Hello Echo

Every Monday through Friday, we deliver a different song as part of our Song of the Day podcast subscription. This podcast features exclusive KEXP in-studio performances, unreleased tracks, and recordings from independent artists that our DJs think you should hear. Each and every Friday we offer songs by local artists. Today’s selection, featured on the Midday Show with Cheryl Waters, is “The Coming Days” from Hello Echo and their self-released debut Hello.

Hello Echo - The Coming Days (MP3)

All Boston transplants, bass player Mike Sarno, drummer Mikey Silva, and guitarist Sean Aylward, formerly of Apollo Sunshine, may have been friends for awhile, but it wasn’t until they headed west to Santa Monica that Hello Echo came to fruition. Maybe it’s their East Coast roots, which combined with a youthful, laid back West Coast style, that makes for a well-rounded sound, but whatever the cause, their debut album, Hello, is dynamic from beginning to end.

Of the more raucous tracks on the album, today’s featured song is a standout. Beneath its fuzzy edges and seemingly technical mayhem, “The Coming Days” is thoughtfully arranged. The band members are confident enough with their instruments to rock out and still deliver a well crafted tune that will burn itself into your psyche. In fact, the symbiotic relationship between noise and structure carries throughout as the band alternates between multi-layered breakdowns with shouting and charming, anthemic choruses. They have a knack for building up tension and breaking it down, for making listeners try their ears to pick out Aylward’s skilled guitar licks underneath it all. Sure, it can be a little work, but isn’t that half the fun?

- KEXP SEATTLE ONLINE

Every Monday through Friday, we deliver a different song as part of our Song of the Day podcast subscription. This podcast features exclusive KEXP in-studio performances, unreleased tracks, and recordings from independent artists that our DJs think you should hear. Each and every Friday we offer songs by local artists. Today’s selection, featured on the Midday Show with Cheryl Waters, is “The Coming Days” from Hello Echo and their self-released debut Hello.

Hello Echo - The Coming Days (MP3)

All Boston transplants, bass player Mike Sarno, drummer Mikey Silva, and guitarist Sean Aylward, formerly of Apollo Sunshine, may have been friends for awhile, but it wasn’t until they headed west to Santa Monica that Hello Echo came to fruition. Maybe it’s their East Coast roots, which combined with a youthful, laid back West Coast style, that makes for a well-rounded sound, but whatever the cause, their debut album, Hello, is dynamic from beginning to end.

Of the more raucous tracks on the album, today’s featured song is a standout. Beneath its fuzzy edges and seemingly technical mayhem, “The Coming Days” is thoughtfully arranged. The band members are confident enough with their instruments to rock out and still deliver a well crafted tune that will burn itself into your psyche. In fact, the symbiotic relationship between noise and structure carries throughout as the band alternates between multi-layered breakdowns with shouting and charming, anthemic choruses. They have a knack for building up tension and breaking it down, for making listeners try their ears to pick out Aylward’s skilled guitar licks underneath it all. Sure, it can be a little work, but isn’t that half the fun?

- KEXP SEATTLE ONLINE

The genesis of Hello Echo took place in 2005 amid a spontaneous jam session at a small bar in Baja California. “A few years back on our way home from a surf trip in Baja, we stopped at a bar that had a drum set and an acoustic guitar lying around…that’s how it all started,” explains guitarist Sean Aylward. Two years later, when Aylward parted ways with his former band Apollo Sunshine and moved to California, three friends reconnected and picked up where they had left off. In addition to Aylward, bassist Mike Sarno and drummer Mike Silva who share roots tracing back to Boston fill out Hello Echo. The band recently released its debut album Hello, one that recalls Built to Spill at times, with hints of reverb-drenched indie undertones. Aylward’s fleet-fingered guitar lines drive the songs which blend alternative rock, acoustic folk and loud in-your-face ‘60s fuzz. As Aylward proclaims, “Hello Echo seems to be devoted to ignoring all the great reasons not to do stuff.”
- RELIX MAGAZINE (APRIL 2011)

The genesis of Hello Echo took place in 2005 amid a spontaneous jam session at a small bar in Baja California. “A few years back on our way home from a surf trip in Baja, we stopped at a bar that had a drum set and an acoustic guitar lying around…that’s how it all started,” explains guitarist Sean Aylward. Two years later, when Aylward parted ways with his former band Apollo Sunshine and moved to California, three friends reconnected and picked up where they had left off. In addition to Aylward, bassist Mike Sarno and drummer Mike Silva who share roots tracing back to Boston fill out Hello Echo. The band recently released its debut album Hello, one that recalls Built to Spill at times, with hints of reverb-drenched indie undertones. Aylward’s fleet-fingered guitar lines drive the songs which blend alternative rock, acoustic folk and loud in-your-face ‘60s fuzz. As Aylward proclaims, “Hello Echo seems to be devoted to ignoring all the great reasons not to do stuff.”
- RELIX MAGAZINE (APRIL 2011)

