thePULSETHE HAPPY HOLLOWS
“A killer hybrid of Kim Deal, PJ Harvey and Emily Haines. Negahdari has the guitar chops, explosive energy and winning sense of humor that should make The Happy Hollows one of the more interesting bands of our new millennium’s next decade.” — Wired Magazine
“A pugilistic mix of stinging guitars, turbulent rhythms, and shouted vocals. Alternates between childlike experimentation and ferocious firestorm.” — Los Angeles Times
Acclaimed Los Angeles trio The Happy Hollows have announced the release of their debut full length this month. The album, Spells, is a culmination of their work with producer and former Mighty Lemon Drops guitarist David Newton (The Little Ones, The Blood Arm), who also produced the group’s 2008 EP Imaginary. The young group’s infectious and irreverent noise-pop has earned considerable following up and down the west coast, with their energetic and charismatic performances. Vocalist/guitarist Sarah Negahdari wields ominous riffs and finger-tapped arpeggios while singing with a cherubic-yet-mischievous grin. Meanwhile, the agile rhythm section of Charles Mahoney (bass/vocals) and Chris Hernandez (drums/vocals) vault and lunge with precision.
Wired Magazine recently described Negahdari as “a killer hybrid of Kim Deal, PJ Harvey and Emily Haines” and added that “Negahdari has the guitar chops, explosive energy and winning sense of humor that should make The Happy Hollows one of the more interesting bands of our new millennium’s next decade.” The BBC picked them as a band to watch for 2009, the Los Angeles Times has described the group’s sound as a “pugilistic mix of stinging guitars, turbulent rhythms, and shouted vocals” that “alternates between childlike experimentation and ferocious firestorm.” AllMusic wrote that the band’s “appeal is immediate” and LAist has labeled them “a must see!”
The Happy Hollows’ catchy yet dissonant sound is influenced by genres as disparate as 90’s college rock, garage punk, art rock, and 80s pop. The band combines innovative song structures, surreal lyrics, and fiercely adept instrumentation to recreate reality into a jagged panorama of vibrant, kaleidoscopic collage. Listening to their music, one cannot help but see visions of a place oddly askew from the world we experience everyday, a parallel universe that is at once whimsical, demented, and ferocious.
Having born and bred their band in various corners of the L.A. music scene since forming 2006, The Happy Hollows played their first shows in Japanese restaurants, laundromats, and small local clubs. In their first year as a band, they snuck into a studio at night and, in two sessions, recorded Bunnies and Bombs, an EP that attracted the attention of the L.A.’s underground music scene. After seeing them play a show, established L.A. heroes Silversun Pickups asked The Happy Hollows to open for them at The Wiltern and The Fillmore. In 2008, fellow art-rock outfit Deerhoof invited the Hollows to open for them on their album release shows at The Avalon and The Great American Music Hall.
The 14 tracks on Spells encompass the wide range of structures and musical ideas that The Happy Hollows bring to the table. The album’s opening track, “Faces,” begins with a crunchy guitar hook strummed by Ms. Negahdari on her Gibson SG. The song takes an unexpected twist with the introduction of the drums and bass, and yet another turn when Negahdari’s irresistible, chanteuse style vocals begin floating over the music. Track 3, “Silver,” is a gritty and danceable song that shows off Ms. Negahdari’s unconventional lead guitar technique. On track 5, “Lieutenant,” the band demonstrates their technical chops as well as their ability to compose songs with non-traditional structures. Two of the later songs on Spells, “Father Time” and “Turtle and Hare,” highlight the band’s more eerie and melodic side.
In summary, Spells is an album which is at once catchy and innovative. It is gritty, loud, and ambitious, while not shying away from the use of melody and the employment pop sensibility. Written and recorded over a period of two years, it will certainly stand as one of the definitive statements of the Los Angeles and indie rock music scenes in recent memory.
www.happyhollows.com, www.myspace.com/thehappyhollows, thehappyhollows.bandcamp.com, twitter.com/happyhollows
TAKING DAWN
Las Vegas’ Taking Dawn (formerly 7th Son) may be the busiest band you’ve never heard of… yet. The band is experiencing a flurry of activity and is going to actively exercise its road legs for the rest of 2009, embarking on an extensive spate of dates, which are spread over three separate tours. After their upcoming tour (their first) with Saliva, the band will hit the road and support its labelmates DragonForce for a month. Taking Dawn will follow that tour up as part of the second leg of the first-ever, 43-date, “HardDrive” tour, where they will be supporting All That Remains and Lacuna Coil. The tour is sponsored by the nationally syndicated “HardDrive” radio show, which has been blasting on the airwaves since 1996. There are 125 stations broadcasting the show, hosted by Lou Brutus.
A 3-song EP, simply titled Taking Dawn, is currently available at all digital retailers. Additionally, the band will be selling the EP on the road and it has been available for sale via The Omega Order since September 1. The band’s Roadrunner full length debut is expected in early 2010. The EP tracklisting is “Time to Burn,” “Like a Revolution” and “Godless.” The band, rowdy hard rockers, are psyched to hit the road, saying, “We are so excited to finally rock with all of you crazy motherf*ckers. We are gonna bring the rock pretty f*ckin’ hard so you better dust off those dancing shoes and get ready to bang your heads with us! Get ready for a good time!”
