NME - 26 november 1994

Oh no, Jesus no. It's 1:30am, and Richard Adams from Yorkshire scenic white-out surrealists Hood doesn't want to talk about the band's songs.

Nope- he babbles instead about Hood's new guitarist Craig Tattersall, who'd rather go blackberry picking than play a gig; about the time their former second guitarist joined the audience midway through a set when he got fed up playing... anecdote affter giggly anecdote.

Sigh. Hood, bless their cuddly, camp hearts, are not like other bands.

"I've noticed this before," says Richard. "One night we did a gig, all the other bands were sitting around talking about music. Meanwhile we were talking about the fact that if an object was traveling really fast, it can get through a pin prick. Like if projected, a door could get through a keyhole..."

Oh Lord. Hood, a trio scattered at present over Leeds, Sheffield and Bradford, speak in an eccentric tongue which has become a foreign language in the conservative land that is guitar-stroking Indieville. No great pouting, cliched mod-punk yappings about world domination and no snappy, brash riff glory- Hood have melodies that subside almost before they have barely started, and a disinclination to do anything, really.

No! We don't way our photo taken. No! we aren't saying what the songs are about. No! We are never going to tour.

"We don't like playing live, we get so many hassles," groans Richard. "Everything breaks down all the time, and I get really worked up about every single thing."

But Hood, as well as making great puddles of noise with seemingly little intent, also have huge I've-got-a-noodle-and-I'm-going-to-use-it charm. Chris and Richard, who share guitar and bass duties, and squirrel-eyed sticksman Andrew Johnson have humour, which reels behind the gloom in songs like "Attempts To Revive The Victim Failed"

Of course they cringe at the expression "lo-fi" (even though they have actually recorded a January single for the French label Lo-fi Organisation). But, surprisingly, they're prepared to shed just a little light on why then new album's called "Cabled Linear Traction"...

"Up here we have pylons, these massive structures carrying electricity. there was an advert in the '70s which used to say, 'Don't fly your kite near pylons, you'll get electrocuted'."

So it stuck in your mind?

"I've always been petrified to electricity. The most recent story I've heard is on people lighting cigarettes off pylons..."

Please, no more stories, Richard.

"If you do a headline over this piece and it reads 'Boys N The Hood' then you're dead," he warns (Such wit! Such insight! We wilt! -Ed). I know people who have guns and short of a few quid..."

Ah, but after posing for a picture like that, matey, such wickedness is tempting.