From one of the minds behind the brief but bright burning Island of Love comes a new group called Hitmen, debuting with a concise missive of blown out pop perfection.
"Rock to Forget" crams so many well timed, pitch perfect hooks into each two minute nugget that they leave your head spinning. The guitars are pyrotechnic but not a note is wasted. The vocals pull off both a laconic cool and a preacher-y howl. The production is in the red but everything hits crystal clear, and the bulletproof songwriting is so tight you can scarcely believe it.
Reaching for comparisons is useless, any formative band that has ever personally revealed to you the revelatory power of rocking out will fit the bill. If these songs do not renew your faith, then your soul may be lost, and if the world won't listen then it is officially bereft of justice.
The Hitmen were an Australian indie rock band. The group went through a large number of lineup changes in its short late 1970s and early 1980s run, then regrouped under a new name, The Hitmen DTK, between 1989 and 1992.
Radio Birdman backup singer Johnny Kannis first formed the group as Johnny and the Hitmen in 1977. They recorded three songs and released two of them as a 7" under Johnny's name in 1978. When Radio Birdman's European tour went awry in 1978, some of its members joined Kannis' band. The group began touring, and signed to Warner Bros. Records in 1979, releasing their first single in July of that year. A second single followed the next year, and in December 1980, the band entered the studio. The result was 1981's self-titled full length, released in July, and the group supported Steppenwolf on an Australian tour.
In 1982, the group left Warner Bros.