I may have jinxed myself when I subscribed to the original Sub Pop Singles Club. I think the first record I got in the mail was the AmRep “Smells Like Smoked Sausages” 2×7″ comp or maybe the L7 single and after that I managed to track down the Tad/Pussy Galore split and Unsane “Vandal X” 7″s and I thought this was what all subscription clubs would be like. Needless to say, I was wrong. The next one I forked my money over for was the Kill Rock Stars “Mailorder Freak” singles club they did in the late 90’s and it was fine but I couldn’t justify renewing. I never joined another but I still fell for plenty of individual pre-order scams of various releases over the years which (let’s face it) is pretty much the same thing as trusting a singles club to deliver.
In 2008-09 HoZac Records was on quite the run and some of their releases were even considered (dare I say it) good investments. When they rolled out their own subscription series called the “Hookup Klub” I couldn’t bare the thought of missing out on it so I pulled the trigger. Before I started writing this post I could only remember two of the 12 or so records I eventually received from them. I think I still own two or three, one being the Art Thieves 7″.
I’ve found pretty much zero information on this band online and even their band link on the HoZac website is not working. The one review of the record I dug up is negative and lambasts it for the exact reasons why I think it’s so good. From what I can gather, Art Thieves seems to be the solo project of Christopher Ilth AKA Chris Erickson who at the time was playing with Chicago acts like The Daily Void and Functional Blackouts, The name of the game on this single is guttural scuzz and god ol’ fashioned repetition. Both tracks sound like basement recorded workouts of single riffs heavy on the low-end with buried vocals that seem to be an afterthought. Mike Rep would be proud. It reminds me of back in the 90’s when someone would say a band sounded like “they should be on Siltbreeze” but really what they meant was “I bought the Sunshine Super Scum 7″ and didn’t understand it and now that’s what I think all Siltbreeze bands sound like. Have you a copy of the new Tortoise LP, kind sir?” I think the Art Thieves 7″ ruined a few Dum Dum Girls fans’ days when they got it in the mail and that’s a good thing because now it means people like us can find copies for next to nothing. As I type this there are 21 copies on Discogs, 11 of which are $4 and under. Truly a “Dollar Bin Dandy™”!
