Hot Snakes, the American post-hardcore band led by Rick Froberg and John Reis, will return to the touring circuit in spring of 2018. The band made their announcement today. It will be the first time the group’s played a show since 2011, when they reunited briefly after formally breaking up in 2005. Subpop Records, famous for first signing Nirvana and others in the nineties, will release the album along with Hot Snakes’ three previous studio albums, Audit in Progress (2004), Suicide Invoice (2002), and Automatic Midnight (2000).
Hot Snakes formed officially in San Diego. Froberg and Reis spent time playing together in two other bands, Pitchfork and Drive Like Jehu. When they decided to form a new group in 1999, they went for a sound inspired by their other work but was stripped down to basics. While a purist might specify their sound as ‘hardcore garage punk,’ the laymen would file Hot Snakes under the appropriate sections of punk and the DIY movement, where artists take merchandising and promotion into their own hands. Since their formation Hot Snakes has moved around quite a bit, from label to label and city to city.
The band started as a side project of Reis’ while he took time off from his main work, Rocket By The Crypt. The first album, Audit in Progress, had to be recorded in quick and intense sessions, as Reis and Froberg lived in San Diego and Philadelphia, respectively. In May of 2005, after a live-studio performance at ABC Studios for an Australian Radio Station, JJJ, Reis announced that the band would break up. After Audit in Progress received “best punk album of the year” at the San Diego Music Awards, Reis announced that his other group, Rocket By The Crypt, would also disband. Reis focused in his newfound extra time on building up his label, Swami Records. The band reunited as an encore act at The Casbah in San Diego in 2010, and today, six years later, they’ve announced another tour.
Tour Dates:
11-08 Long Beach, CA – Alex’s Bar
11-09 Los Angeles, CA – The Troubadour
11-10 San Francisco, CA – The Chapel
11-11 Portland, OR – Star Theatre
11-12 Seattle, WA – Chop Suey
11-15 Washington, DC – Rock and Roll Hotel
11-16 Brooklyn, NY – Bell House
11-17 Boston, MA – Middle East – Boston
11-18 Philadelphia, PA – Underground Arts
Photography Credit: Raymond Flotat
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