Smells Like Pop

One of Willamette Week’s top four “new” bands of Portland last year, Hosannas is a project of brothers Richard and Brandon Laws, with occasional assists by other talented musicians. Distinctive for its striking interplay of vocal harmonies and stark electronics, the band inspired a successful Kickstarter campaign for the film/music project Into the Woods. Having toted the band, equipment, and generators to Ape Cave near Mt. St. Helens, Into the Woods tells SLP that they have a ton of “stunning” footage to share once they are done with the edits. It might be worth the wait, but in the meanwhile you can download a couple of EPs (for free, unless you have a fleeting sense of guilt at the checkout) available on the Hosannas website. We caught up with them before their launch on a California tour.

SLP: You recently played with Menomena at Doug Fir, and before that I think you were at SXSW. What’s life on the road been like for you guys?
Hosannas: We have toured more than most, and it has mostly been rad. Brandon and I did a three month tour last fall and played 70+ shows in the U.S. and Canada. we have had the opportunity to see more of this country than all but the most extreme seasoned travelers, and though it hasn’t really been easy, in retrospect it seems that it was fun or something close to it. now we want to go abroad.

SLP: As a band with a big sound, I can only imagine that it must be hard to recreate live, particularly with two people on stage. Some bands rely heavily on pre-recorded tracks, to the extent that it’s sometimes hard to figure out what’s live and what’s recorded. Though this doesn’t seem to be the case with your live show, what are your thoughts about using pre-recorded bits?
Hosannas: The computer is the most significant new tool available to the musician since the development of the keyboard. Anyone who doesn’t see that is just super high. No one is comfortable with seeing computers on stage yet though, myself included. This is because we are still learning the right way to play these instruments. In the future the current trend of laptop-karaoke will look like awkward middle-schoolers wearing backwards jeans. We have experimented with playing along a little in the past, and have moved away from the idea because it is too easy to destroy the real humanness of good musical performance. This is why we focus so much on singing. As a band that produces electronic music, maintaining the the involvement of un-questionably human elements is so important, and there is no possible substitute for the experience of hearing another human voice. These days we are looking to add a few extra human participants to our live set, just so brandon and i don’t have to play so many things at once.

SLP: Hosannas is to me one of those rare bands where vocals are successfully used as the lead instrument. The effect is etherial and haunting, for example on your EP The People I Know. Your most recent release, Thug Life Nicole, seems to take those elements to a harder edge (effectively, as in “Cccloud”). How would you describe your current work?
Hosannas: Currently we are branching out. we want to expand on our favorite parts about what we do, it is too soon to know exactly what that means, but we are already super excited about it.

SLP: For music fans, it’s great that there are so many bands here, but I imagine for people who are already established, it must be tough to hear that more and more bands are arriving by the boatload (most recently, the Fleet Foxes guy turned refugee-from-Seattle). Are there benefits to playing in a town that is so well-stocked with musicians?
Hosannas: Portland is a wonderful place to exist and play music, that is why brandon and I live here and why more bands move here all the time. Portland is definitely aware of this though, and she has no reservations about stoking the hype surrounding her insanely fantastic music scene. This is probably a good thing for the city as a whole and definitely good for those select few who are catapulted to new realms of indie stardom and paying their rent and whatnot. As a band however, hosannas doesn’t really feel the need to get in on this hype-stoking, probably because we just kind of suck at it. We just feel really blessed at whatever accolades are mysteriously thrown our way. But i will admit that we would love to see more people come out to our shows, and i urge real music fans to search out some of the bodaciously radical music that does not fit into the spotlight of widespread approval.

SLP: Speaking of Fleet Foxes–perhaps you’ve heard the comparison before, so skip that if it’s annoying–perhaps a better comparison for your work is Brian Wilson, whom you covered in a show I saw recently. Either way, there’s a lot of experimentation with the interplay of vocals and instrumental work. Knowing very little about harmonics, how would you describe your vocal approach to a schlub like me?
Hosannas: Funny you mention Fleet Foxes, our dad just told me that he picked up their album at starbucks and that it reminded him of us. The whole world is trippy. As far as our vocal approach, it really just comes down to singing whatever sounds good as best as you can. We definitely take inspiration from the beach boys as i’m sure Fleet Foxes do as well, and as the Beach Boys did from their predecessors, i.e. the Four Freshmen, the Hi-Los, and George Gershwin.

SLP: I noticed that Hosannas has offered a lot of free shows (in Portland at least), and you give away some of your stuff online. Since selling merch doesn’t seem like much of an attractive option, what do you think is the formula for bands to make money these days?
Hosannas: Well I am pretty sure we haven’t figured that shit out at all, because i gotta go to work tomorrow the same as anybody else. We lose money doing this, all of the money. We do sell merch though … cd’s, lp’s, we have even produced a few rather handsome t-shirts. As for the free shows, we just want people to come hang out. Folks are poor in this town, and so are we, so free shows are a good thing for these broke-ass types of people.

