yourprettyplaceisgoingtohell

At last, a brand new album from the legendary Heads. yourprettyplaceisgoingtohell is their first new material for 20 years. It will be released almost 30 years on from their seminal debut Relaxing With, this will be their fifth studio album proper. The band are a well established though reclusive part of the UKs underground /cult psychedelic rock scene. A constant four piece, they also perform/record in their own projects; Paul Allen/Anthroprophh, Simon Price/Kandodo and Wayne Maskell and Hugo Morgan are both now in Loop. The album was recorded over three days whilst the Heads were rehearsing for a couple of live dates with their friends, and peers, Mudhoney. The guitars, drums and bass were laid down live in Bristol, over-dubs added and then mixed/produced by John McBain in Portland. Initially planned as two single albums, (Volumes 1+2) it soon made sense that they should be put together as a double LP. Named in a nod to the Stooges’ Raw Power classic ‘Your Pretty Face Is Going To Hell’, it describes the trajectory we’re all on. The Heads are renowned for their brutalist take on psychedelic rock, this new album shows how much they have absorbed from their years of existence, their peers and the world around them. Not much change though, they haven’t mellowed out. The pummel is there, the spaced out sike zones are there, there’s wigged out guitar solos that will peel the paint off the walls, there’s even pop songs if you look/listen hard enough. John McBain has done a grand job in fine tuning the noise and sonic assault. It’s hard to draw a direct “for fans of ” list, because ultimately this album is for fans of the Heads. However, you can trace the DNA of this album back to the Stooges, Hawkwind, 13th Floor Elevators, Can, Mudhoney, Monster Magnet, Loop, Spacemen 3, MC5 etc. all squeezed through the Head’s heavy sonic blender. A band that only ever existed on the fringes, “if you’re not on the edge, you’re taking up too much space”. Life and jobs got in the way a bit but hey, at least that kept it pure. ‘One chord, three pedals, six years’ was an old mantra of theirs. They’ve pushed that to ‘three chords, double album, 20 years’. Don’t expect another. Pre-apocalypse blues of rhythmic fuzz and acid rock.