“Pool Hopping” has to be one of the most
crushing power pop punk rock songs in recent
memory. Followed immediately on the album
Let Me Do One More by the equally sassy and
wildly exuberant “MMMOOOAAAAAYAYA.”
One would be hard pressed to find two
more powerful opening tracks in the whole
of the year of our pandemic, 2020-21.
The project of singer songwriter,
engineer, and producer Sarah Tudzin,
Illuminati Hotties, sporting one of the greatest
project names ever, records agro-female, guitar
driven, intricately crafted power pop.
Sarah, who often sings in the sweet, childlike
voice that is common among alt-rock
women singer songwriters, can also
unleash a manic rap-yell-scream loud
enough to wake the dead, or, on the
other end, croon like a 1950’s country
chanteuse. Generally, her songs are short,
super crafty, lyrically smart and funny,
melodically memorable, and have a
stylistic range between the extremely
rocking punk of the two opening tracks,
to the country-vibe of “U V V P,” to the
sensitive slow balladry of “Protector”
or “Growth,” the album closer.
The most recent album, Power, is a
more consistent record, stylistically,
has less punk energy, sounds
better, and still is a fine specimen of
the stew that makes Sarah Tudzin, a.k.a.
Illuminati Hotties, such a great listen.
It’s jam-packed full of great sadhappy songs.
Saw her live on the Power tour and she was
brilliant and the her band of hired guns
was tight and full of spunk.
Notes on the vinyl editions:
- Let Me Do One More, Hopeless Records, 2021, translucent green vinyl.
- Power, Hopeless Records, 2024, translucent aqua-blue vinyl.
In case you don’t already know: I’m listening to almost everything in my vinyl collection, A to Z, and writing at least one, sometimes two or three long skinny poem-like-things in response for each artist, and on a few occasions, writing a long skinny poem-like-thing in response to more than one artist. As a poet and a student of poetry, I understand that these things look like poems, but they don’t really sound much like poetry, hence, I call them “poem-like-things.” I’ll admit that they’re just long, skinny essays that veer every now and then into the poetic or lyric.
michael jarmer 