Comprised of four high school friends, who all met while playing in a variety of bands in San Francisco‘s garage band circuit, the Bay Area-based quartet Hot Flash Heat Wave officially formed back in 2014 and quickly received attention for an incredibly upbeat, hook-laden brand of garage rock that draws from Girls, The Beach Boys, Santo & Johnny and Weezer. As the band has publicly mentioned, they consider their overall aesthetic and approach is a tongue-in-cheek nod at the dreamy, lo-fi “chillwave” movement — in the sense that they view their sound as sunny and sweltering — like a heat wave.
The Bay Area quartet’s debut effort Neapolitan was released late last year, and with the release of album singles “Gutter Girl” and “Homecoming” received quite a bit of attention — in particular, you may recall that I wrote about “Homecoming” a scorcher of a song that paired propulsive drumming, throbbing bass and layers of buzzing guitars paired with howled vocals and an infectious hook that would remind listeners that their sound channels the spirit of punk rock meshed with old school, garage rock and surfer rock.
The band’s latest single “Bye Bye Baby,” which will appear OIM Records‘ OIM Records Volume 2 compilation and the single will further cement their reputation for blistering garage rock with infectious and anthemic hooks; however, the song find the band playing with a larger-than-life swaggering self-assuredness that subtly nods towards a gritty, sleazy psych rock — all while being a kiss off to a tepid, unfaithful lover.
The recently released music video emphasizes the song’s sleaziness while nodding at 80s porn, cheap art flicks, 80s horror movies and features sequences shot on grainy VHS tape.
