Adding Machines
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Adding Machines

Provo, Utah, United States | SELF

Provo, Utah, United States | SELF
Band Folk Alternative

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This band has not uploaded any videos
This band has not uploaded any videos

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"Album Review"

Declaration = Built To Spill + Ladybug Transistor

Declaration vacillates from Ben Folds Five piano-ballad quietude ("Half Inch Man") to humdrum restless lethargy ("Headlines") ­– all while maintaining a melodically mellow, simple-yet-engaging tone. Perhaps the best compliment for Panic Button is that you will fast find yourself singing along to most of the album’s catchy refrains, naturally grafted onto the album’s crescendo-crashing guitar riffs and cymbal-heavy drum displays. Declaration is a good old guitar-and-piano band, decidedly less "in your face" than their list of unsurprising influences (Modest Mouse, Fugazi, Built To Spill, Radiohead, Sonic Youth, and the category-defying Death Cab for Cutie and Sunny Day Real Estate). –Makena Walsh - Salt Lake Underground Magazine (SLUG)


"It's Only Rock and Roll, But They Like It"

They're completely unassuming. Wearing plain jeans, band T-shirts and retro reissue sneakers, they look like any other college students. Under their trendy exteriors, however, lie the unique workings of Declaration, one of Provo's many popular student bands.

They compare themselves to seminal bands such as Sunny Day Real Estate, pre-"Green Album" Weezer, Pedro the Lion and Radiohead, and even claim they've invented new, self-definitive genres of music.

"Nü post-alternative, über nü indie rocktronica," front man Jake Haws said.

"801-area core," bassist Jon Hall said.

"Ome, emo backward," guitarist Jake Cox said.

Kidding aside, the members of Declaration hold their music in high esteem.

"[We play] rock the way it was meant to be played; we're rock purists," Haws said.

Through their incessant joking, the four band members reek of cool and calm. Although they practice in Hall's basement bedroom, stuffed to the brim with amps, recording equipment, instruments and drums, Declaration maintains a constant energy and soul behind their music.

The band began about four years ago when Haws and Hall found one another through the ad board in the Wilkinson Student Center. After serving missions for the LDS church, Haws and Hall returned to Declaration and found Cox, who coincidentally lived across the street from Haws, through the ad board. A few weeks later, they met drummer Dan Smock through a mutual friend, and Declaration was ready to rock.

For the past year, the band has played shows throughout Provo and Salt Lake City, starting with small mid-weekly shows at the old Muse Music and working its way up to Kilby Court. Consequently, Declaration's fan base has grown rapidly because of its palatable sound.

"I heard these kids talking in the UVSC library once about bands that were playing," Smock said. "One asked, 'Is Declaration playing'? [His friend said], 'No, but I freaking wish they were!' It was pretty cool."

As songwriter, Haws serves as the axle of the band. Like many songwriters, his songs started out about love and teenage angst but have since evolved into more complex, worldly and often political issues.

"I wrote our song 'Headlines' while in my Comms 100 class last year," Haws said. "It [the class] really made me not trust the news at all. I hate the idea of people screwing with our minds and distorting reality. It [the song] is really political. It's not even a liberal/conservative thing. It's screwed up both ways. Nothing's true."

Nevertheless, Declaration continues to have fun regardless of societal troubles and hopes to provide a positive influence for listeners.

"I hope when people hear us it makes their day. We're saying something, declaring something, liberating the captive masses," Haws said.

Declaration opens for indie-darlings The Appleseed Cast this coming Tuesday at Kilby Court, 741 S. Kilby Court (off 330 West) in Salt Lake City. Visit Myspace.com/Declaration for more band info.


(For comments, e-mail Lisa Ruefenacht at lisaruefenacht@byu.net)
- BYU Daily Universe


"Song Review: "Drifting Away" - 8.7/10"

The Adding Machines’ “Drifting Away” sways and floats like the crests of waves swell and flow within the ocean itself. Its sonorous tones lend to its dreamy nature and it has a very gentle way of placing the listener into the somber place of the singer’s adulthood. It’s rather repetitive, but thankfully catchy and interestingly mellow while maintaining the train track rhythm of the snare drum that is typical of most modern country and folk drumming. It isn’t mind-blowing in its composition. It isn’t anything new, but it’s definitely nice to listen to. It’s a good song. - IndieRockReviews.com


"Concert Review: Adding Machines"

Do you remember the summer your childhood innocence wilted away like so many leaves autumning into fall? So often, it seems, such moments are difficult, if not impossible, to understand as they happen and it is only in retrospect that we can look back with pining nostalgia.

Among all art forms, music is perhaps best suited to convey the beauty of loss and longing, and at their September 26th Muse Music show, Provo band Adding Machines managed to perform what might best be described as an experience of exquisite melancholy; their music was deeply rooted in the nostalgic past and the beauty of its absence, yet still emotionally exuberant.

Adding Machines began their six song set with “I Ain’t Changing,” followed by “Drifting Away.” Both songs (which also open the band’s recent EP Sweet Dreams) are relatively upbeat, but rely on their instrumentation and lead singer Jake Haws’ rough-around-the-edges voice to convey a sense of romance and longing rarely seen in local music (or not-local music for that matter). The beginning of the show revealed a band performing songs about joy and pain, which resulted in an immeasurably more pleasurable listening experience than if the songs had been only “happy” or “sad.”

