Hank IV

***“Back in 2006, I chanced upon HANK IV. I went to some show in San Francisco to see a band who wound up sucking and the Hanks were second on the bill. I had never seen them, didn’t know who they were, though I should have recognized a couple for them from their pedigree (ICKY BOYFRIENDS, RESINEATERS, MR. & MR. & MR. & MR. & MR. EVIL, BUM KON, etc.). Within three songs of their set I was hooked. Hank IV had a few years on the crowd but that didn’t mean a lack of energy. What it meant was that they had the know-how to write and play great songs. What I heard was hints of Crime, Chain Gang, Viletones, Styrenes, punk rock that hearkens back to the dark grunt of late 70s Frisco punk but brought to the now. I tracked them down and asked if I could put out a single by them, but Hook or Crook already hit them up for an album and Plastic Idol had snagged a 7”. After those records they slid over to Siltbreeze, where Hank IV released two critically acclaimed LPs. While I was organizing SS10, the label’s tenth anniversary festival, the Hanks and I got to talking about doing a single. ‘Sure thing!’ When they sent me their heavy, urban street swamp version of Kim Salmon & the Surrealists’s ‘Bellyfull of Slugs,’ I replied with ‘A side!’ Soon after ‘Cold Equation’ came my way and I knew that this punk ripper would be a great B side. And here we have Hank IV’s first record on S.S., five years later than I wanted but well well worth the wait. 330 pressed.”—S.S.