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Justin Hawkins names new band Hot Leg, sounds like The Darkness
‘The Leg’ ready debut album: “akin to Permission To Land”
Tom Porter, Thu 3 Jul 2008, 3:22 pm UTC
Former The Darkness frontman Justin Hawkins has named his new band Hot Leg. 'The Leg', as they are yet to be known, are just putting the finishing touches to their still-untitled debut album in a LA studio before embarking on a mini UK tour in August.
Rob Laing, chief scribe for the mighty Guitarist magazine, just delivered a glowing review of Justin's brother Dan's (and the other half of The Darkness) new band Stone Gods. We asked Rob for his thoughts on Justin Hawkins and Hot Leg: "Obviously the name is crap, that's probably the point knowing Hawkins' 'crazy' sense of humour".
"From the small amount of music heard it's telling that he's gone back to a classic rock guitar driven sound more akin to Permission To Land than the dodgy couple of pop songs he put out under the British Whale name".
"Hopefully those snippets are a sign of things to come. Not sure if it'll be too little too late though – he was the reason a lot of people disliked The Darkness after all and some may never want to hear that falsetto again. Still, he's a classy guitarist who knows his classic rock – and a talented songwriter too, and that often gets overlooked amongst the cat suits and wailing".
Stephen Marcussen, master of mastering at the LA studio, was asked for his favourite Hot Leg tune: "I'm not that familiar with it that I can make that call – there's nothing I didn't like".
That's not exactly reassuring considering Marcussen just sat there and mastered the entire thing. Let's just hope this marks a return to form for grandma's favourite Lycra-clad rocker, and not a one way ticket to obscurity… again.
Heard the new material? Add your thoughts below…
User comments (6)
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Hot Leg is absolutely brilliant in every respect; play Red Light Fever and the Stone Gods LP back to back and tell me where the talent is in that family. Not to say Silver Spoons & Broken Bones isn't a valiant effort, but it doesn't even come close to being as entertaining and mind-blowing as any of the Darkness releases...but Hot Leg's first album most certainly does. It seriously delivers the goods. Although there's nothing quite as visceral as "Get Your Hands Off of My Woman" or "Black Shuck" on this one, Red Light Fever represents a welcome return to the hairy-chested sound of Permission to Land, which is an album that I think would be hard for any contemporary band to equal. But one of the most important things about Red Light is that each and every track is crammed full of Justin's amazing lead-work, something that is very noticeably missing from Silver Spoons - oddly, I haven't ever seen this point mentioned in any reviews of the record. Dan is a fine guitarist, but Justin just burns it up like molten lava let loose on a stick of butter. And incidentally, I think he's gotten even better on guitar since he parted ways with his addictions. Honestly, if someone had played Red Light Fever for me and then proceeded to tell me that it was the new Darkness album, I'd absolutely believe it. Justin really carried the Darkness - you can hear it throughout this record - and if you liked them at all, definitely do not miss Hot Leg. Amazing stuff.
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After having heard 'Trojan Guitar' and 'Heroes' I have to say that I am eagerly anticipating the release of 'Hot Leg's album.
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Quote:
"That's not exactly reassuring considering Marcussen just sat there and mastered the entire thing".
Bit of a juvenile comment to make really, and made by someone obviously not familiar with the art of mastering. He was there to do a job - and given that he's probably paid more by the hour, than you are by the week, it's not surprising that he wasn't sat there dreaming up his top 3 tracks from the album. Fair do's if you don't like an artist - but just come out and say it - don't dress it up in some prepubescent schoolgirl put me down. -
Justin Hawkins was also the reason a lot of people liked the darkness. Not afraid to do his own thing and not conform to what the masses expect. I hope he continues to do that.
I for one look forward to seeing the Leg live and wearing a big fat grin on my face. After all, he brought the fun back to rock, and for me anyway, that was missing before and has been since.
good luck to the four guys. but dont break a leg. -
Also to correct the article, at the time of making his comments, Stephen Marcussen had only heard the album once through. He then went ahead and 'mastered the whole thing'. I hope this doesn't spoil your story.
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Crikey, this guy's determined not to like the Leg! Stephen Marcussen makes 250-odd albums every year and if you knew him you'd recognise that his remarks on the Hot Leg album are very positive indeed...
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mlechman
37 weeks ago.