ritish Columbia may be the province that produced the horror known as Nickelback, but don’t write off the west coast of Canada for one terrible mistake. Hot Hot Heat, another B.C. band, is everything Canada needs to save face from spawning such horrible products like the aforementioned Nickelback, Default, Alanis Morrisette, and whatever else might be crawling around in our igloos and forests. As young as The Vines, as hyper as The Hives and far more polite than The Strokes, Hot Hot Heat is everything anyone could want in a young, hip band.

In February 2001, the band released an album through Ohev Records, a small Florida label. Titled Scenes One Through Thirteen, the album was a compilation of seven inches and demos the band had lying around. Its rough and edgy production makes the record sound perfect for the demented brand of new wave garage rock the band were practicing at the time. However, the singer (Matthew Marnik) really couldn’t sing, so he got the boot, paving the way for a completely new direction with keyboardist cum singer Steve Bays. Their first recording since the line-up change (which also includes Dante DeCaro now on guitar), Knock Knock Knock shows that Hot Hot Heat is definitely in a position to go places. With the recent wave of bands that make rock ‘n’ roll look cool again to MTV and those who can’t be bothered to find music themselves, bets should be placed on these guys.

The influences on the new formation of the band are unmistakable. We have XTC’s idiosyncratics, The Cure’s mid-80s playfulness and, of course, Wire’s artistic direction towards punk. But those are the influences of most of these neo-rock 'n roll bands, nowadays. What you do get with Hot Hot Heat that is absent in the other records that have made it big in the past year, is, well, 5 things:

1. They do not have “The” in their name. God, they don’t even have it in the record’s title or any of their songs, making them far more creative than the others.

2. Steve Bays, the lead singer, is cool for two reasons. The first is because he plays keyboards, which is rare nowadays for a band that you don’t have to call a guilty pleasure. The second is because he sounds like Robert Smith of The Cure on a Jolt Cola binge. Not since “Love Cats” have you heard a voice so high and strange sound so raw and wild.

3. They actually know how to play their instruments well enough to explore different styles of music. Sure, they can do the “garage pop” thing, who can’t? But they can also do a mean ragga shuffle (“Have A Good Sleep”) and a sugary, psychedelic pop number with a Vaudeville kinda twist to it (“More for Show”).

4. Hot Hot Heat is Canadian. Enough with Sweden, Detroit and New York, Canada should be the next place to focus on. Check out The Constantines, The Dears, Do Make Say Think, and Royal City and try telling me there is no talent worth praising here.

5. They are part of the new indie rock revolution that Sub Pop has helped reinstate. With bands like The Shins, Beachwood Sparks, Arlo, and Love As Laughter on the roster, Sub Pop is doing some major damage in the music business. With Hot Hot Heat as Sub Pop's young hopefuls to battle The Vines and The Strokes, the label not only has the only indie band in contention, but also the most talented.