Bat Fangs
Don Giovanni
2018
Rating: 9.5 pipeline curls out of 10
The world needs more well-crafted arena pop…and Bat Fangs are here to help with that. Nominally a side project of Betsy Wright (best known as the bassist from Ex Hex) and Laura King (best known as the drummer from Flesh Wounds, aka the band that backed Mac McCaughan on his last solo tour, aka that dude from Superchunk), in a just and righteous world the duo will be known as the musicians from Bat Fangs after this self-titled debut. At nine songs in twenty five minutes, the only thing keeping this from getting a perfect score is I want so so SO much more (though the album being short, sweet, and to-the-point is likely a sizable part of the appeal). I really don’t want to compare them to Joan Jett because since Wright kinda looks like her the comparison seems too obvious, but still…it fits. If not Jett specifically, very much the sound of the early-to-mid eighties - guitar heavy in that glam metal way, but without all the pomp and cheesiness; combined with the late seventies power pop of Cheap Trick or 20/20 or Shivvers or [insert two-thirds of the bands I listen to here]. It’s a combination that’s worked for decades, and Bat Fangs are doing it as well as anyone right out of the gate.
The most recent time I saw Bat Fangs live (the release party for this album, actually), they closed their set with a cover of Poison’s “Talk Dirty To Me.” This wasn’t some ironic screw around from the cool kids – they’re legitimate fans of that song and sound, and why not? Strip away the baggage of it being a bunch of dudes in hairspray and lycra (assuming that bothers you), and it’s just an incredibly catchy tune. If they had thrown a faithful cover of that track on this record it would have fit right in, and kinda wish they had.
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