Things are looking up for Hot Flash Heat Wave. With an Outside Lands performance on the horizon and a SXSW set safely in the books, guitarists Nathan Blum, Adam Abildgaard and bassist Ted Davis have no complaints.
The guys got their start playing in a slew of different projects back in their hometown of Davis, California. The three became friends as they repeatedly crossed paths in the tight-knit community of small shows in parents’ garages.
By 2014, the trio had found themselves reunited in San Francisco. Wasting no time putting together their first album, they released 2015’s Neapolitan shortly after. Surf-rocky tracks like fuzzed out “Gutter Girl” gained the band a fair bit of buzz. It was with early tracks like this and “Tastes Good” that the band first employed their particular mix of jangly guitar leads and earworm hooks.
Last summer they released their most recent full-length Soaked on Oakland-based OIM Records. In the album’s forty-minute run time the band show off their improved songwriting chops and throw some new instruments into the mix. This time around the sun-bleached guitars are accompanied by synthesizers, a couple sitars and an omnicord.
Album highlight “Blue” is straightforward enough. The song doesn’t stray far from the band’s surf rock roots, but sports an undeniable vocal melody and some of the tightest songwriting in the band’s discography.
“One of my friends from high school had just been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, and they were having this episode,” Davis says of the song. “So I was thinking about them, and that day at work I listened to “Don’t Stop Me Now” by Queen like six times.The song came to me later that night when I was driving home singing the melody.”
Using their new familiarity with ambling synthesizers, their newest single “Glo Ride” is the catchiest the band has sounded yet. Though Blum is quick to point out that the song stands on its own for now.
“It’s kinda teasing something,” Blum says. “We’re recording a bunch of songs right now, but we haven’t really decided if it’s gonna end up as an EP or another album. We’re still just focused on writing the music before we decide what it’s gonna become.”
The band is set to play at Outside Lands this summer, but the festival-averse crowd can catch them sooner when they play at the Bing this Friday.
Hot Flash Heat Wave
Fri, 9:30pm, $20
Bing Studio, Stanford
