Les Mazoetans – Merry Christmas From Hanoi
Self-released / Forbidden Place Records / Sounds Haarlem Likes Vinyl – 2025
Rock, Garage, Surf, Noise, Punk, Blues
Rated: ***
After hearing the second track Explosion Man I immediately started longing for the day that Les Mazoetans would be on tour with the Del-Toros and the Sha-La-Lees! What a wild night that would be! You never heard of Les Mazoetans you say?! Well, that might be entirely logical, for it is yet another brand new, project by Jeroen Ligter, Pieter Holkenborg and Xavier Teerling. Names you might know from other bands they play in together or apart from each other. Namedropping a handful will surely ring a bell or two, so how about Geishas of Doom, Atlanta, Automatic Sam, Kintsugi Empire and Suit And Tie Johns. There are many more of course, but if you know any or all of those bands, you will immediately know what kind of rock music is in store for you. This time however they turn their garage into even more of the trashcan variation and infuse it with more surf oriented guitar work. Distorted noisy vocals and mouth harp weirdness turn a few moments into something The Stooges could have produced. And there’s a lot of that ramshackle attitude that Jon Spencer Blues Explosion is known for. Cause there’s blues there as well, the growling, the stomping kind. The kind that only a wild man can deliver, completely feral and baring teeth. Is Merry Christmas From Hanoi your new favorite album? If you like the seemingly chaotic and the true underground spirit, then absolutely! And otherwise, the twenty minutes this highly colorful punk whirlwind lasts, will still surely rev you up, weird you out and get all kinds of longings surging through your body… Wild nights and twisted adventures lie in wait…
(Written by JK)
Bandcamp
Forbidden Place Records
Sounds Haarlem Likes Vinyl
