BIO BLAB:
Hank IV have just released their first single for SS records, "Bellyful of Slugs" b/w "Cold Equation," which is garnering heavy airplay on the mighty WFMU in the New York metro area as well as locally on Bay Area stations such as KDVS, KFJC, KZSU and KUSF in Exile. Vice magazine writer Tony Rettman's puts the new HIV seven-inch squarely on his hypothetical "Best-Records-of-the-Year-So-Far-Because-I-Can't-Think-of-Anything-Else-to-Write-About" List, and Fall 2011 promises a slew of live shows on Hank IV's NorCal home turf.
Last yast year, Hank IV's third album, III, was recorded for zero dollars at the Shill Building in San Francisco and mastered by Bob Weston (Shellac, Mission of Burma). The result is the most hi-fidelity shit in the Siltbreeze exosphere. III is Hank IV's finest album yet bearing the aroma of "____ you" coupled with a faint flutter of "____ me." It's 8 songs in 25 minutes of twin guitar, blistering rock'n'roll punk, and the shocking (to some) inclusion of a Stereolab cover, is sure to unite all the warring factions of every local and national micro-scene into one big tears-of-joy group hug at the proverbial water cooler. Just substitute "booze" for water!!
Their second LP, Refuge in Genre (Siltbreeze, 2008), was decidedly meaner, sharper, and more pummeling affair than their critically acclaimed debut, sporting 11 songs in 30 scorched-earth minutes. "No visit to the lo-fi or shit-gaze" Quonset huts this, Refuge in Genre was recorded in shattering hi-fidelity by Tim Green (The Fucking Champs) at Louder Studios in San Francisco and mastered by Bob Weston (Shellac).
The rollicking San Francisco quintet known as Hank IV have been in the crosshairs of the Siltbreeze hunting rifle since just after their debut LP, Third Person Shooter, was released on the Hook Or Crook label back in '06. Attempts to release their Dirty Poncho 7-inch were squashed (the honor went to Plastic Idol) so Siltbreeze did what any jilted paramour would: decided to get even.
The band's first album, Third Person Shooter, was called "one of 2006's top punk albums" by Maximum RockNRoll, charted as the #1 most played album on KUSF in October 2006, cited as "Best of 2006" by Terminal Boredom, #2 album of 2006 by WFMU deejay Evan Funk Davies, and the #8 album of 2006 by WFMU deejay Terre T. The band has played twice at SXSW, including 2008 for the WFMU 50th anniversary showcase, and performed at Gonerfest IV in Memphis in 2007.
As their alter-egos, Theme Weavers LLC, members of Hank IV wrote and performed the theme song for Tom Scharpling's Best Show on WFMU.
Per National Scene Authority full-disclosure laws, this website is obligated to report that Hank IV features former members of Icky Boyfriends, Bum Kon, The Roofies, Resineators, Coup de Grace, The Leather Uppers, and Brickbat.
HANK IV INTERVIEWED KUSF 90.3 FM:
Hank IV's KUSF interview on Stereo Steve's show from November 12, 2010.
HANK INTERVIEW IN VICE MAGAZINE:
2011 interview on Viceland (Vice magazine blog).
HANK IV'S MRR INTERVIEW:
Click here for the full Hank IV interview from the November 2010 issue of Maximum RockNRoll.
WHAT THE PUNDITS SAY:
The A side (of Hank IV's new SS single) is a chrome-plated cover of Kim SalmonŐs "Bellyful of Slugs," while the B side is an absolute scorcher of an original, proving angry snot can run down the throat and face of anyone, no matter what age bracket they fall into.
- Tony Rettman, Vice, 2011
"San Francisco is a town with a rich history of politically charged punk bands that aren't afraid to cry out against injustice and champion equality through their crude though effective music. Thankfully, Hank IV is not one of those bands."
Vice, 2011
III is featured on the Village Voice "Pazz & Jop" top albums of 2010 (we're #853!)
WFMU's Terre T. picks III as her #14 release of 2010.
- The Cherry Blossom Clinic Show on WFMU, January 2011
#11 album of 2010!
"It bugs the shit out of me that I only just found out about these guys last week."
- Metal Sucks (Gary Suarez's Top Fifteen Hardcore Albums of 2010), December 2010
"...hitting their stride, getting meaner and stronger, more determined as the years roll on."
- Doug Mosurock, Still Single, December 2010
"...there is something very Middle American about the vitriol they spew so effortlessly and economically (eight songs in twenty-five minutes!) that makes me think of people like Thomas Jefferson Slave Apartments, Death of Samantha, etc. And there certainly ain't nothing wrong with that, palsy."
