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ROLLING STONE - Editors TOP 5 PICKS
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HOT LIST
Shoegaze! at the Disco!
Plaintive emotional vocals meet My Bloody Valentine's wall of ...HOT LIST
Shoegaze! at the Disco!
Plaintive emotional vocals meet My Bloody Valentine's wall of sound on the tuneful debut by this Dallas quartet - which has already toured with hipster faves Stellastarr and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah.
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BILLBOARD CRITICS CHOICE - #1 Record of 2006
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JASON MACNEIL
Billboard.com contributor
1. The Hourly Radio, "History Will Never Hold Me" (Kirtl...JASON MACNEIL
Billboard.com contributor
1. The Hourly Radio, "History Will Never Hold Me" (Kirtland Records). Texas outfit's debut features fantastic songs, great hooks and no dull moments.
2. Keane, "Under the Iron Sea" (Interscope). Darker than album one but just as stellar with "Try Again" and "A Bad Dream."
3. Tom Petty, "Highway Companion" (American Recordings/Warner Bros.). Yet another taken-for-granted gem in a catalog of songwriting gold.
4. Primal Scream, "Riot City Blues" (Columbia). Music-mixing mad hatters get back to Stones-y basics.
5. Vince Gill, "These Days" (MCA Nashville). Axl Rose will release a similar amount of material ... by 2057.
6. Ron Sexsmith, "Time Being" (Warner Music Canada). Slight departure for the underrated musician, with the same excellent results.
7. James Dean Bradfield, "The Great Western" (Sony BMG). Solid solo album for Manic Street Preachers frontman will hold most over until band's next release.
8. Calexico, "Garden Ruin" (Quarterstick). Branching out into a slightly rockier format does wonders for fine band.
9. The Black Keys, "Magic Potion" (Nonesuch). Seedy, sparse, bluesy, fuzzy and great!
10. Sloan, "Never Hear the End of It" (BMG Music Canada). Adventurous 30-song release touches on both the old and new.
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SPIN - Artist of the Day
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This Texas quartet's debut, History Will Never Hold Me, just might be as timeless as its title sugge...This Texas quartet's debut, History Will Never Hold Me, just might be as timeless as its title suggests.
Who? The Hourly Radio -- frontman Aaron Closson, guitarist Ryan Short, bassist Tim Jansen, and drummer Adam Vanderkolk -- hail from the incredibly vital music scene in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, and their debut, History Will Never Hold Me, has the energy of fellow Texans ...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead.
What's the Deal? Sometimes a band name just feels apt, and the Hourly Radio is one of those monikers. Not because of the Aldous Huxley reference, which is clever and all, but because it is very easy to imagine a time in the not-too-distant future when their anthemic tunes will be played on modern rock radio at least once an hour. Singer Aaron Closson can also hold a note like Jeff Buckley, as on the yearning "First Love Is Forever." And tracks like "Fear of Standing Upright" demonstrate that even when Closson keeps it restrained, his band's rhythm section can more than hold its own.
Fun Fact: The band's third show outside of Texas was in the U.K., giving them the unusual distinction of playing London before stopping in one of their neighboring states. MATT TERL
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FILTER Top 5 of the Week
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More Dublin than Dallas, these four mood-stricken Texas boys create sonic vistas both
dark and soar...More Dublin than Dallas, these four mood-stricken Texas boys create sonic vistas both
dark and soaring, intense and uplifting. At their most anthemic, The Hourly Radio share
a branch on the musical family tree with any long lost cousins of U2. On the other side of
the gene pool, they have recently played shows with the more contemporary peers
*stellastarr and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, speaks highly. Promising, indeed.
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BIG TAKE-OVER MAGAZINE
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The Hourly Radio - Pianos (New York) / The Annex
(New York) - Saturday, March 25, 2006 by Rachel Pe...The Hourly Radio - Pianos (New York) / The Annex
(New York) - Saturday, March 25, 2006 by Rachel Pesin
I discovered THE HOURLY RADIO on Friday, March 24
while at The Big Takeover office. I immediately fell in love
with their two-song single, Deaf Ears/Crime Does Pay
and went online to find more of their music. I discovered
that they not only had a bunch of other great songs, but
also that they were playing two shows in New York the
next day. Needless to say, I was there!
