Oaklands Hot Toddies are so retro, smart and sexy, youd think they were Japanese. Where other all-girl rockers like the Donnas choose a tough girl, in-your-faceness, the Hot Toddies get under your skin by saying dirty, dirty things simply, with a cavity-inducing sweetness that makes them not only palpable, but truly tasty. Take their song Seattle, a ditty where, in cheeky, barely legal harmonies and the course of two minutes, these ladies manage to rhyme the name of our fair city with the words saddle, paddle, rattle and straddle. Even though they sound matching-outfit, Doris Day, Be My Baby pure, these chickies are pushing a hard line feminist agenda. Only instead of shoving it down your throat, they let it surprise you, like a half-chewed piece of bubble gum deposited via a long, wet, kiss. Its whats in their songs, not their approach, which make them so punk rock, and not out of place on a bill with Pistol purists like the Queers. With the Mansfields, Atom Age. All ages.
Fri., June 12, 7 p.m., 2009
