Hot Water Music Rocks Out
by Anna Goldfarb

Hot Water Music is not just a band, it’s also a book written by Charles Bukowski that is filled with nymphos, psychos, murderers, drunks, circus freaks, poets, suburban cannibals, accused child molesters, and ÿgolos. But its not just sensational, Jerry Springer, Quentin Tarantino shock value stuff - Bukowski lets his stories unfold in such an honest way that you know he’s not just trying to grab your attention with stories of freaks and losers,it just happens that these are the people he knows best. Bukowski is an ugly son of a bitch who inhabits a world of booze, women, and gambling - it doesn’t make him a hero, butit makes him human, and reading Bukowski makes you realize what is beautiful about being human.
It’s tough to describe what makes Bukowski my favorite author. It’s like when you’re listening to your favorite CD andit just connects with you like it was made to be the soundtrack to your life. Well, when I read Bukowski I feel like I’m reading my own thoughts,it’s like Bukowski’s dark, simple, honest writing and the voice inside my head are best friends.
Bukowski’s got a lot of other great books too, I have yet to read one that I wouldn’t recommend, but Hot Water Music is my fav’ so far because it’s got everything in it that makes Bukowski great - lots of sex, booze, and screwed up people with screwed up lives. Each story is only around five pages long, so if you get bored with the story about the ten year old kid ejaculating on a drunk lady’s leg, then you can just skip a few pages to the story about the suicidal circus freak with four arms. Trust me, if reading about the sad lives of L.A. street scum sounds more interesting to you than Huck Finn ‰oating down a river, then Bukowski is your man.
Like almost everything else that’s worthwhile, Bukowski is too offensive for the establishment (parents, schools, mass media), but too beautiful to be ignored. He’s published by an indie publishing company called Black Sparrow Press, which by literary standards makes him prett punk.
Pick up Hot Water Music, even if all the crappy books the public school system has shoved down your throat have completely turned you off to the idea of reading anything, give Bukowski a try.
-Donald Bell

It is undeniable that the Gainesville, Florida band Hot Water Music is carrying the torch for the new breed of hard-core. You know, the kind of band that speaks more about the politics of the heart and the soul than the politics of the White House. Exceedingly melodic yet gruff, Hot Water Music commands a loyal following among each of the punk rock subsects: dirty punk rockers, baggy-pants, hard-core kids, tattooed tough guys, snott white-socked emo kids, and normal everyday college kids who used to be dirty punk rockers. Hell, at any run-of-the-mill punk/hard-core festival you will find at least two dozen attendees with either a HWM patch or T-shirt on. With an outstanding live show and several albums already under their baseball caps, they are reaching prolific proportions. I can hear the enthusiasm at their shows, in the zines, on the websites, echoing how this band matters to its audience, regardless of how varied the receptive ears might be. In an age where switching subcultures is as easy as ‰ipping the remote control, they strike a chord with their fans. Having seen them play, the best way I can describe one of their shows is to say that it is like watching someone giving bread crumbs to starving pigeons. They are consistently selling out their shows nation-wide. This is testimony to the fact that the people are ravenous for something that radiates as much heart and passion as they do. I recently sat hunched on a cracked cement sidewalk outside of Chicago’s Fireside Bowl with Hot Water Music bassist Jason Black. We mostly talked about the their latest album called No Divison out on Some Records and stuff like that. His sweatshirt hood was up over his head and I remarked that he looked like a thug. And that was how our interview began.
Anna: How is this new album ‘No Division’ different from what you’ve done previously?
Jason: That is hard for me to answer. Every time I playitfor someone, they remark that it is a lot different [than our previous albums]. I don’t think thatitis that different, but that might be because we are the people who are writing it. It is just another record. I think all of our records are different from each other. I think it is a lot better. The songs are shorter and it is definitely better written, as far as song-writing goes,it is a lot catchier. There is not a song on the record that I don’t like. We are all equally into the songs. Usually, when we are done with a record, there are one or two songs that we feel should be buried. I like all of these new songs. There is a lot of different stuff on there for us. There is extra percussion. We spent more time onitin the studio, more guitar tracks. Musically, it is more direct than anything we have ever done.
What are you doing differently than other bands?
We try not to play with bands that sound like us. I don’t want to be pretentious and say that there aren’t many bands that sound like us. But, the bands that we are into are not bands that the media and other kids classify in the same genre as us. We have a lot more straight-ahead rock. Although we are classified into the emo category, I do think that we are a lot more punk rock than those bands. Not in terms of ethics, but in terms of the music that we listen to and the way that we play.
Where do you want to go with HWM that you feel you haven’t already gone to yet?
What? Do you mean like geographically?
This is an interpretive question. You can answer it any way that you like.
Well, we are going to Japan. Do you mean band/career/tour wise? Well, this tour has been going really well. We’ve always had a problem with the West Coast. In fact, we haven’t been out there in two and a half years. This time we went out there and it went really well all the way through. If everything keeps progressing the way that it has been, there is nothing that I would want to do that we wouldn’t be able to get done.
I think Matt Pinfield likes you guys.
Does that mean that we can get on MTV like the Promise Ring? That is not a slag on them or anything.
What’s the biggest misconception about you guys in HWM?
People think that we are a bunch of thugs.
Maybe its because you have your hood up. (We laugh)
It’s cold out! I’m from Florida! Well, I think people think that we are more aggressive than we actually are. We grew up differently than a lot of the kids in the bands that we are categorized with and play with. We grew up on hard-core and punk rock. We didn’t grow up listening to Sunny Day Real Estate. I’m not slagging those people at all. When we used to go to shows, people had mohawks. I’m not that old either I’m only 23.
Really? You are a baby!
The oldest member of the band is George and he is 25. Oh yeah, That’s another thing! People always think that we are older than we actually are.
That’s because you all have facial hair.
I guess! We are not that old. We used to go see Circle Jerks and 7 Seconds and stuff like that. We are used to good punk rock fun. Kids are scared and think that we are mean.
It’s probably just the new crowd.
Yeah, the new crowd is not that much fun.
And, the new crowd has no sense of humor.
Totally! That’s the other thing, we were playing a show the other night and we were total cards for no reason and we joke around. People do not expect that from us at all. I don’t know if they think that we are the biggest jerks in the world or if they just have fun with it. It’s like we’ve gotten to the point where it is not cool to have fun. It’s ok to have fun! People get all mad when you touch them. It’s like you are at a punk rock show! Don’t stand there if you don’t want to get your toes stepped on!