Hairy Holler

Oshawa, ON, eight-piece Hairy Holler have described their sound as "sleazy tavern pick pocket music" and they continue to rep that self-adhered label on their latest single "St. James Infirmary Blues." Now they've paired that tune with a brand new video, and Exclaim! has got your first look at it.

The song comes from a double A-side single with Fish Head Phil that will be released later this summer, prior to the band heading into the studio to record their sophomore full-length For Mad Men Only.

Fusing folk, punk, blues, jazz, Roma and swing sounds into their unique music, the new video is an equally celebratory affair. It was shot at an array of festivals and parties, including footage from a place affectionately dubbed "Old Mexican Cat Town," a Canada Day after-party in downtown Oshawa, a parade for the 2014 Space Invaders Art Crawl and another parade honouring the Get Bent Records Summer Solstice Celebration from back in 2013.

Evan Hoskin, Matt Manser, Licianny Matos and Bodan Grodesky shot the footage from the various events. You can see the party-packed final product by giving the video for "St. James Infirmary Blues" a watch in the player below. - Exclaim!

By Raymond McNeil
“Formed on the open stages of Oshawa and honed in the streets, meshing folk, punk, blues, jazz, gypsy, swing and insanity into a carnival cavalcade of collective creativity,” is how the band Hairy Holler’s Facebook page describes them, and it’s not far off. Their sound is a melding of earthly music, combined with stage presence.
Performing every Sunday night at Murphy’s Pub, and every Tuesday night at The Atria, the group of roughly seven artists is a band for those who have outgrown the ordinary.
Yet trying to uncover the origin of the band is a little tricky.
“What it is now is not what it started as,” said guitarist and vocalist Myke Pulito. He explains it all started nearly two years ago with a friend of his, Deucey the drummer, when they were part of another band.
“After band practice we’d come do an open mic (here at The Atria).”
From there, fellow musicians would come out to see the duo play, and it wasn’t long until they were on stage as well.
“You want to be a part of Hairy Holler, basically you just gotta show up enough and find a spot for yourself,” he said.
The show is too free-form to be considered a set, though the musicianship is too polished to call what they do a jam. If anything, Hairy Holler provides a performance every time out, with the recorded material only capturing a fraction of the emotion and creative environment they manage to summon.
There’s no division between the stage and the bar. At the end of one song a bottle of Molson Canadian was knocked over, slathering the stage with hops and barley
“It’s a spilly night tonight folks,” said Pulito. “We’re spilling beers all over the place.”
A half-hour into the performance, fiddler Sean Battams arrived, ready to play. Rather than waiting for the song to end, Battams easily settled into the rest of the group, joining them right in the middle of a song.
“I knew I was going to be late, so I just plugged in and went,” said Battams, who added that the band members sometimes lovingly refer to the group as Shaggy Shiner.
The usual tools of the trade are there, acoustic guitar, bass guitar, and some percussion to give some weight.
What is more interesting is the never-ending selection of otherworldly instruments brought into the mix.
Fiddle, accordion, trombone and washboard are just some of the unusual sounds Holler incorporates into their music.
“I can’t believe I’m seeing this for free,” said bar patron Aaron Til, with a beer in his hand and a smile on his face.
“They are the missing C-side to Sgt. Pepper’s.”
The one thing missing is electric guitar, and that’s not a bad thing. The band easily creates a powerful and evocative sound without one.
Currently Hairy Holler is recording their debut album at Suspend Studio in Oshawa, which they have been working on since mid-August.
Pulito said the band hoped to have been done by the end of October, but he has his doubts.
“With all the different instruments and everything involved in it, it’s been a lengthy process.” - The Chronicle

OSHAWA -- To: Many Women is the title of the debut album from Hairy Holler, fronted by Myke Pulito. He is Oshawa's own flaneur, the Parisian artist/poet archetype found in the works of Wilde, Poe and Joyce. The flaneur needs the modern city. "The crowd is his element as air is of birds and water is of fish," says art critic and poet Charles Baudelaire.
"I love playing in the streets, being in the streets," Pulito says in an on-the-street interview.

Hairy Holler are the Core's resident band of multi-instrumentalist artists. They play what Pulito describes as "sleazy tavern pickpocket music." The name comes from the literary character Harry Hollar of the novel Steppenwolf by Herman Hesse. That book also inspired a band name for a couple of musician brothers from Oshawa and a singer named John Kay.

"I was in a second-hand bookstore and I saw two copies," says Pulito. "One for $2.50 and the other had no price. I asked how much it was and they said $2. Then I walked into a video store and asked about hiring. I had an interview right there with the girl. I said I used to work at Value Village and that I had a knack at finding gold. She said 'what do you mean', so I showed her the book and said I just got this for $2. She opened it. She said wow the book's previous owner had her last name. So I got the job."

Pulito's resourcefulness served him well when building his band. Jay Ducey, Mandy Mae, Bruce MacKinnon, CAB, Seann Battams and Jim Spring are on the record with a variety of instruments credited. The band began in 2010. Jonathan Sloan has recently joined on bass.

"I had the idea for the name about a year before. Hairy Holler came into being when Ducey and I started hosting an open jam at the Atria. Bruce, Kevin and Mandi all joined about that time."

"We all came together and formed on stage."

All the members are quite versatile and bring their own styles, raging from Middle Eastern saxophone to East Coast fiddle to Bukowski's barfly poetry. The 15-track album sounds like a World folk gumbo cooked up by Tom Waits. Artists as diverse as ManMan and Fleetwood Mac are name-checked by Pulito, but he is quick to point out his present influences.

"I am most inspired by the music around me. By bands that my friends play in. One of the bands I like is actually members of my own band, Jim plays saxophone through loops and Battams joins in on percussion and Sloan plays bass. It's just instrumentals but I really like that."

