Hank Wood & the Hammerheads are back with a new 4-song single on Toxic State. If you had told me in 2012, just after I heard their inescapable debut LP, that in 2020 Hank Wood & the Hammerheads would have three full-lengths and a healthy stack of EPs in their discography, I never would have believed you. However, Hank Wood & the Hammerheads have not only persevered for a decade, but grown and evolved. When those early records came out, the auxiliary percussion and the organ set them apart from what most other bands were doing at the time, but on Use Me the emphasis is on the core band’s songwriting and playing. The vocals are a little more buried than they were on the last LP, but the sound is clearer and cleaner, even incorporating piano and melodic, feminine-sounding backing vocals on the title track. While that song has a 90s alt-rock grandeur that I haven’t heard from Hank Wood before, “Strangers” sounds wistful, like Replacements songs such as “Here Comes a Regular.” I’m sure there are plenty of you who only ride for the band’s early material, but it’s hard for me to imagine Use Me being a let-down to anyone.
https://hankwoodandthehammerheads.bandcamp.com/album/use-me-7
