I guess not all the NYC bands are aware that the easiest way to get a blog entry on this website is to have a CD release party and let us know about it. While we were listening to our pile of CD submissions today we realised that The Walking Hellos released an EP in late May, and here we are trying to make up for missing that. This all-female Brooklyn-based band plays an original and playful form of folky post rock - a banjo played in ways you wouldn't expect seems to be the signature sound here. - PDG
Walking Hellos are the Brooklyn quartet of Myla Goldberg, Val Opielski, Rose Thomson and Laura Cromwell. These four women make a strongly pulsed pop rock that runs the gamut from lilting prettiness to powerfully quirky songs. Mya Goldberg is the big name here, whose accordion and banjo were heard in Galerkin Method, but who also wrote the popular book Bea Season which was made into a movie with Richard Gere in 2005. Laura Cromwell is also well known musically, from her own Dim Sum Clip Job to one-time God is My Copilot member, along with many collaborations including a release with Dorgon on the Jumbo label and work with Zeena Parkins. Bassisst Rose Thomson was a member of Babe the Blue Ox while Opielski was formerly with Krakatoa.
With a seasoned set of players you would expect an assured release, and these women don't disappoint. The music is catchy, melodic and charming in an unpredictable way, but wry and incisive as well, using good imagery. While not overly agressive, there's a strong determination and sophistication in these songs that's infectious, drawing the listener into their propulsive rhythms. The lyric style is mostly prose narrative, adapted into song format with repeated sections. Somewhat self-aware, they present interesting perspectives, as in "Three Minutes": "I'm writing up a new set of stories to put inside my mouth. If anyone should ask me about it you I'll open up, spit one out. Three minutes and a tiny explosion, the world resumes its shape..." It reminds me at times of Karla Kihlstedht's playful yet pensive 2-Foot Yard, and even a little of Amy Denio's odd charm (think "Traffic Island Psycho.") Many of the songs put an adult perspective on childlike views, as in "Proxy," a sing-song piece, and the one that returns to my head most often. It's a lovely drifting cycle that repeats "I dare you" and "I'll do anything once," a soft sexual connotation in the lyric while toy pianos quietly play.
For my ears the rhythm section of this band is the key, and Cromwell and Thomson are spot on and feeling the pulse of the music, making a solid environment in which Goldberg's voice easily slides. It's refreshing to hear such a sincere upbeat and quirky new band; I look forward to a full-length.
I sure hope it gets better soon. That's my thought as I'm greeted with "Kindly Advice For the Terminally Shy" on The Walking
Hellos latest. It's not that it's bad but the female vocalist just takes some time to get used to. But it does! It does! This quartet from Brooklyn
features drummer Heather Wagner of whom I've heard bang about in Morex Optimo. It's odd to me that I could have ever thought "hey I don't really like
this band", but maybe it's because this group grows on you so damn fast you'll be ashamed that your playlists haven't featured them already-heck
you'll be calling yourself a poseur just for failing to have found this band out earlier (hint: this is their debut for crying out loud!). Give this
indie pop outfit a chance, I guarantee you'll fall in love with their light harmonies, majestic songwriting, and clever lyrics. Just don't make any
assumptions whatsoever, because they'll be wrong! -J-Sin, smother.net
Buy it!