SLP: OK, I have to ask. In your video for Be Careful, I go back and forth between being more creeped out by the guy in the mask and the shiny-face mermaid (not to mention the tri-headed puppet). Is there a story behind the video?
Hosannas: I think there is, but you would have to ask Mr. Emile Rosewater, the talented individual responsible for that particular video. Dude has got his own crazy thoughts…

SLP: What’s next for the band?
Hosannas: Absorbing summer rays, laying down huge janky beats, barbeque, and a fun road trip to california. We hope for the best.

7.10 Portland, OR @ Rontoms
7.11 Santa Rosa, CA @ The Arlene Francis
7.12 San Francisco, CA @ Bottom of the Hill
7.13 Santa Barbara, CA @ SOHO
7.14 Los Angeles, CA @ Bootleg Bar
7.15 Los Angeles, CA @ Lot 1
7.16 Davis, CA @ Sophia’s Thai Kitchen

Sure, you can spend dozens of dollars on national acts. The imported stuff might be worth it, but there is arguably just as much quality in the home-grown right now. And with so many local Portland bands playing for cheap (or even free), what’s your excuse for not going out to catch a show? What, the kids? Just leave the baby monitor with a neighbor…what could go wrong?

Hosannas:  Currently a two-piece outfit, these guys played the Bunk Bar on the eve of their launch toward SXSW. While the venue isn’t ideal for live music, the band immediately grabbed attention, charming the crowd with their dreamy duets.  And they were efficient, filling the place with sound without heavy reliance on pre-recorded tracks. A drum-machine backed up their heavy synth and minimalist guitar-work, but their ample vocal talents remained at center-stage. They did a Brian Wilson cover that would have roused the man from his druggy slumber, before tucking him back to bed with a wispy lull-a-bye. The show was for free, as is their memorable six-part EP, The People I Know, available on their website. Along with their understandable aversion to selling merch, it’s not clear how they got enough gas money to get to Austin. Though their long-term survival might be in question, you can’t doubt their sincerity—they closed with an invitation to the audience, “Come hang out with us. We’ll eat sandwiches.”

Y La Bamba:  Supporting their recent release, Lupon,  these guys opened the third Google “Best Ever” concert in a converted church-bar.  Three vocalists took the fore, but the two men quickly found their place as support for the lush stylistics of Luzelena Mendoza, tall and charming in her tiger sweatshirt (a la “Flight of the Conchords”) and a black bowler hat. Mendoza’s voice was somehow edgy and old-fashioned at the same time, sounding like it could be emanating from a hand-cranked Gramophone. With accordion and occasional mandolin, the band laid out a surprisingl mellow instrumental backing, accentuated by complex drum-work invoking salsa rhythms. The band wound down with a song about Michoacan, which instead brought to mind a serenade from a terrace somewhere in the Spanish Pyrenees. Haunting and understated, the music of Y La Bamba would be the perfect accompaniment to a sunny afternoon with a pitcher of sangria–or perhaps more realistically, a cloudy one and a bottle of Mike’s.

Typhoon:  Second in the lineup, eleven members of the band Typhoon (I think one was missing, but maybe they didn’t notice) literally filled what was a fairly large stage, starting out with a goofy power-tap. Six instrumentalists crowded at front alongside their leader Kyle Morton, remaining silent while he opened with a moody acoustic number. Immediately one was presented with the enigma that is Typhoon—how is it that a twelve-piece band is so thoroughly dominated by a single personality, who the liner notes indicate wrote all the songs to Hunger and Thirst?  Perhaps this is due to necessity—if all the members were let loose, interjecting their own creative energies, it might be chaos…it might be And And And. If the lead singer is indeed a cult leader, or a dictator, he must be a benevolent one. Clearly he inspires loyalty from his talented band, and if you take their recent video for “The Honest Truth” on face value, they live happily in a cozy home together, literally sharing a bathroom.  But in both the video and the live show, when the crew breaks out, they tear the place down. Three percussionists, a host of instruments befitting a fully-funded school band, and outbursts into full choir-mode create an impressive spectacle. The contrast with the sparse vocals in songs like “The Sickness Unto Death” makes the lyrics all the more stark. The twelve are currently representing the ‘hood at SXSW, and I’m sure they’re doing us proud.

The Dandy Warhols: Last and littlest (in size, not stature—they had a light show) on Google’s bill, the Dandys played a K-Tel’s greatest hits set. Dressed in a Puffy Shirt, Courtney Taylor-Taylor admitted to his aspirations to be Jimmie Hendrix with mock self-mocking. Zia McCabe did her best to balance out the stage, which was heavily weighted in the center by Taylor-Taylor’s formidable ego (why did he take on the incestuous surname late in life? Mr. T-T will never tell). Truth be told, the Dandys do put together a respectable stage show, with strong instrumental backing by Peter Holmstrom and newly-rejoined drummer Eric Hedford. But that alone doesn’t diminish my main beef—what, Dandys, nothing new to show us? Next time, I’ll check out Pete International Airport instead.

Thanks to Google Hotpot for spotlighting local talent in such interesting venues.