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Earlier this week I got to feel that rare, fleeting feeling of completion a record collector experiences every once in a long while: I got the last record I needed by a band I love. The band in question is a 90s UK punk band called Hooton 3 Car. As is de rigueur when one completes a collection, I pulled all my Hooton 3 Car records off the shelf so I could take a family photo, but now that I’m looking at it, my dumb ass forgot to put the final piece of the puzzle in the photo. The Hooton 3 Car / Lovemen split 7” I got earlier this week was sitting on the coffee table because I had been listening to it the night before, and I forgot to grab it before I took the photo. Now I’m at work and my records are at home, and I’m left with a photo featuring a bunch of records, none of which are my actual staff pick. *facepalm emoji*
Hooton 3 Car / Lovemen: Split 7” (Snuffy Smile, 1997)
I’m surprised I’ve never written about Hooton 3 Car in the newsletter before, but that’s what the search function on the website says, so it must be true. Hooton 3 Car was a band from the north of England (specifically the Sunderland / Durham area) who formed in 1989, released their first record in 1992, and disbanded in 1998. I first heard Hooton 3 Car around the time they broke up, discovering them by following the various breadcrumb trails relating to Leatherface, who were my number one musical obsession at the time. Leatherface fans doubtless recognize Sunderland as the band’s hometown, and not only did Hooton 3 Car hail from the same region, but Frankie Stubbs worked in a production / engineering capacity on several of their records. I listened to a lot of bands in the late 90s and early 2000s that purportedly sounded like or were influenced by Leatherface, but very few scratched the same itch as the godfathers themselves. Hooton 3 Car is one of the few exceptions. While they don’t sound exactly like Leatherface—the vocals are a lot cleaner, for one thing—they’re high-energy, heavy, heartfelt, have great riffing and songwriting, and a big, roaring yet melodic sound. Plus, while Hooton 3 Car had some success in the UK (John Peel was a huge fan and the band did three sessions for his show) and a following in Japan, they were even less well-known than Leatherface in the States, making them feel like my little secret. That none of their records were released in the US, though, made collecting their discography a tall order. That’s probably why it’s taken me nearly 30 years to get them all.
As you can see from the photo, Hooton 3 Car amassed a healthy discography during their tenure, including three full-lengths, a 12” EP, and seven singles and splits. As with many bands, many people think their first record—1994’s Spot Daylight 12” EP—is their best one. It’s a hard point to argue since all four tracks are bangers. You might expect the first record to show some growing pains—a strange stylistic detour, rough-around-the-edges playing, substandard production—but that’s not the case here. Their sound was completely locked in right from the start. As good as Spot Daylight is, though, their next few records are even better. Their first proper single, 1995’s “Danny,” is perhaps their best song (though there are several other contenders). If I had to choose a favorite Hooton 3 Car record, though, my pick would be their debut full-length, 1996’s Cramp Like a Fox. It’s hard to say why Cramp is my favorite… maybe it’s just the one I got first and spent the most time with. I remember it was one of the first records I burned to a CDR when I figured out how to do that around the turn of the century. Mostly, Cramp Like a Fox differs from the records before it in the way full-lengths typically differ from EPs and singles: it’s a little more diverse, a little more spread-out, but mostly it’s just a collection of the same kind of 90-to-180-second pop bangers that populate all their records.
I consider Cramp Like a Fox Hooton 3 Car’s peak, but it’s not like it stands head and shoulders above the rest of their discography. Like Motorhead and the Ramones, Hooton 3 Car never really changed their tack. In fact, Hooton 3 Car’s records show even less sonic variation than those bands (though, admittedly, their career was much shorter). As if to illustrate the point, the band’s last release, the 1998 CD-only full-length …By Means of Maybe, features the songs from their first EP, Spot Daylight, as bonus tracks. When you’re listening to the CD, the transition from their first session to their last session is barely noticeable.
As for the unpictured record that is nominally my staff pick, it’s pretty good, though hardly essential. Hooton 3 Car has two songs. The first, “Bronko,” is the lead track to their second album, Monkey Mayor, and it’s an excellent song, but I think it’s the same version that’s on the album. The other track is a cover of the Beatles’ “Here Comes the Sun.” I remember being excited to hear that when I got the discography double-CD (where it’s the 46th and final song), but it’s kind of just meh. I really like “Here Comes the Sun” as far as Beatles songs go, and the first part of the song where they play it pretty straight is promising. But then they speed it up and it has some of that typical “pop punk band covering a classic rock song” thing that I don’t really like. It’s too short a step from that to the Atari’s covering “Boys of Summer.” Blech.
As for the other side of the record, Lovemen’s songs are pretty good, heavy and melodic punk not dissimilar to Hooton 3 Car. I don’t think I’d heard Lovemen before, even though I spent a lot of time investigating the melodic punk bands on the Japanese label Snuffy Smile. Most of the Japanese bands on Snuffy Smile I heard were a little too soft for my tastes, but there are a few things in their discography I really like. There are several Registrators singles early in the label’s discography, and I’m a big fan of them. Blew’s 1997 album You’re Not the Only One is another one I liked a lot, and I really took to the band the Urchin, partly because I got to see them when they toured the US. I’ll have to dig more into Lovemen though. I did not know they had a split 7” with Exit Condition, so I’ll have to get that. Also, it’s cool that in the photo on their Discogs page, one of their guitarists is wearing a Hooton 3 Car shirt and playing what looks to be the exact color and model of Gordon Smith guitar I have.
Before I sign off, I want to give a quick shout-out to my buddy Jim Gies. When this record popped up on my Discogs want list, I added it to my cart and started looking through the seller’s other items to see if I could grab anything else and save on shipping. As I scrolled through their items, I thought to myself, “surely I know this person.” Then, a few minutes after I placed the order, I got a message from Jim letting me know he’s the seller. Thanks, Jim!
If anyone out there is still reading and I’ve piqued your interest about Hooton 3 Car, you can listen to the aforementioned double-CD discography on Crackle! Records’ Bandcamp site. And on the off chance anyone out there has a copy of Hooton 3 Car’s demo tape, please hit me up!