21 January 2010

HATE THAT SMILE


Some killer mid-80s UK punk from HATE THAT SMILE.  The vocalist sounds like a Join The Army era Mike Muir on the first track, and after that he just kinda sounds weird, but by the end of this tape I find myself drawn to his voice.  Ultra clean and jangling lead guitar that suits the mid tempo songs brilliantly. There are hints of several different bands, but it's really just passing glimpses, which keep you one your listening toes.  I hear AHEADS, UPRIGHT CITIZENS, Flip Your Wig-era HUSKER DU, SUBHUMANS, PSYCHEDELIC FURS (yeah I know, FURS? weird, but it's in the songwriting and I can't escape the reference) and others that you will probably find as well.  I am pretty sure that these dudes were involved in the early thrash/crossover scene, though their music really doesn't reflect that at all, just sounds like melodic UK punk to this guy...fortunately this guy likes melodic UK punk. 11 songs, "Out Of Nowhere" is the ripper: get into it.



5 comments:

living in the 80s said...

cool, im always happy when i see bands like this!!!

thank you very much again and again and again and again...

cheers!!

Jock The Ripper said...

They were from Wimborne, Dorset and members were previously in Atrox and (in the future) Wordbug amongst others... Some info here: http://atrox.org.uk/site/histories/later/

SLAUGHTER OF INNOCENTS said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
the wizard said...

thanks SLH for the info...had no idea there was a connection.

Anonymous said...

Thanks to the Wizard for putting this up!! I played bass in HTS and the singing sounds weird as there are actually 3 different vocalists; myself, Rich guitar and Shaun. I remember sending Dick a copy and he said the singing sounded ‘nervous’! We made 100 of these and sold over half at our 1st gig supporting Culture Shock in Soton mid ’88. More info on us can be found in Ian Glaspers book Trapped In A Scene. I will try and get our previous band, Atrox blogged soon, although we doubtless sent Dick copies of those too and it would be nice to see those on this blog.