- Viceland (Vice Magazine), December 2010
"vinyl lp with download code. recorded on a budget of 10 whole dollars, this is the san franciscan band's third album and it's a drooling, gutter punk monster. with duo guitars thrashing out to the max and gut-busting jams smothering the super-force jams and you have one frankensteinian dick that sits just right with the rest of the ragged siltbreezr aesthetic."
- Rough Trade, 2010
"Hank IV play desperate man-style punk in the vein of Minute To Pray-era Flesheaters. Throw in some of the sociopathic scorch of The Pagans and touches of earlier Siltbreeze satellites like Thomas Jefferson Slave Apartments and you got a great pro-rock primitive, one that combines accelerated jams with gut-busting vocals and the kinda furious delivery that makes it sound totally non-contemporary."
- Volcanic Tongue, 2010
"I don't care how many goddamn cute hobo bands there are out there right now. Not two runny shits. There's something Hank IV knows that few other current 'of interest' bands realize, and it's a painfully simple thing: guitars were meant to sound like this, not that (pick something). That's as plainly as it can be put. This is twin-guitar punk rock in a class of its own, driving more than dueling and hot-sauce-free. I'd say 'power with taste' but then I'd have to kill myself. I will say that III is Hank Baby's third and finest album yet and they are, in short, a band whose every move is worthy of your utmost attention.
For this record (their second for Siltbreeze), Thee Hanks opted to spend zero dollars and buried themselves deep inside their very own Shill Building studio for a good, long while. Sightings became scarce. Promises of 'work' being 'done' were made but who really knew what was going on? To be fair, The Shill has its fair share of distractions. Imagine Plato's Retreat, except like a basement in the Tenderloin. I think they only went outside for sandwiches from the East Coast West Deli on Polk Street, like that one time in the street when Bob McDonald told me about that Venom single he owns for the seventeenth time. Pffft... Bob, playboy, inventor (of 'The Full Compliment') and as powerful and confounding a front-man as you're likely to find ambulating in today's scene. Hawnk Quatre (as they're called in France) is both an exercise and exorcism for this hardcore guy from Bum Kon all grown-up.
Anyway, the result of their self-imposed exile is this album bearing the aroma of fuck you coupled with a faint flutter of fuck me. It's eight songs in 25 minutes of loud, angry, intelligent, rock 'n' roll punk and it's from San Francisco. Beyond that, the rhythms actually have a rhythm--a loud, all-rock rhythm, in fact. It's shocking and practically akin to reinventing the wheel 'round these un-rocking parts. Great--and now the world'll probably explode. Do I gotta pick a cut to exalt? 'Down in the Dumps' springs forth. Hopefully the punks follow suit."
- Mitch Cardwell, 2010
"Hank IV may never become huge, but they will always be essential."
- Chester Records, February 2011
"... a cross between the Dead Kennedys and Steppenwolf."
- Kevin J. Elliott, The Agit Reader, December 2010
"The sound of Hank IV is a bit too wily and scrambled to pigeonhole as any one type of honk. Forward thinkers might tag 'em as panic-skiffle, combining the cunning and menace of compadres such as Thomas Jefferson Slave Apartments or Country Teasers, with a dual guitar attack that nods toward the Bailey/Keupper-era Saints as much as those dudes looked at Smith/Kramer for their nascent moves. Through all this stutter and pummel, vocalist Bob McDonald (formerly of Denver hardcore icons Bum Kon) doesn't throw caution to the wind as much as atomize it. If a shattered leg can't keep this herc from heralding the apocalypse, do you think your tender widdle ears have a chance? Not likely, bub."
- Siltbreeze
"...the best punk act going today."
- Maximum RockNRoll #310, March 2009
"I liked Hank IV's 2006 debut, Third Person Shooter, well enough that it made my list of best albums for that year. On their second platter, they've really upped the ante, stripping away any traces of hobby band silliness for a potent dose of stomping, howling punk rock. Singer Bob McDonald has got to be one of the best frontmen in rock music today. His voice sounds like equal parts Brian Johnson and John Brannon and on stage his antics shame men half his age. This is definitely a band you should experience live. Just pick up Refuge in Genre first as you'll most certainly want to be able to sing along. You just try and resist yelling 'She's got!/Dirty poncho!/Drop dead gorgeous!' whilst pumping your fist in the air."
- Unblinking Ear blog, December 2008
"They've made SF home to Earth's greatest punk band once again."
- Mitch Cardwell, SF Bay Guardian, December 2008
"...these Bay Area cranks spew garage-punk philosophy par excellence."
