Lo Hi has a catchy pop-rock band with blues elements and Hollis Queens, formerly the drummer for Boss Hog, has moved very nicely into the role of band leader, picking up the guitar and singing. She's a great uncovered talent. Her stage presence, lyrics, and voice are all guaranteed to delight. This band has a real chance at becoming darlings of the indie scene.

Hollis has a refreshing stage presence, she dances, shakes her hips and takes to the mic like a natural. I dare say she even acts like a bubblegum pop star at time, and its all good and terribly sweet.

At one point she pranced around the stage and sang "Do your cute little bunnyhop…your fuckin' technobop…" in an apparent mocking of current trends.

She's a little kinky too, some of her songs are in the middle of the straight/gay/bi scene, sometimes taunting, sometimes sexually excitable.

What makes her sound refreshing is partly the catchy lyrics and partly the unpretentiousness of the capable but unstylish band (and this is a complement). At times the outfit sounded like Royal Trux circa 'Pound for Pound' and Hollis and Jens brought back some Boss Hog and Jon Spencer white-boy blues rock riffs. Hollis' sweetly-picked guitar is a very nice element.

Justin Holub on bass and Martin on the drums complemented the band perfectly, especially when Hollis dropped the guitar off and took to the mic solo. Either way, the band is a welcome relief from tired alt-pop rock.

Here's what my girl said about Hollis, "She's hot!"

The Mooney Suzuki

The Mooney Suzuki is some freak band stuck in a time warp. They are purely gimmicky but forever playing it straight. Another imitation rock band that may be just as good if not better than the real thing.

Every song sounded like a cover. In reality, they were all mixes and matches of Kinks riffs, Who's rhythms, Rolling Stones bass lines and Ramones guitar noise. On stage, four men all dressed in black, all wearing long hair unchanged from 1982 and all gloriously preposterous, pranced and strutted and blasted their way through 15 straight songs without once missing a beat.

And to this end, I have rarely had so much fun at a concert.

Half of me was comically unimpressed at the ridiculousness of it all, the guitarist dancing through the crowd with the guitar draped over his back, the lead singer (a dead ringer for 'Zoolander') pointing to the crowd, then bouncing on his knees with the guitar in his lap like a humping bunny, the bassist shaking his hair like a death metalist. It was all there, and more.

The other half of me was enjoying the sound, as The Who, The Kinks, The Rolling Stones and The Ramones are all great bands, although The Mooney Suzuki couldn't match up with any of them on pure talent. But they really produced some good serious, body-moving sounds.

And then when I got stoned, the two halves formed one whole and I was shaking my fist to the beat and gyrating with my girlfriend like I had been on X the whole night and was at Monster Truck Show.

When the show ended I was exhausted but thoroughly satisfied. I took up a lighter and held it alight up high. Whoever these dudes were, they certainly put on a show.

Zen Guerilla

This band was too loud. Not enough variation. A churning wash. Not bad, but not great. You could see them and be reasonably satisfied. Nice cover art though. And didn't the Village Voice pump these guys? Pshaw.

-- Tony Leonardo
October 14, 2001