The Hickoids 'Kicking It With The Twits' Saustex

This band take, on this outing, a similar approach to Billy Bob Thorton's Boxmasters modbilly concept which was a combination of British Invasion and country music. The Hickoids, fronted by the charismatic singer Jeff Smith, deliver an album of covers that include The Who's Pictures Of Lily, The Stones' Have You Seen Your Mother Baby, Standing In The Shadows. The Move's Brontorsarus and 5 more including the more unlikely cover of Brian Eno's Needles In The Camel's Eye. Though Scott Lutz's pedal steel guitar tends to get buried slightly in the overall mix on some of these songs but is there on Elton John's Benny & The Jets. The Hickoids are vibrant force in the live context and play a broader mix of songs that suggested by this mini-album. The versions of these well loved songs may not surpass the originals but serve to see them in a fresh light. Their all out assualt on The Damned's Neat, Neat, Neat shows a range of influences that run from Iggy and The Cramps to the originals sense of energy and drive and rounds of the release in a chaotic rock energized style that will appeal to those who like their music drenched in sweat and guitars on overdrive.