Thee Headshrinkers – Head Cheese

Hastings, UK’s Thee Headshrinkers are three disturbingly masked individuals who are here to make their mark, or to at least to fulfil their modest goal of playing London’s 100 Club, who were launched in a garage, the traditional breeding ground for bands of this nature. The 21st century also played its role in their formation through the musical version of an online dating site, which, if it’s anything like the romantic version, probably has a much lower success rate. Armed with a backline of bass and drums and a trusty fuzzy Vox Phantom, Thee Headshrinkers are now set to draw a slightly unsteady line in the sand with their debut album, Head Cheese, that is due out on the 29th November via Property Of The Lost Records.

Diving into Head Cheese sounds slightly off-putting, especially when put like that, but opener Johnny eases any reservations with a fuzzy blast of garage fuelled post punk. They don’t shift gears, they have got into high gear and take their rat rod, or maybe their vintage Chopper given the theme of motorbikes and speed fuelled adrenaline inducing hijinks, into the fast lane and stay there. This is discordant garage (post) punk, subtleties have been left behind in an unwanted heap in the garage. Here and there other influences creep in, such as the twangy surf guitar in Derivative, but for the most part they just deliver a wall of noise that comes straight outta the garage. In short Head Cheese is a flashback to often neglected and forgotten sounds, the kind that have emerged from garages around the world ever since the first misfit bought a guitar and formed a band

There are obvious sonic touchstones such as The Eighties Match Box B-Line Disaster and The Fall, but this is a melting pot from the noisier darker side of the alternative scene, something that is borne out by their original stated intention to channel The Jesus & Mary Chain, a plan which obviously went awry. The album being produced by Jim Reilly at Ranscombe Studios brings the Medway sound into mix as well, with the spirit of Billy Childish lurking over the album. On all fronts Thee Headshrinkers are equal parts disturbing and thrilling and they will be heading to a venue near you, or maybe even the 100 Club, soon. In the meantime grab yourself a copy of Head Cheese and join them on the dark side.