They re the perfect blend of all things British (by way of
Dallas!). Before I saw them live I described them as a new
wave-y, Brit-pop, dark dance party and I have to say that s exactly how they were live,
which means they were amazing! I personally was blown away by the talent this band has
and how great their songs came off live.
Vocalist AARON CLOSSON not only reminded me of the vocalists in DELAYS and JJ72
(two U.K. bands) but he physically reminded me of IAN CURTIS.
What I liked most about this band is that they weren t trying too hard to have a certain
image, like dark, brooding, Brit-inspired band. This is probably due to the fact that
they re not from a huge city full of hipsters, but regardless, it was nice to be able to tell
that this band care about the music, and only the music.
After their all-too-brief set, they headed over to the Annex for their second gig of the
night because, like many other bands that come to New York after SXSW, they sought to
make the most of their post-SXSW New York time.
I think I preferred this set over the first one, because instead of playing Crime Does
Pay their big, dance-y track first (like they did at Piano s), they chose to lead up to
their dancier numbers by first playing their more slow-burning, intense songs. Also, at the
Annex, they were bathed in dark lights and dry-ice vapor, which, although not so much
fun for the nostrils, sets an amazing scene. I was doubly impressed.
If this band plays with the right bands (other bands heavy on the darker, Brit
influences) and continues to work hard, I have no doubt that they ll be the Next Big
Thing. EDITORS, beware.
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TRIPWIRE - EP REVIEW
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After growing up in Texas and spending several years of my career
in Dallas radio, I still try to k...After growing up in Texas and spending several years of my career
in Dallas radio, I still try to keep an eye out for up and coming new bands from the good
ol' Lone Star State. Recently a copy of The Hourly Radio's debut EP, Lure Of The
Underground, landed on my desk. The cover looked cool, so I decided to plop the disc in
for a quick scan. You know how it goes when you get a new CD, skipping to the middle
of each track so you can get to the meat of the song. As I zipped to the middle of the
opening track "First Love Is Forever", frontman Aaron Closson's soaring vocals caught
my ear. As I did some online research on the band, I discovered that they have been
known to sneak in a cover of Pulp's "Common People" into their sets. Now I am
intrigued. North Texas anglophiles don't come along too often, so I continued listening to
the EP. Listening closer to the first track, The Hourly Radio takes in the indie-shoegazer
goodness of The Stills, utilizing huge crescendos of pedal drenched guitars to support
Closson's fantastic voice. On "Lost & Found" the band found inspiration in War era U2,
yet deep down I am also reminded of The Ocean Blue. Yeah, remember them? One of
the most mature moments on the EP arrives with the song "Stealing Off", showing off the
kind of musicianship you would expect to hear from a band with a few albums under
their belts rather than just one EP. The EP concludes with "Travelsigns", a track that
could have easily fit on Verve's Urban Hymns album. These Texans have listened to
plenty of top-notch Britpop bands, which has impacted their lush shoegazer sounds in
quite a positive way. With a self-produced EP sounding this good, I can't wait to hear
what The Hourly Radio has in store for us next. Stay tuned! -Reviewed by Chip Adams
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GEN ART
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The Hourly Radio almost sounds like your typical pop band, and then not at all. They
remind us of S...The Hourly Radio almost sounds like your typical pop band, and then not at all. They
remind us of Suede, but then this Dallas foursome kicks in some Cure and a dash of U2
and we're back at square one. What we can say with certainty is the video posted here
for their single, "Fear Of Standing Upright" is a stellar example of what you can expect
from the band - moody and slightly gentle
rock. What's really outstanding about this
Dallas quartet is their ability to fuse elements
together: bass, drums, guitars and vocals
are never in competition, but seamlessly
working together. Lead singer Aaron
Closson has a gentle voice that falls and
accompanies the musical shifts beautifully.