- SPIN Magazine, November 2008 (page 26...click SPIN page to embiggen)
"Throughout Refuge in Genre, the quintet survive through an identity crisis: is what they do cock-driven pub-rock founded on knuckle-dragging riffs and knuckle-chewing lyrics ('Wednesday is Sunday') or are they borderline art-queers twisting melodically wonky guitar lines with off-kilter rhythm shifts? A few trips through, though...and you'll learn to appreciate just how far-out those guitars actually get."
- Kevin J. Elliott, The Agit Reader, #19, Primitive Futures
"...as unashamed and rambunctious as any rock record that's been made since the Volcano Suns hung it up nearly 20 years ago...the men of Hank IV have become their own masters, and must answer to no one but themselves."
- Doug Mosurock, Dusted Magazine, November 2008
"Blues Control, Daniel DiMaggio, Hank IV & Los Llamarada @ the Charleston. Everyone was great but Hank IV made me proud to be old."
- Dave Martin, Matador Records, "Best Shows of 2008", in reference to Hank IV's Brooklyn gig, November 2008
"There's quite a swagger to all this, even when the levels of frenzy are bumped down a notch or two, as on 'Sorry 'Bout The Boat Race', which slips into a crunching, slightly warped garage boogie. Good stuff."
- Bookmat UK, October 2008
"Those of you sweatin' the Tim Green (Fucking Champs) and Bob Weston (Shellac) involvement need to remind yerselves of the separation between crotch and heart. If anything, Green taps the spiget of heaviness that was waiting in their sound the whole time...Shit, it won't even take a half hour to get you drastic! High destroyability is waiting in these grooves."
- Wrenwreath Blog, October 2008
"Better, beefier, louder, bolder than last year's Third Person Shooter. This is smart punk without being brainy done by music freaks who know not to clog shit up with obscurity."
- Scott Soriano, October 2008
"For this brand-new LP on Siltbreeze, Hank IV made it an absolutely great album....certainly one of the handful of very best LPs of the year."
- Rick Ele, KDVS
"Hank IV is all about bringing the swaggering, spastically flailing, hard-charging rock. Hearkening back to the rousing sounds of '80s/'90s punk, this quintet of S.F. scene vets has a sound resembling Mission of Burma drummer Peter Prescott's other band Volcano Suns, with hints of everything from the Fall and Country Teasers to West Coast old-school in the vein of X, Dead Kennedys, and Crime. What elevates Hank IV above the middling fray is the band's ability to deliver punchy garage rock with snarky lyrics. Loaded with anthemic tandem vocals and dueling guitar clamor, Third Person Shooter makes a solid addition to San Francisco's current rock arsenal."
- Mike Rowell, SF Weekly
"San Francisco act, Hank IV, play a throaty, rollicking version of rock'n'roll that cuts through the grease with the grimy edge of wry-hooked songs. Their sound hints at being a fun live band, and they play feverishly danceable tunes that will have the entire audience acting like idiots by mid-set. Their last album released on Hook or Crook Records, "Third Person Shooter," came with high acclaim, and they another on the way on Siltbreeze titled 'Refuge in Genre.'"
- Victim of Time
"Hank IV are rude, ill-tempered, potty mouthed ruffians whose music has absolutely no socially redeeming qualities other than enormous raw energy, infectious, hard-charging tune-age and enough kinetic wallop to T.K.O. a narwhal. They're very much informed by the skeazier side of pre-HC punk. All their songs evince a marked sense of rhythmic strut and swagger. Each and every one comes equipped with an ear-catching rhythm guitar riff that'd be the envy of anyone from AC/DC to the early Who. Lead singer Bob McDonald has one incredible piercing sneer of a voice--think of Jello Biafra sans helium--that he wraps around lyrics that are unashamedly hate-riddled, dripping with disdain. These are often times bolstered with rambunctious group shout-along choruses. It sounds rousing as hell on record, all though if you heard this behind you on a deserted street you'd sure wanna be packing heat. Hank IV basically make the Dead Boys sound like Midnight Oil in terms of 'tudes projected."
- Your Flesh Magazine
"Incredibly brainy, powerful and genuine twin-guitar punk rock played by folks who have seen, done and snorted it all. Third Person Shooter is one of the year's top punk albums, offering up a powerful take on Rock'N'Roll with million dollar smarts and a drug-addled, spiteful 70s punk mood, minus all the smirks and fashionable clichés."
- Mitch Cardwell, Maximum RockNRoll
"Blistering, classic punk, pitched somewhere between the raw power of the Saints and the jokey belligerence of the Nightingales."
