Hot Heat I had become smitten with over the last few months? But after a listen or two, this album truly grew on me. The songs are amazing! Matt Marnik's voice is quite unique, and the synth being the main melody is a terrific change of pace from regular guitar driven rock. The best song is Fashion Fight Pause, but all songs are terrific. You should definently buy this album, but don't expect it to be like Hot Hot Heat's more recent albums. July 5, 2006

 Love the album!
I do not understand how some people don't enjoy this album. The screamo-ness of it all is very fun and people don't give this album as much credit as they should. Catchy songs such as: Matador at the Door, Haircut Economics, Paco Pena, and Circus Maximus really make this album, interesting, and also worth listening to. I give this album a five star rating and Circus Maximus is my number one played on iTunes! June 29, 2006

 Showed vast promise
2 1/2 stars

Despite this album's horrible vocals and carnie-on-acid vibe, there are actually many times throughout the disc that you hear an amazing young band with some real fire in their approach. This album does work better as a sheer party favor for your head then an actual musical exploration, be sure that you want to embrace your inner 15 year old partying teen mode complete with crappy garage band rehearsal vibe, and you will appreciate this alot more . May 12, 2006

 Good, check it out with an open mind
It seems like there's two kinds of Hot Hot Heat fans: Those who think the stuff with the original lead singer and the guitarless band was the only great stuff and everything else was a sellout, and others who thought that this was garbage recorded in a dumpster because the quality wasn't up to snuff with later Hot Hot Heat stuff. Consider me neither of those. I think all of their stuff is pretty good, even if arguably this is a different Heat than you know now.

This was not put in order of the release, but it's put in a sequence that makes it easiest for people's ears. It includes their two EP's and the split one with Red Light Sting. Tracks 9-12 are all the first EP, although in a somewhat jumbled order. Poor recording quality, although it shows that Hot Hot Heat were even trend-setters in 2000, when the debut EP was released. All of those have a sense of melody. Even on here it shows that Steve Bays was great just as a keyboardist, and I really like the rhythms of the drums as well. Even if it is not for everybody, if "Breakdown" had you dancing, the material here will too. The tracks with yelling are somewhat less digestable since there's no real guitar for some, but I feel like this was kind of an inventive sound. This is noisy punk without guitars and in celebration of the keyboard, with good musicianship. The first two EP's were released on the record label which has Death from Above 1979's current output, Ache, which makes perfect sense. But what Heat did is always the most fun. The potential shown here is really interesting. Matt Mardik didn't really make the band drastically different, as his voice also had a nasal edge at times.

In the end, even if you hate it, a band called VCR owes this Hot Hot Heat incarnation a thankyou note. It's got the wit of "Breakdown" and "Knock" as well as more energy than the other records combined -- a bold statement coming from as big a HHH fan as me. November 23, 2005

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