The bass line, coming from Tim Jansen, is
also insistent without overwhelming any of
the other music al ac tion. It s a perfec t mix.
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DEPRAVED FAN GIRLS
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DepravedFangirls.com - 3.31.06
Crime Pays Big: Doc Holliday Would Be Proud
I could start this arti...DepravedFangirls.com - 3.31.06
Crime Pays Big: Doc Holliday Would Be Proud
I could start this article with a story about how on Sunday evening
we saw The Hourly Radio shooting pool and guzzling Pabst in the
East Village's stinkiest bar (that would be Doc Holliday's) and how
they stood us up and never came over to The Hi- Fi where A. it is not stinky, B. they have El DJ, and C. allegedly
have happy hour BBQ somewhere out in the alley, but I'll refrain from doing so. Instead, I'll have to say that
Michaela and I know that you are looking for the goods. We've seen the referrals over at Rich Girls, so I'm here
to talk about a band that we really like.
As we've learned over the last few months, The Hourly Radio best show their
strengths as a live band. This is not to say that their recordings are sub par,
which they are not, but rather to argue that the energy and presence of their
live performances show that they've already overcome the hurdles that hold
many young bands back: on stage they are consummate professionals,
utterly aware of their ability, and effortlessly capable of sustaining passion
and precision. Many bands that DFG love we love because they succeed in
owning a performance just expertly shy of falling apart. The bands we love
most are the ones who become a performative machine when they step on
stage. Those are few, and The Hourly Radio have joined them.
Since our party and last week's fantastic voyage to New York, we've watched interest in this band grow
exponentially. We've been asked who The Hourly Radio are by everyone from scene royalty in Austin and
New York to our most jadedly too-cool-for-school anti-scenester friends. We also read our referral logs. The
referrals at Rich Girls alone prompted this entry. There are readers who want to know more, so we're
obliging.
The Hourly Radio are from Dallas, that land of monolithic 80s soaps, the oil and cattle trade, Neiman-Marcus,
some football team you may have heard of, and the most fearsome system of interstate and highway
interchanges known to man. Dallas isn't a city for the faint of heart and it's not known as a hotbed of music.
That duty is usually left to Denton, a small college town about an hour northwest of the metroplex. Gypsy
Tearoom aside, Dallas certainly isn't the kind of place that is expected to turn out bands with greater-thanregional
appeal. Outside of the inescapability of Tripping Daisy, The Toadies, and Deep Blue Something
during the mid-90s, Dallas is relatively quiet. As Michaela has said, "as a concept, an indie rock band out of
Dallas is about as ridiculous as it sounds."
In the interest of drawing useful comparisons, The Hourly Radio favor the sweeps and swells of guitar tight
interplay of melody and harmonics, and interesting counter rhythm that has filtered down from bands like My
Bloody Valentine, Swervedriver, and Medicine to instrumental projects like Explosions in the Sky. Adam
Vanderkolk and Tim Jansen provide firm foundations (on drums and bass, respectively) for Ryan Short and
Aaron Closson's guitar textures, playing Joy Division precision off 4AD watercolor wash. Over all of this are
Closson's vocals, which are as distinctive and present as those of New Order's Bernard Sumner or
stellastarr*'s Shawn Christensen. Like the latter, The Hourly Radio are eminently accessible, their perspective
new, rather than wholly derivative, due to their ability to successfully tap the components that make their
predecessors and influences legendary while being utterly themselves. Seeing this in action last week at the
Annex in NYC--a little band from Dallas silhouetted in lights much more grandiose than on the other small
stages where we've had the privilege of seeing them--we became certain that The Hourly Radio are
contenders for next-big-thing laurels separate from the undeserved hype that heralded the rise of bands like
the criminally disappointing Clap Your Hands Say Yeah or the media circuses surrounding She Wants Revenge
or We are Scientists. Like I Love You But I've Chosen Darkness and Interpol before them, The Hourly Radio
are benefiting from the inevitable unfolding fairly and fortuitously: solid releases, equally incendiary and
serene live performances, and just confidence yielding buzz. We hope they're ready for what it brings.
