Who would have thought that there would be so many damned images of coat hangers on the Internet? You have to wonder what kind of lives people have when they go to the effort of putting up images of coat hangers for people to look at. I'm not even talking about somebody making some sort of political statement about abortion; just pictures of various shapes, sizes, and make of the damned things.
Plastic, wood, and good old wire of course, but then there are all the specialty types that you never even dreamed existed that don't look like they do anything more elaborate than any of the traditional shaped things do, in spite of the effort to create a different look. Then there are the "alternative" uses that coat hangers have. I didn't really have the interest to check them out in detail, but some were for gardening and others seemed to have something to do with engineering of some sort.
Now I know all this because I was looking for images to use in this review of the band from Atlanta, Georgia called The Coathangers. Their first CD is coming out on Rob's House Records in the early weeks of September and their press people sent me the self-titled disc, which means it's just called The Coathangers, to give a listen too. The release was full of band name that they compared favourably too, which might have been of some help if I had known who the fuck any of them were.
The one name I did recognize didn't leave me too hopeful about liking this all women band. Thankfully, they don't sound anything like any Beastie Boys music that I ever suffered through in the '80s. In fact they don't really sound like anything or anyone else I've ever listened too, although they are occasionally vocally reminiscent of Lena Lovich. Of course there are also those moments where they sound like a chainsaw that hasn't been oiled for a few years running a full speed, but that's your fairly typical abrasive edged punk sound that we've all come to know and love.
I don't know where people come up with terms like post-punk, but if The Coathangers are an example, I don't see the difference between it and punk–punk. They have all the characteristics of a punk band from the fuck you attitude, occasional primal scream vocals, the jaundiced view of society, to the emotionally truthful rawness of their overall sound.
Like a great many of the original punkers they can sound more then one note with their music, and don't always have to emulate a steel mill gone berserk. Punk is not just a style of music; it is the attitude behind the music. So even when played on acoustic guitar with a melodic sound, a song can still be punk. The Coathangers show a musical maturity on this album by knowing they don't have to be loud and fast all the time to be effective.
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