Hecks - The Hecks - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Chicago trio The Hecks have been at it since 2012, starting out as the duo of guitarist Andy Mosiman & Zach Hebert. The band drafted guitarist Dave Vettraino into the fold, a recording engineer who was recording the band's s/t debut (Trouble In Mind, 2016) & ended up joining the band In 2017. The band's journey to the end result of InchMy StarInch - their second album - has taken them three years. After recording an initial version of the album in 2017, The Hecks started gigging with new fourth member & keyboardist Jeff Graupner, whose synthesized squiggles added some welcome heft & swagger to the band's tunes. After reworking & rearranging much of the new material to accommodate Graupner, the band scrapped the recordings & rebuilt them from the ground up, incorporating Graupner's skills at the keys. The results speak for themselves, as InchMy StarInch is a gigantic leap forward for the band, absorbing everything from InchManscapeInch-era Wire to Paisley Park nu-funk to abstract new wave & art rock plucked straight from the Cold Storage playbook. Much of InchMy StarInchs ten tracks are designed to bewilder; the production is intentionally disorienting, with the mix tipped toward the treble, alternating from sparse to confoundingly dense at times, but never at a disservice to the songs themselves. Opener InchZipperInchs intertwining guitar jabs & synth lines herk & jerk so rapidly it's liable to break your neck, while lead track InchSo 4 RealInchs neon-laced dayglo soul ratchets up the mutant funk throb so tightly that the lilting, melodic guitar break at the chorus is a welcome dose of ear-candy. InchHeat WaveInch dials it back, reveling in romantic washes of synth and flange & it's yearning refrain of InchIt's tearing me apart, ripping out my heart againInch; a captivating, slow burning ballad unlike anything the band has done before. Meanwhile album closer (and titl

Album Tracks 1. This Strange Effect 2. Left It with the Moon 3. Orchids 4. Audrey Hepburn 5. Tidal Waves 6. Rain 7. Hands in Your Pockets 8. No Surprise 9. Strange Boy 10. Audrey (Spending All My Time with You) 11. No Surprise

Ex Hex is a power trio from Washington, DC. Drums, bass, guitar, P90s, searing leads this is unapologetic rock 'n' roll spat out in the discipline's mother tongue. With Wild Flag on hiatus, Mary Timony (Autoclave, Helium) needed a new outlet, so she retreated to her basement and started writing. Mary found Laura Harris (The Aquarium, Benjy Ferree) and they hit it off immediately. In walked Betsy Wright from the wilds of Virginia. Betsy is a performer and an ace piano player, and before long, she was slinging a cherry SG as the third member of Ex Hex. Album Tracks 1. Don't Wanna Lose 2. Beast 3. Waste Your Time 4. You Fell Apart 5. How You Got That Girl 6. Waterfall 7. Hot and Cold 8. Radio on 9. New Kid 10. War Paint 11. Everywhere 12. Outro