Oshawa's city centre, where the band resides, also provided them with access to a community of visual artists. Evan Hoskins of Ageless Photography shot the inside cover photo art. Dani Crosby's illustration graces the CD cover. Photographer Marina Osmond and Pulito collaborated on the video for the track Stuck In A Snare.

"We are very resourceful and don't need to outsource beyond our community," he says. "It comes from a punk rock/DIY mentality, use the resources you have."

The album title is a thank you from Pulito to all the girls he's loved before.

"Why do I have to fall in love with every pretty girl I see? That happens every day for me."

He's 24. Expect a sequel. - Oshawa This Week

When I think of Hairy Holler, I think of massive sky scrapers crumbling to the ground, fire raging through the skies and the earth splitting into mammoth cracks that would swallow continents whole. I think of comets catapulting to the earth with the savagery of a thousand ruinous strikes all in the timed perfection of this band's music.
If the world were to come to an end, I think this band would be perched upon the Devil's Tower Monument in Wyoming performing the leading soundtrack to this apocalyptic event, with scarcely enough room to fit all the band members that entail this rare, unrefined (in a good way) and natural project.
Hairy Holler originated in Oshawa, Ontario, Canada and are making an admirable impact on the local scene. Major marketing and promotional strategies almost seems like a mistake for this band to make, considering their disposition.
Something that primarily comes to mind is the show experience. This a show to see and the fervour with which they engage and lure the audience is nothing short of exquisite. Their energy and unadulterated spirit managed to wake my comatose grandmother. I brought her along for the show. I thought she'd enjoy herself.
This isn't just a show folks, this is all encompassing experience. They have a wide range of band members, who barely fit on stage, sometimes having to stand on benches or chairs. They remarkably employ belly dancers, the provocative Keni Markland and Casey Anne for your viewing pleasure.
A member dubbed the 'Con Doctor' madly uses his fiddle bow like a conductors baton to converge 'The Voracious Horn Section' whom adds a standout quality to this band, adding just another element with which to use creative and new ways to charge the vibrant nature of this gritty act.
One thing I love about this band, is the constant creativity and amount of change that they go through in order to keep coming up with new material. They are always thinking of new and ambitious ways to assault your ears, keeping your interested peaked. The writing is highly organic, almost taking on a wounded quality that I can only best explain as joy. I know it's a contradiction. This is a very contradictory band.
Myke, an eccentric and intriguing character to meet, has vocal ranges that vary from sombre and ominous to aggressive with a maddened sense of passionate frenzy. He manages to reach those fierce notes that dig into your spiritual essence, raising the hair on the back your neck. You'll will never find him remaining static or motionless on stage, which is one of my favorite qualities of this member.
He stands behind his music with movement, and that's a quality I respect.
Having worked with The Steppin' Cat ( Jason Ducey) for and untold number of years, I have watched him progress through his path of life. He shines best with Hair Holler. Providing metric, pulsating percussion for the band, he is befittingly outstanding with his hands, provoking the need to go on a tear of dance throughout the bar with his pounding rhythm skills.
The music, almost callous and raw retains the melodic qualities necessary to seduce you into the song.
Seduce: a word I use very rarely to describe a man. At the show, I was never once disappointed with the song creation. The uncommon instrumentation kept me interested throughout. My eyes were hooked.
Be ready for their upcoming album, expecting to be released before the new year.
They are never lacking in creativity and have a number of side projects in the works.
These include:
Mandelion & The High Heenas – Featuring the gorgeously talented Mandy Mae
Fish Head Phil - The brain child of Jamek Spring and Bruce Mackinnon

The complete list of band members, and their intrinsic assets would end up making this article a 2000 word endeavour. To those I have missed, I apologize, but your incredible, unique work is much a needed demand to this over pop-cultured music industry. Don't give in to that manufactured style.
A complete list of members of Hairy Holler:

Ring Leader
Myke Pulito - Guitar, Vocals

Mandelion
Mandy Mae - Washboard, Vocals

The Steppin' Cat
Jay Ducey - Dejembe, Cajon

Con Doctor
Seann Battams - Fiddle, Horn-Olin

Octomentalist
Bruce Mackinnon - Trombone, Keys, Accordion, Upright Bass, Glockenspiel, Percussion, etc.

Arsonist
CAB – Trumpet,, Assorted Percussion (Gong, Pocket Cowbell, Tambourine, Rotary Phone,
Broken Brass, etc.

fisH Head
Jim Spring - Sax, Bodhran
New members are being added all the time, so this list could change faster than I change my socks, which is twice a day.

A list of upcoming shows:
Every Tuesday you can find this band rocking steady at the Atria, Oshawa
Hair of The Dog Sunday's Open Mic at Murphy's Pub, Oshawa (weekly basis)
Magic Theatre at the Hot Box Cafe in Kensington Market, Toronto are held on the first Saturday of every month: Next shows are October 1st and November 5th.
Hairy Holler will be performing with Bradley Boy Mac Arthur at The Bomb Shell, Oshawa on Saturday October 22nd.
Monday Oct 31st Hairy Holler will be holding a haunted house/Freak show at the Diesel Room, Oshawa
November 18th at The Drake, Toronto
Don't miss your chance to see these unique performances and outstanding live shows!
To Experience Hairy Holler:
Visit http://www.youtube.com/user/Lounartic to view videos of Hairy Holler at its best.
You can also visit http://www.youtube.com/user/Armenianofadown#p/u/8/M6cfbMtEWm4 to get the full experience that you can't miss out on.

To all the members of Hairy Holler, thank you for your time and patience on this project. Matthew R. Edwards - Music Box