Taking Dawn comes to The Palladium with DragonForce on October 9.
GWEN STACY
Indianapolis, IN’s Gwen Stacy has announced they have signed with Solid State Records (Underoath, Norma Jean). The band will release their new full-length A Dialogue with the label on October 20th. A video for the song The First Words is currently being shot by Jeremy Jackson.
The band’s previous album, The Life I Know (2008), was released on Ferret Music and debuted on the Billboard “Heatseekers” Chart. The album was hailed by media touchstones like Absolute punk.net who claimed “if you need something to kick your current music rotation in the ass, then The Life I Know is what you want to check out.”
The band has toured nationally numerous times including stints with The Devil Wears Prada, Unearth, Scary Kids Scaring Kids, Drop Dead, Gorgeous, Poison The Well, Maylene And The Sons Of Disaster, 36 Crazy Fists and Haste The Day. A national headlining tour around the album release will be announced shortly.
Gwen Stacy’s “A Dialogue” Track Listing:
1. The First Words
2. Profit Motive
3. A Dialogue
4. Creation and How I See It
5. Words of the New Prophet
6. Devil Devil
7. Addictionary
8. Braveheart
9. A Middle Ground
10. The Maknig Of
11. The Sound of Letting Go
Rodrigo y Gabriela
ATO Records is excited to announce the release of Rodrigo y Gabriela’s new album, 11:11. The upcoming tour is destined to be an energetic display of the guitar virtuosos’ famed live show and will feature new songs as well as favorites from their self-titled debut album.
11:11 was recorded in Ixtapa, Mexico and produced by Rodrigo y Gabriela, with John Leckie co-producing one of the tracks. The album was mixed in Wales and London by Colin Richardson, best known for his work with Slipknot and Trivium. Comprising 11 new original compositions, 11:11 is the band’s personal “gracias” to 11 musicians, both past and present, who have inspired them along the way. Alex Skolnick of metal gods Testament guests on the album, as do widely-respected acoustic veterans Strunz & Farah. 11:11 is the long-awaited follow-up to their 2006 self-titled debut that has so far enjoyed worldwide sales in excess of half-a-million albums.
Catch the band on October
23 at the Orpheum Theatre in Boston.
www.myspace.com/rodrigoygabriela
Sherwood
California alterna-popsters Sherwood announce the release of their highly anticipated new album Qu out October 13th on MySpace Records. Recorded in LA with renowned producer Brad Wood (Liz Phair, Smashing Pumpkins, Sunny Day Real Estate), the album features 11 original tracks written by all five members. The result is a refreshingly catchy and precise pop record.
Qu is without a question the band’s most mature album to date and the result of nearly a year of work. In July 2008, the five members of Sherwood ~ Mike Leibovich (keyboards), Dan Koch (guitars/vocals), Nate Henry (vocals/bass), David Provenzano (guitar/vocals) and Joe Greenetz (drums) ~ squirreled away in a rented apartment in Oakland, CA and dove head first into writing music. Never having this kind of freedom to write, they devoted countless hours each day to crafting song after song, a process which Leibovich says, “…felt like we were testing our limits and abilities.” They emerged 9 months later with 85 songs which they carefully narrowed down to 11 before heading into the studio with Wood.
Sherwood first formed in 2002 and, following their self-released EP in 2004, landed on Vans Warped Tour and signed to SideCho Records to release their debut album Sing, But Keep Going in 2005. It didn’t take long before the band caught the ear of the one and only Tom Anderson of MySpace fame and became the first signing to the MySpace Record family. Sherwood released their sophomore album (and MySpace Records debut) A Different Light in 2007 and the record soared to No. 12 on Billboard Heatseekers Chart, No. 38 on the Independent Albums Chart and has sold 50,000+ copies to date. In addition, the band is no stranger to the road and have trekked across the states on numerous successful tours alongside artists the likes of Motion City Soundtrack and The Academy Is among others.
Catch Sherwood at House of Blues in Boston on Oct. 14.
This Romantic Tragedy
From Sin City, This Romantic Tragedy has announced their Tragic Hero Records’ debut album! The newest band on the THR roster, This Romantic Tragedy released their white hot EP Trust in Fear on Sept. 22nd. Tying in electro-dance synth beats with a concoction of screamo and pop, This Romantic Tragedy have spent time in the lab creating a high octane mixture, making explosive tracks that sparkle and shine.
