‘Basic Strategies for Going Out’ shares the two Peel Sessions recorded by Huggy Bear in 1992 and 1993. Eight tracks total, two previously unreleased songs, a revelatory early version of “Her Jazz” and a fanatical gaiety throughout. For a band that so wholeheartedly invested in opposition, the chance to go up against the stifled decorum of the BBC pushed Huggy Bear to a nitroglycerin blaze. From the outraged to the rousing to the coy to the hell-bent, ‘Basic Strategies for Going Out’ reveals the extremes reachable by a band at ferocious work. Released by arrangement with the BBC, ‘Basic Strategies’ was mastered by Fred Thomas from the original session recordings. It is the first Huggy Bear recording issued since 1994, and at present their only commercially available release. Our take: Basic Strategies is a 10” compiling two Peel Sessions from 90s UK punk / riot grrrl group Huggy Bear. If you aren’t a devoted fan of the group, you might not realize it’s also the first Huggy Bear music released since the band dissolved in 1994. When Huggy Bear split, the members apparently didn’t look back, and their music has remained frustratingly out of print since. I must admit, though, that I’m not one of those devoted Huggy Bear fans. Their records have always been hard to find, so the only one I’ve ever owned is their split 12” with Bikini Kill, and even though I have that record, I haven’t spent a ton of time with the Huggy Bear side. Thus, I am a Huggy Bear novice, but as a novice I assure you Basic Strategies rises well above “for fans only” status. As you might expect from a BBC recording, the fidelity here is striking, but also the band’s performances are electrifying. I can imagine it must be very intimidating to go into the BBC’s studios to record a session. Surely some bands freeze up, but it sounds like this odd environment gave Huggy Bear a burst of energy. Stylistically, the songs range from sassy, garage-y songs that fans of Bikini Kill will flip for (“Her Jazz”) to more pensive, loud/quiet/loud workouts like the Pavement-ish “Nu Song,” with several songs lying somewhere in the middle, with fast, punk-ish drums and layers of fuzzed-out guitars with strong Sonic Youth vibes (some parts sound so much like Sonic Youth, in fact, that it has me wondering if Huggy Bear used alternate/open tunings like Sonic Youth did). Nearly every song strikes a great balance between being energetic, melodic, and immediate, yet also layered and sophisticated. The lyrics are also great, a kind of fractured take on riot grrrl’s confrontational politics, like Bikini Kill lyrics run through Mark E. Smith’s word blender. With eight short, exciting songs, killer period-appropriate artwork, and a tantalizingly cryptic insert, Basic Strategies has me hooked, and I look forward to wandering further down the Huggy Bear rabbit hole.