Hello
Hello Echo
Hello
[Hello Echo; 2011]
Rating: 7.6

For me, the most satisfying scene in the whole Lord of the Rings trilogy was the bit where the Ents finally mobilize and move to tear down the... what was that they were destroying? Some sort of orc factory? I don't remember, honestly, but as thinly veiled as the environmental allegory of the scene was, the justice inherent to a bunch of trees taking out the very industrial operation that had been depleting the forest was quite satisfying. The album art for Hello Echo's debut album, Hello, takes that image and makes it several times more literal, showing an Ent-like tree, dukes up, squaring off against some sort of smokestack skyscraper monster, and the images continues onto the back of the digipack to reveal a nearby city about to be wiped out by a towering wave.

The overt environmentalism of its cover art doesn't quite carry over into the album's music, but it is reflected somewhat in the album's tension between the pastoral and the urban. The songs are full of images of moving out where people don't dominate the landscape, to the desert or the seaside, and in the case of the desert, they even juxtapose the landscape with the technology that moves them through it, in this case a car's engine. The trio is lead by guitarist Sean Aylward, best known for a one-album stint in Apollo Sunshine, whose drummer, Jeremy Black, produced Hello. He's joined by bassist Mike Sarno and drummer Mikey Silva, and together they make an interesting trio-- they have a pretty normal set-up, but Aylward's guitar is an unusual halfway point between lead and rhythm playing, especially when he's playing electric.

Aylward's style has its best showcase on "Stone". He layers acoustic and electric guitar into a cycling rhythm that imparts urgency to the song's unison singing, but when he breaks out for a little solo near the end of the song, it's very tied in to the structure of what he was already playing, an embellishment of the rhythm part. It's a good style that enlivens the band's songwriting, which is mostly quite strong but occasionally a little short on developed lyrics. Opener "When Push Comes to Love" is good to begin with, but his rattling, spiraling leads really blow it up into something huge. The best piece of pure songwriting is the quiet, country-tinged "Disconnect Me", which backs Aylward's nearly twangy lead vocal with spectral, wordless harmonies and just a few well-placed electric guitar accents.

That "Disconnect Me" succeeds so well without Aylward's guitar dominating it is a good sign for the band's future and potential to branch out. And I do hope they get the chance to branch out. Hello is a very solid debut by a band with plenty of talent-- it's not often I wind up spending so much of an indie rock review talking about a particular player's instrumental style, but Aylward really seems to have found his own voice on the guitar.

— Joe Tangari, February 8, 2011
- Pitchfork Media

Hello
Hello Echo
Hello
[Hello Echo; 2011]
Rating: 7.6

For me, the most satisfying scene in the whole Lord of the Rings trilogy was the bit where the Ents finally mobilize and move to tear down the... what was that they were destroying? Some sort of orc factory? I don't remember, honestly, but as thinly veiled as the environmental allegory of the scene was, the justice inherent to a bunch of trees taking out the very industrial operation that had been depleting the forest was quite satisfying. The album art for Hello Echo's debut album, Hello, takes that image and makes it several times more literal, showing an Ent-like tree, dukes up, squaring off against some sort of smokestack skyscraper monster, and the images continues onto the back of the digipack to reveal a nearby city about to be wiped out by a towering wave.

The overt environmentalism of its cover art doesn't quite carry over into the album's music, but it is reflected somewhat in the album's tension between the pastoral and the urban. The songs are full of images of moving out where people don't dominate the landscape, to the desert or the seaside, and in the case of the desert, they even juxtapose the landscape with the technology that moves them through it, in this case a car's engine. The trio is lead by guitarist Sean Aylward, best known for a one-album stint in Apollo Sunshine, whose drummer, Jeremy Black, produced Hello. He's joined by bassist Mike Sarno and drummer Mikey Silva, and together they make an interesting trio-- they have a pretty normal set-up, but Aylward's guitar is an unusual halfway point between lead and rhythm playing, especially when he's playing electric.

Aylward's style has its best showcase on "Stone". He layers acoustic and electric guitar into a cycling rhythm that imparts urgency to the song's unison singing, but when he breaks out for a little solo near the end of the song, it's very tied in to the structure of what he was already playing, an embellishment of the rhythm part. It's a good style that enlivens the band's songwriting, which is mostly quite strong but occasionally a little short on developed lyrics. Opener "When Push Comes to Love" is good to begin with, but his rattling, spiraling leads really blow it up into something huge. The best piece of pure songwriting is the quiet, country-tinged "Disconnect Me", which backs Aylward's nearly twangy lead vocal with spectral, wordless harmonies and just a few well-placed electric guitar accents.

