Foxes! / The Hot Toddies - Oxford The Cellar - 09.04.09

A little bit old now, but a review done for the May issue of Nightshift. Check the magazine out here

The Hot Toddies are an all girl summer fun band, all the way from Oakland, California. Because of this, as they inform us early on, a lot of their songs are written about the beach. While not something us Brits can relate to much, it doesn’t stop us basking in their glow. Things start fairly slowly and the first few songs are despatched with little passion, their icy cool coming across as a little uninterested. On HTML though, they slow things down and begin to loosen up a little, with the aid of the catchiest chorus built around the world wide web. With people swaying along the night is theirs for the taking and they seize the opportunity with both hands with their beach songs, Rocker Girl and Pirate. Seattle is the set highlight, with the filthy lyrics coming from sweet sounding mouths providing a delicious juxtaposition.

Foxes! are quite a different proposition to what they were when they were based in Oxford. A replacement bass/keyboard player and a guitarist on loan from Restlesslist have given them a much more ferocious sound, the extra players leaving them to experiment and expand songs. It’s Ridiculous, Adam starts nursery rhyme like and then descends into computer gaming electro music, like an infectious pulse. Old song Welcome To The Jivin’ follows and where the recorded version had a fairly insipid chorus, live it launches into the chorus in a torrent of guitar and a frantic ending. It has to be said, it suits Foxes! much better and probably surprises a fair few people, myself included. Albania is a sweet newie from the next single, and it’s followed by old favourite Art Girl, which is at turns jagged, twee, ecstatic and wigged out. Oh Rosie is somewhere between a polka and one of those great sea shanties style tunes The Coral used to make before they blanded out. The set finishes with the double whammy of great new songs, Who Killed Rob? and Bunny Rabbits before the band are called back for an encore of the euphoric 6 O’Clock.

Find Foxes! here and The Hot Toddies here