Bloated Kat Records, July 3, 2020 (re-release)
The Headies re-release a lost rip-roaring nugget.
Delaware’s The Headies have been around for a while, but this is my first time hearing them. Black Bubblegum is a re-release of a limited run record from ten years ago. And what I’m hearing has me feeling like I’ve been missing out.
On Black Bubblegum, The Headies are throwing a party. The songs mostly drip with the kind of zealous energy found in old videos of Little Richard playing wild and chaotic shows to uninhibited teenagers in the 1950s (fitting, as they cover Little Richard’s “Slippin’ and Slidin’”). It’s rambunctious, sloppy, sputtering, and most importantly, fun.
The Headies mess around with some pop punk and garage on parts of Black Bubblegum, sounding like a band that could play alongside some of the heyday Lookout! Records stuff (maybe a more crudely recorded The Hi-Fives or something). The title track opens with a gnarly lead guitar riff and some bashed-out drums that kick at a snappy pace. Vocals are shouted enthusiastically and a little bit of sax (I think) accents the song without driving me away. Even better are “Teenage Heartbeat” and “Bennie Is A Pill Popper”. “Heartbeat” blazes along while piling hooks upon hooks with some fun stop-and-go moments and a vocal cadence that won’t leave your head. “Bennie” has bouncing-off-the-walls energy and a great repetitious vocal cadence that goes “Bennie, Bennie, Bennie is a pill popper” in a sing-song way. They get by with a frenetic spirit that is wonderfully charming.
On other songs, The Headies keep up the fervor by leaning even harder into the roots of rock and roll. “Wolverine Bait” works out a sort of sinister guitar riff that sounds cribbed from The Cramps (or maybe Gas Huffer) while the chorus shifts to something more celebratory and poppy, sounding oddly like a lost song from the “Rocky Horror Picture Show”. And songs like “Joelle” and “Shake It Down” catch a 50’s wave, each doing some high energy rock and roll with more prominent sax accents and 50’s revival song structures. “Joelle” feels like some sort of hopped-up sock hop song (or something like that), shimmying, shaking, and rumbling through the verses while nearly beachy harmonies swell in the background. “Shake” has a great melody, some cool backing vocals (“sh-shake, shake it down now”), and a couple stop-and-go count-ins that remind me of Jerry Lee Lewis or something. Even the old-time rock and roll organ works.
By the time Black Bubblegum comes to a halt, it’s become fairly obvious that The Headies are here for a good time. This is fun party music, pure and simple, and the lyrics seem like a silly mix of obnoxious juvenilia and sort of adorable boy-girl stuff. If you’re the kind of person that sees the connection between early crazed rock and roll (like Little Richard) and primitive bubblegum punk (like Ramones), you’ll surely be able to appreciate this one.
You might like this if:
- You’re into the free-for-all spirit of early rock and roll
- You’re into primitive singalong punk like Ramones
- You know that the two points above are connected
You might not if:
- You’re into music for the message or the experiment, not the unabashed and ragged energy of it all
ryan is a reviewer and news editor for TGEFM. He’s very secretive, he might be an alien.