- Pop Matters, live at SXSW 2008
"The importance of Hank IV to San Francisco cannot be overstated. FINALLY: a band that can stomp shit over any fashionable touring glass-breaker. The sneers of neighboring cities be damned! The genuine tension, anger, brains and sheer volume of any given Hank IV live show is enough to fuel a spree-shooting."
- SF Bay Guardian, February 27, 2008
"Frisco's sexiest seniors follow up their excellent debut album with 'Dirty Poncho' an excellent 45 that recalls non-hardcore LA punk of 1982. Specifically, I'm thinking of Flesheaters territory. Read: territory, i.e., smart, well written rock & roll with an edge as well as some respect with the sounds that came before it."
- Z-Gun Magazine
"The new 7" from Hank IV 'Dirty Poncho'/Symptomatic' gets the pulse racin' like I figured it would. The a-side find 'em at their most aggressive yet, spinnin' a yarn about a gal (I think) I know who has a thing for the 'Susan Atkins look'. She's lucky they didn't say nothin' about that moustache. Right Sanchez? Ding! The flip chews & spits out more of the proto-skiffle tar 'n tuneage these guys have been excellin' at since their inception."
- Siltblog
"Whoa, check out singer Bob McDonald's moves; part Sally Can't Dance era live Lou Reed herk, part 'She Lost Control' era Ian Curtis jerk, part Jack LaLanne dedication, part Robbie Robot spazz arms from 'Lost In Space', part Robert Shields in sweat-face. Awesome! The rest of the band was killin too, the twin guitars were like the sonic attack of Bailey/Kuepper from prime era Saints, the bassist was throwin down solid & the geezerly dude on drums looked like he was wound pretty tight too. His arms & feet couldn't stop! It was great."
- Siltblog
"Smart, cliché-free, punk rock with the kind of edge you find in mid 70s CLE punk or Crime-ridden San Francisco. Nine strong songs pack this puppy, three of which (Melonhead, Tonight We Ride, Crime of the Scene) are great and one of which lands in my all time classic punk songs list. That one classic is Hole in My Eye, a tune with the drive of the Viletones' Screaming Fist, but a bit smarter. How good is it? I am writing this from the emergency room because Hole in My Eye kicked my balls so damn hard they have swollen to the size a grapefruits. I might have the doctor replace them with a pair of steel ball bearings. I wanna be ready the next time I see them live. Really. I am not lying to you."
- Scott Soriano, Z-Gun
"A sick combination of Volcano Suns and Blue Cheer and Chain Gang!"
- DJ Terre T, Cherry Blossom Clinic, WFMU
"What teacher's lounge did these guys meet in? These over 35s knocked out some great Crime meets Chain Gang meets Viletones meets Styrenes punk rock, that hearkens back to the dark grunt of late 70s Frisco punk, while remaining fresh."
- Terminal Boredom
ACCOLADES FOR REFUGE IN GENRE LP:
Michael Baker's "Our Favorite Things" (2008) Writers' Poll - Perfect Sound Forever
"Best of 2008" listing - Kulturblog
#7 album of 2008 - Evan "Funk" Davies, WFMU
#7 album of 2008 - Unblinking Ear blog
#9 album of 2008 - Carolyn Keddy, Maximum RockNRoll
#9 album of 2008 - KDVS/Art for Spastics Rick Ele's "absolute tip-top will-be-classics" list
#9 album of 2008 - Jason Grote, host of Acousmatic Theatre Hour on WFMU
#10 album of 2008 - Terre T's Cherry Blossom Clinic show, WFMU
"Special Mention" - U.K. blog "20 Jazz Funk Greats" Best of 2008 list
"Honorable Mention" - Nate Knaebel's Best of 2008 list, Dusted Magazine
Nominated for "Best Metal/Psych/Punk Record of 2008" by SF Weekly Magazine
"BEST OF'S" FOR THIRD PERSON SHOOTER LP:
"Best of 2006" - Terminal Boredom
#2 album of 2006 - Evan "Funk" Davies, WFMU
#8 album of 2006 - Terre T's Cherry Blossom Clinic show, WFMU
"One of 2006's top punk albums." - Maximum RockNRoll
PRESS DOWNLOADS (RIGHT-CLICK AND "SAVE AS"):
Hank IV photo [hi-res for print or lo-res for web]. ©2008 geoffrey ellis.
Refuge in Genre one-sheet PDF.
Refuge in Genre cover art [hi-res for print or lo-res for web].
Refuge in Genre download card art [hi-res for print or lo-res for web].
Hank IV interview on Seattle's Rainy Dawg Radio, Friday, February 6th, 2009.
Hank IV interview on San Francisco's KUSF, Tuesday, October 7th, 2008.