The band followed their emotionally complex openers with the crowd favorite, “The Showdown.” It was by far the most rock-oriented song of the set and proved the band could entertain visually as well as musically (Haws actually broke his guitar strap on this song swaggering back and forth across the stage). Next came “Eye of the Storm,” which involved all the band members switching instruments and Haws singing, drumming and playing guitar all at once. The song was also my personal favorite due largely to the fact that Melissa Haws, usually on bass and organ, textured the song with long, rich trumpeting. The final two numbers, “New Girl” and “The Final Word,” rounded out the emotional arc of a deliciously nostalgic and beautifully melancholic performance.

Adding Machines’ describes their genre as “folk rock/alt-country,” though that description doesn’t quite do justice to their live show. Indeed, the show demonstrated that the band knows how to take the best from their influences, which subsequently lifts them above the many mediocre bands that similarly describe themselves. More intriguing still are the wider influences the band incorporates. For example, Melissa’s vocals bring a distinct jazz influence and her trumpeting evokes a sultry wailing more often found in Latin genres. As the front-man of the trio, Jake emphasizes the “rock” in “folk rock” through his vocals and stage presence, proving that Adding Machines isn’t just another touchy-feely sob fest. Ultimately, each member of the band (including the versatile Dan Smock) demonstrated facility of their instruments and rare on-stage grace.

If I left the Adding Machines’ show wanting more of anything (other than to go home and listen to their CD), it was more vocals from Melissa. Jake has a powerful and affective voice, but Melissa gave me goose bumps every time she sang. She led “New Girl,” and a number of the songs featured duets between the two Haws, but I’d have been interested in hearing more. Still, the set was evocative and I wouldn’t have wanted less from Jake, so the solution may simply be to go see the band again and hope they play more songs with Melissa on vocals.

Adding Machines put on one of the best shows I’ve been to recently in Provo and anyone who manages to catch a show will be doing themselves a favor. The set was sorrowful, exuberant and exquisitely melancholic all at once, which is a rare thing indeed.

-Jim Dalrymple - Rhombus Magazine


"Artist Profile: Adding Machines"

With the allure of alt-country growing every day, it's sometimes hard to see the point of another. That is unless that band realizes that simply getting a fiddler on the record doesn't mean good country. Adding Machines of Provo, UT is that kind of group that realizes good country - or good anything for that matter - comes from heavy doses of heart and soul.

Formed from the ashes of various local bands in the Utah scene, Adding Machines consists of Jake Haws, Melissa Dupree Haws, and Dan Smock. All talented multi-instrumentalists, the trio switches duties pretty regularly throughout their set, as well as inviting a revolving door of local musicians to back them up when needed. The result is a live performance like a friendly neighborhood hoedown and an EP, 2009'S “Sweet Dreams”, which is as intimate as it is resonating. From barn burners like “The Showdown” to twangy dirges like “Eye of the Storm”, Adding Machines prove their mettle with their thumping percussion, solid guitar work and creative instrumentation. Perhaps most importantly, however, are the combined vocal efforts of husband and wife duo Jake and Melissa Haws, which are at times piercing like a bullet, and at others as soothing as a bottle of whiskey and a handful of downers.

The group is currently playing shows all over the Intermountain West and beyond, as well as working on the full-length follow-up to “Sweet Dreams”

-John-Ross Boyce - Salt Lake Underground (SLUG)


Discography

Panic Button (2006)
Technology EP (2008)
Sweet Dreams EP (2009)

Photos

Bio

"With the allure of alt-country growing every day, it's sometimes hard to see the point of another. That is unless that band realizes that simply getting a fiddler on the record doesn't mean good country. Adding Machines of Provo, UT is that kind of group that realizes good country - or good anything for that matter - comes from heavy doses of heart and soul.

Formed from the ashes of various local bands in the Utah scene, Adding Machines consists of Jake Haws, Melissa Dupree Haws, and Dan Smock. All talented multi-instrumentalists, the trio switches duties pretty regularly throughout their set, as well as inviting a revolving door of local musicians to back them up when needed. The result is a live performance like a friendly neighborhood hoedown and an EP, 2009'S “Sweet Dreams”, which is as intimate as it is resonating. From barn burners like “The Showdown” to twangy dirges like “Eye of the Storm”, Adding Machines prove their mettle with their thumping percussion, solid guitar work and creative instrumentation. Perhaps most importantly, however, are the combined vocal efforts of husband and wife duo Jake and Melissa Haws, which are at times piercing like a bullet, and at others as soothing as a bottle of whiskey and a handful of downers."

- John-Ross Boyce, Salt Lake Underground Magazine

Adding Machines has shared the stage with some of their favorite acts, including The Appleseed Cast (Militia Group), Menomena (Barsuk Records), 31 Knots (Polyvinyl Records), Half-Handed Cloud (Asthmatic Kitty – Sufjan Stevens), and countless others. They have played festivals (including the Sundance Film Festival and the Sego Arts Festival), local venue shows, numerous college events, as well as a handful of out of state shows in Washington, Idaho, and Arizona. Adding Machines' songs appear in the recent feature independent films, "Scout Camp" and "Hanging Five." The group also collectively owns and manages Muse Music Café: a music venue, restaurant, and recording studio located in Provo, Utah.

Influences include Crosby Stills Nash & Young, Johnny Cash, The Beatles, Wilco, Nick Drake, Fleet Foxes, The Swell Season, Elliott Smith, My Morning Jacket, The Shins, Sufjan Stevens, Built to Spill, The Weakerthans, Drew Danburry, and so on.

The group is currently playing shows and working on a full length followup to their 2009 release, "Sweet Dreams".