Hands and Knees
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Hands and Knees

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Music

The best kept secret in music

Press


"I Didnt Mean It"

I Didnt Mean It - Hands and Knees
The first I heard of Hands and Knees was an email arriving in my inbox inviting me to listen to their MySpace songs. This of course is the contemporary equivalent of getting an envelope through the door with a scrappy note that starts Dear fanzine editor accompanying a demo tape with a dodgy home-made cover and usually even dodgier songs. And whilst that could in itself be rather exciting, the sheer volume could often make you buckle and go under. Or at least thats how I remember it. Its the same with the electronic versions, although somehow its easier to ignore the stuff you dont like and of course it saves a lot on landfill of cassette tapes. All of which is a rather roundabout way of getting to the point of the story, which is that when something unsolicited turns out to be as special and addictive as the sounds proffered by La Fea (now Hands and Knees) then it really stands out; is as exciting an experience as any you will ever have.
Certainly Boston band have excitement in spades, as this, the opener on their new 3 CD proves. Spunkier than Strokes and as fundamentally uplifting as the first Legends! album (its the treated vocals that draw out the parallels as much as anything), Hands and Knees froth and bubble with a bundle of trouble, erupting in an artfully poised rush of blood like rabid Pop Artists with safety pins stuck in their hearts. Hands and Knees are Punk Rock in the same way that Baby Lemonade were Punk Rock and Green Day werent. Go figure.
Alistair Fitchett 2006 - www.tangents.co.uk


"MYSPACE MUSIC REVIEW - HANDS AND KNEES (US)"

There’s not a lot on their MySpace. Four members: Joe, Carina, Scott and Phil. They used to be called La Fea. And then there are the songs. Oh, what songs! The energy! The Harmonies! The sweetest bursts of Indie Rock that you could hope for.

There’s the longing of Into The Cold Lake, all bass line tripping over boy-girl vocals.  The Charlie Rose features more longing still. It’s a song laced in epic beauty that starts with a quiet, dreamy verse before exploding into a ravaged paroxysm of a chorus (shout along, if you please). Not bad for a song about wanting to stay up late to watch a TV show. Then there’s the glorious cover of The Vaselines’ The Day I Was A Horse (you really do have to shout along with this one). Stick It Up Your Heart is quite possibly the best here, a thrashing, rollicking rampage of a song with a coo of a chorus that clocks in just past one and a half minutes long. Sweet.
It doesn't exactly bubble with innovation but such wonderful songs are a good enough reason to love a band, right?
Contributed by Vicky Eacott - www.audiojunkies.net


"Bar Song"

If The Smiths ever played 'Hand in Glove' or 'How soon is now' more fiercely,and recorded it in Andy Warhol's Factory,the songs would became Arty Garage getting intellectual and beat TheVelvetUnderground easily,that's 'I didn't mean it' which blow my mind surprisingly from this 4 pieces band Hands and Knees,and they also have more fiery song like 'in your heart'(or 'shove it up your heart' on their myspace),go rather splash and nasty than The White Stripes in style.
New song 'are we full of it' might has the same bitter sense as their another song 'into the cold lake',and I really really want to sing along with this sweet-frustration tone by heart,but this is not enough how great Hands and Knees are all about,your face would be in a dull colour if you missed the certain charms of 'baby goodbye' and 'bike'.
beethobear2006 - Smash Hits Productions - Taipei, Taiwan


Discography

"I Didn't Mean It", EP. I Wish I Was Unpopular Records (England), 2006.

Photos

Feeling a bit camera shy

Bio

Boston-based garage pop combo "Hands and Knees" combines the inventive guitar noise and pop sense of The Pixies with the suicidal-child melancholy of Cat Power and Morrisey to create a stunning starkly pretty sound.

Built around the unadorned smokey vocals of Carina Kelly and the distant and lovely tenor of Joe O’Brien, this group creates music that splits the difference between maximum hummability and the soundtrack to a country teen's death flick. Echoes of other influences include The Jesus & Mary Chain, Elliott Smith, Mazzy Star, and Guided By Voices, and they show off the depth of their music knowledge with a winning cover of the Tall Dwarfs' obscure lo-fi masterpiece "All My Hollowness To You".

The members of Hands and Knees record and often rehearse in guitarist Scott Hoffman's haunted church-like studio in a sleepy town in western Massachusetts, though the members split their home bases between there and Boston.

The story goes that Hoffman went for a walk in the woods on a snowy afternoon and discovered Carina and Joe in a clearing deep in the woods, trading songs while each strummed on a guitar, apparently too shy to risk another human hear them. Several weeks later, they stumbled upon drummer Philip Ilatovsky and found themselves in Hoffman's ghost-ridden studio, with songs and a name to boot!

That was only a few months ago. Now with a handful of beautiful recordings and numerous live shows behind them, Hands and Knees has separated themselves from that fateful cold day in the woods.