The track listing of the album is:
1. The Worst Part of Waking Up
2. Trust in Fear
3. I’ll Shut You Down
4. Gray’s a Shade of Black
5. Sounds Delicious
www.myspace.com/thsromantictragedy
FRANKIE NEGRON
On September 22, platinum-selling recording artist Frankie Negron returned with Independence Day, his first album in three years. Independence Day also marks Negron’s first album in English. “If you’re an artist, you’re not required to just paint portraits; if you’re an actor, you don’t just star in comedies. As a singer, you shouldn’t be pigeonholed. You have to remember singing is an art, and if you’re influenced by certain music, why not embrace it? I will absolutely go back and do another salsa record, I haven’t left it behind – I would just like to do more than one thing. Once people hear the album, there will be no doubt that this is just another facet of who I am,” Frankie explains.
The album is a composite of his natural romanticism and emotionally-charged vocal performances, infusing a salsa in?uence with rock. It’s a bold, creative move for a young man with a dedicated Latin fan base; yet, for Negron, recording Independence Day simply feels like the perfect next step for him as an artist, performer, and songwriter.
Before teaming with Airgo Music in 2008, Negron was signed by WEA at the age of 17, releasing seven albums between 1997 and 2003; he spent the next three years and two albums with Sony Music. Over the years, Frankie Negron has received several Latin Grammy Award nominations, multiple Billboard Award nods, and two “Premio Lo Nuestro” Awards for “Song of the Year.”
www.frankienegrononline.com, www.myspace.com/frankienegron
RELIENT K
The single Forget And Not Slow Down,” out Oc. 6, marks a major achievement for the band, who has been making the real thing since 1997, when Thiessen and Hoopes formed the band in high school. In the decade since, they’ve released five full-length albums (three are certified Gold), five EPs and a Christmas record, toured the globe, and more. The Los Angeles Times has praised Relient K for “its smart blend of punk pop and power pop, weaving together influences as diverse as the Beach Boys, Blink-182 and Fountains of Wayne” while Spin noted, “Few bands play punk-influenced modern rock as proficiently.”
With anticipation high from fans the world over and upcoming tour dates, the band’s hopes for Forget And Not Slow Down are simple. “The songs that tend to be the fan favorites in the past are the ones about making mistakes but ultimately moving past them,” guitarist Matt Hoopes says. “And this record has a lot of that feeling. No matter what trials you encounter in your life, it doesn’t have to be the end of your story. You can move on and be happy and experience joy.”
Catch the band live on October 4 at Paradise Rock Club in Boston.
relientk.com, www.myspace.com/relientk, twitter.com/RelientK
THE DESTRO
The Destro, who blew away The Palladium on Sept. 10, will release their sophomore full-length Harmony Of Discord on Oct 13th. The band possess the aggression and directness of hardcore but it’s not metalcore; they have the thick, sludge-toned riffage and big bottom groove of metal but toss off any flashy leads or instrumental obliqueness that have dominated that genre of late. “On writing this new album we threw away multiple riffs going on in songs, we cut out any soloing and it’s twice as heavy as our other material and totally focused” says guitarist Nick Emde. “As a guitarist I’m influenced by Napalm Death as they are completely fast, completely brutal with no filler but it leaves you satisfied.”
Emde continues, ” The new songs exorcise a lot of demons for the band. “In between albums we just had a lot of trying experiences including deaths of family members, deterioration of personal relationships and general homelessness. Those negative emotions and experiences went straight to our writing to the point where I can honestly say playing these new songs completely release all those feelings for me.”
Signed by Trevor Phipps of Unearth for his Ironclad Recordings, the band released their debut As The Coil Unwinds in 2007. The album received praise from the metal elite including national publications like Outburn: “The band harkens back in time when renegades like Metallica wrote grand masterpieces of metal compositions… pure metal sans the trends and flashy gimmickry.” The usually reserved Decibel Magazine wholeheartily concurred, saying, “The Destro nailed it pretty spectacularly from the percussive drum production and groove-heavy song tempos to the raw-throated vocals and squealy drop-tuned guitar riffs.”
THE REVIVAL TOUR
Drawing from a diverse group of established musicians in indie Americana, rock, punk, Irish folk, Cajun, zydeco and blues, The Revival Tour will take a band of traveling musicians through 32 U.S. cities; Chuck Ragan, Jim Ward, Tim Barry, Jenny Owen Youngs, and Stephen Brodsky are on the bill for this show.
In its second year, the The Revival Tour is a nationwide trek founded by Chuck Ragan, the singer/songwriter/guitarist and Hot Water Music co-frontman, and features a new guard of young, genre-defying, musicians that keep it rolling, teaming in and out through each others’ sets until the final farewell of the night.
Last year’s inaugural The Revival Tour featured Tim Barry of Avail, Ben Nichols of Lucero, Tom Gabel of Against Me! and Jesse Malin, among many others. “As artists we go on tour together and then in the final days of the tour ~ after everyone is familiar with one another ~ you’re playing songs with your tour-mates and having a blast,” states founder Chuck Ragan. “I thought, why can’t we get together, rehearse before the tour starts and perform together during the entire tour?” Ragan says of his inspiration for The Revival Tour. “Some of our set for that night’s show is chosen in advance, but everything else evolves organically onstage,” he elaborates. “It’s truly one of the most special tours I’ve ever been a part of.”
The tour comes to The Middle East in Cambridge on October 19.