That "Disconnect Me" succeeds so well without Aylward's guitar dominating it is a good sign for the band's future and potential to branch out. And I do hope they get the chance to branch out. Hello is a very solid debut by a band with plenty of talent-- it's not often I wind up spending so much of an indie rock review talking about a particular player's instrumental style, but Aylward really seems to have found his own voice on the guitar.

— Joe Tangari, February 8, 2011
- Pitchfork Media

Hello Echo are friends Sean Aylward (vocals, guitar), Mike Sarno (bass), and Mike Silva (vocals, drums), all hailing originally from the Boston area; the band’s sound contains the moodiness of New England winters combined with the lighthearted sunshine of their West Coast relocations. Aylward spent two years touring and recording with Apollo Sunshine, moved to California, and Hello Echo was born on a surfing trip with an impromptu jam session among the three friends in a bar in Baja.

helloechophoto
“Hello” is their debut full-length where the band explores its knack for spinning interesting lyrical phrasing and guitar work, punctuated by satisfying shouted along accents. “The Coming Days,” presents the listener with an anthem sure to get pleasantly stuck in her head. The band smartly chose to include an updated version of “Stone,” the standout jam from their EP (and a prior selection in Drift’s inaugural playlist).Even the slower, moody songs present some serious guitar jamming and memorable melody lines, like “Intently” where drummer Silva takes a turn on vocals. “Close Your Eyes and See” is the record’s piece of worn down sea glass amongst a pile of shattered beer bottles with its orchestral flourishes and clean production. It’s interesting to hear that the band can polish itself up, but I find the jagged edges most compelling.

At first listen, the band’s sound could seem sloppy, but they really are producing well thought out, albeit noisy, rock music, guided by Aylward’s songwriting and guitar playing. This band has the sound of everyone’s favorite local band- hummable melodies, loud guitar, fuzzy edges. Right now, they are Santa Monica’s favorite local band - sorry Santa Monica, but these guys deserve to stray beyond the zip codes of your local pubs. You can’t help but smile at the fun the band is obviously having during their live performances, so check them out during one of their upcoming CD release parties - such as at Pianos NYC.

other dates:

September 9: Pianos, New York, NY

September 11: PA’s Lounge, Somerville, MA

September 25: The Joint, Los Angeles, CA

And while you are here… take a listen to The Coming Days

- Drift Magazine (surfing, Culture)

Hello Echo are friends Sean Aylward (vocals, guitar), Mike Sarno (bass), and Mike Silva (vocals, drums), all hailing originally from the Boston area; the band’s sound contains the moodiness of New England winters combined with the lighthearted sunshine of their West Coast relocations. Aylward spent two years touring and recording with Apollo Sunshine, moved to California, and Hello Echo was born on a surfing trip with an impromptu jam session among the three friends in a bar in Baja.

helloechophoto
“Hello” is their debut full-length where the band explores its knack for spinning interesting lyrical phrasing and guitar work, punctuated by satisfying shouted along accents. “The Coming Days,” presents the listener with an anthem sure to get pleasantly stuck in her head. The band smartly chose to include an updated version of “Stone,” the standout jam from their EP (and a prior selection in Drift’s inaugural playlist).Even the slower, moody songs present some serious guitar jamming and memorable melody lines, like “Intently” where drummer Silva takes a turn on vocals. “Close Your Eyes and See” is the record’s piece of worn down sea glass amongst a pile of shattered beer bottles with its orchestral flourishes and clean production. It’s interesting to hear that the band can polish itself up, but I find the jagged edges most compelling.

At first listen, the band’s sound could seem sloppy, but they really are producing well thought out, albeit noisy, rock music, guided by Aylward’s songwriting and guitar playing. This band has the sound of everyone’s favorite local band- hummable melodies, loud guitar, fuzzy edges. Right now, they are Santa Monica’s favorite local band - sorry Santa Monica, but these guys deserve to stray beyond the zip codes of your local pubs. You can’t help but smile at the fun the band is obviously having during their live performances, so check them out during one of their upcoming CD release parties - such as at Pianos NYC.

other dates:

September 9: Pianos, New York, NY

September 11: PA’s Lounge, Somerville, MA

September 25: The Joint, Los Angeles, CA

And while you are here… take a listen to The Coming Days

- Drift Magazine (surfing, Culture)