Hotter Than A Crotch

[MESS ROCK] Portland trio Hotter Than a Crotch is a band best seen in a basement, but Plan B is kind of like a big basement, so it'll work. Onstage, guitarist Buck bin Nasty—who has the body and hair of a '70s rock star—plays sloppy T-Rex and Rolling Stones-style licks while vocalist/rad dancer Gloria Holer (I wonder if these are stage names?) shimmies around the stage while moaning about heartbreak in a voice that's part Motown and part Courtney Love. You're either going to accept Hotter Than a Crotch—which was last seen with an explosive young drummer who looked like Ricky from My So-Called Life—as awesomely free-spirited rock ’n' roll in the tradition of the Stooges or reject it as some bullshit, "keep Portland weird," Alberta Street basement band. I think it's the former. CASEY JARMAN. Plan B - Willamette Week, Portland, OR

I need a shower now.
by StillFunBut...
An interesting thing has happened in the sphere of lo-fi soul. You can't throw a brick in any major city's music market without hitting at least ten bands who are trying to do something raw, organic, or roots based. The results typically, at best, end up feeling like a cut rate mc5 (virgin) or at worst, like art house pretension without pretense (willowz)

What HTAC has managed to do with Gods Playing Poker, then, is nothing short of a miracle. From the ween styled storytelling stomp of Calvin, to the spaghetti western on fentanyl swagger of Country Love, the Portland, OR based combo has created a record with all the earnest ethos of their contemporaries, but they've made it fun- a word that doesn't exist in the world of throwbacks.

The album, on the whole, has a loose, fuzzy, reverb spotted feel, with frontwoman Gloria Holer's howling vocals sitting just a pinch louder in the mix than they should be. It's a good thing though, because the girl knows how to belt.

The band is loaded with gimmicks. The smoking hot singer, the inside jokes in their lyrics, hell, even their name- The greatest gimmick of all, however, might be that they are saving rock and roll by pushing it out the door, while the rest of the scene is too busy trying to take it back to a place it moved on from 40 years ago. 5 out of 5.
- iTunes

I need a shower now.
by StillFunBut...
An interesting thing has happened in the sphere of lo-fi soul. You can't throw a brick in any major city's music market without hitting at least ten bands who are trying to do something raw, organic, or roots based. The results typically, at best, end up feeling like a cut rate mc5 (virgin) or at worst, like art house pretension without pretense (willowz)

What HTAC has managed to do with Gods Playing Poker, then, is nothing short of a miracle. From the ween styled storytelling stomp of Calvin, to the spaghetti western on fentanyl swagger of Country Love, the Portland, OR based combo has created a record with all the earnest ethos of their contemporaries, but they've made it fun- a word that doesn't exist in the world of throwbacks.

The album, on the whole, has a loose, fuzzy, reverb spotted feel, with frontwoman Gloria Holer's howling vocals sitting just a pinch louder in the mix than they should be. It's a good thing though, because the girl knows how to belt.

The band is loaded with gimmicks. The smoking hot singer, the inside jokes in their lyrics, hell, even their name- The greatest gimmick of all, however, might be that they are saving rock and roll by pushing it out the door, while the rest of the scene is too busy trying to take it back to a place it moved on from 40 years ago. 5 out of 5.
- iTunes

by Adam McKinney
Oct 08, 2009
I don’t want to make anyone uncomfortable, and I certainly don’t want to give the wrong idea about this band, but I have something I want to talk about and I’m not sure how you’ll take it. Here goes: What does it mean when you’re turned on by a band?

Come back, come back! I swear I don’t mean to be crude, but this is very definitely a real phenomenon and no one wants to talk about it. Guys will listen to “Flower” by Liz Phair, say, or girls will listen to Chris Isaak or whoever … and there’s something going on that no one acknowledges. What band turns you on?

I’ll start. I remember when my dad confessed that he had the hots for Chrissie Hynde. Suddenly everything made a lot more sense. Rock chicks, man. People always talk about how girls go after male rockers, but the inverse is also true. Karen O, Grace Slick, Debbie Harry … I saw Julie Doiron play a concert one time, rocking the electric guitar in a pink sweater and mini-skirt, and after every song the guys in the audience would applaud unusually loud.

We were all on the same page.

Hotter Than a Crotch is smart enough to exploit this vulnerability in the rock ‘n’ roll male by serving them heaping doses of dirty glam rock delivered by a raspy-voiced rock chick. Every song is a perfect marriage of salty guitar licks and wailing vocals. The band was formed by Buck bin Nasty, guitarist, and Gloria Holer, vocalist. Hotter Than a Crotch’s 7” Soul Pumper is about to be released. As they head from Portland to our neck of the woods, Olympia would do well to be warned that Hotter Than a Crotch plans on “spanking the Olympia scene and sending it to bed without any pudding.”

Worse things could happen.

[The China Clipper, Hotter Than a Crotch with Butafuko, Booze Grass, Saturday, Oct. 10, 8 p.m., $3, 402 Fourth Ave. E., Olympia, 360.943.6300] - Weekly Volcano (Olympia, WA)