The music business is filled with all sorts of people and personalities, both good and bad, and sometimes it's the kindest ones who get left by the wayside. So when the kindest ones win, it's a major heart-warmer.
The Henry Clay People is a band filled with the latter, which makes you like them as people. And they're crazy good musicians with big guitar hooks and catchy melodies, which makes you love their music. And word came down today that they've found a label that loves it too.
TBD Records signed HCP and will be putting out their first full-length, Somewhere on the Golden Coast in early June. About the record the band said, "The idea was to track the record as live as possible onto tape, leaving that dirt under the fingernails kinda feel. So yeah, there is a good amount of dirt, but hopefully other stuff too."
Listen to one of the new ones, "Slow Burn," here, with more to follow they said.
Congrats guys...couldn't happen to anyone nicer.
(Read some of our previous HCP show coverage here and here)
Monday, March 8, 2010
Henry Clay People Sign with TBD Records, Announce Full-Length Debut forJune Release
Thursday, September 4, 2008
Sound and Vision: My Interview with The Weather Underground
(Photo by Andy Tenille)
What do you get when you mix a cool band of four from the Silver Lake area of Los Angeles with a cool interviewer, a big couch, and a very people-friendly dog? Why a fun interview between myself and Harley Prechtel-Cortez, Ryan Kirkpatrick, Diego Guerrero, and Soichi Bagley of The Weather Underground of course.
However, I'm not sure that "interview" is the right word for it. I mean, ok, following their show here in Washington, DC I asked them questions about their band and they gave answers. But in reality it was more a friendly discussion amongst five people (and one ham of a dog) in the wee small hours of the morning about, well, everything: from the reason for Prechtel-Cortez's hyphenated and long last name to commentary on Los Angeles and its music scene; from a modern-day movie casting of “The Sun Also Rises” to who ranks higher, the Rolling Stones or The Who. It’s laid back, it’s a little sloppy in the camera work (this being the first time I used Mac’s iSight feature as a camcorder), it includes a dog’s obsession with a squeaky toy...and it's a charming laugh-riot. These are definitely four guys you'd want at your next dinner party.
The best part is that you truly get a feel for the personalities of each of these musicians. Razor-sharp smart and utterly hilarious, they’re a band of guys who are talented and serious artists but also incredibly grounded-no stereotypical haughty LA rock band here. They’re as tight off-stage as they are on, and it’s obvious they aren’t friends just because they’re in the same band; they’re friends because of who they are and the kinetic energy they share with each other. It’s a camaraderie that was wonderfully refreshing to witness.
The Weather Underground Interview, Part 1
The Weather Underground Interview, Part 2
The Weather Underground was generous enough to provide me with a currently unreleased track that they often end their shows with called "Leap Into the Void." This version, with Prechtel-Cortez alone on piano, is "a sort of minimalist Spiritualized gospel style version, the kind of stuff i'm usually a big sucker for," Prechtel-Cortez said.
Leap Into the Void (unreleased piano-gospel version)-The Weather Underground
Read my interview with The Weather Underground's Harley Prechtel-Cortez here.
