Thee Headshrinkers are a masked proto-punk garage rock trio from Hastings who include Rob (stocking – vocals bass), Gino (balaclava – guitar) and Stiv (dolls head – drums) who release their debut album `Head Cheese` this month which straddles the line somewhere between the Stooges and The Fall. The are influenced by The Eighties Match Box B-Line Disaster, The Fall and the Sex Pistols and have an ambition to play the 100 Club.
The album opens with `Johnny` which is a delightful slice of retro garage rock about a character that seems to have a fairly dark aura and may well have passed away. There was a kind of blistering road trip vibe to `Dallas Texas` which seems to reference San Fransico rather that the Lone Star State city represented in the title.
`Motorbike` feels as if you are racing along on a crotch rocket while Mark E Smith narrates what you are undertaking. Although the title `Derivative` would suggest an imitation of the work of another artist, this track certainly isn`t. It had wonderfully deep echoey guitar riffs and a supporting drum rhythm that gave it a captivating haunting listen.
`Save Your Life` has a dreamy rawness about it with vocals that are shared in a kind of spoken word style and heads off with a cracking guitar solo for the last forty seconds or so. There`s a pounding thumping repetitive beat at the beginning of `Going Down` before it heads off into a more introspective texture with what appears not to be a threat of harm but a promise.
I read that `Sunday Driver` is ‘about a man who only feels alive behind the wheel of his killing machine` and it`s an interesting narrative that feels as if it`s shared remotely as if on autopilot or zoned out. I wasn`t quite sure of what `The King Is Dead` referred to but it may have reflected on societies class divisions. A pulsing number that becomes marvellously mesmerising.
`Mutha Fucka With A Chainsaw` is another enthralling listen while `Head On` is magnetic and repetitive about encouraging someone to get their shit together.
`Sweet Caroline` opens with a superb reverberating bass line as this stop start number rolls along and refers to a lady who ingests class b drugs and creates a disturbingly unhealthy and destructive interest from the narrator. The album closes out with `Travelin Man` a number that contemplates avoiding trouble with references to The Hanging Tree which may be a symbol of the eerie peacefulness of death. A number that has all kinds of enjoyable musical distortions on route.
I read that Thee Headshrinkers sound being referred to as a mixture of post-Manson 1960s, vintage guitars and the Texas Chainsaw Massacre soundtrack which is an interesting slant. For me `Head Cheese` is a captivating thirty plus minutes of alluring garage rock that will take you away from the trials and tribulations of life for a little while if you allow it to and i`d definitely encourage you to do so.
Rating 8.5/10
