Hype of the States

The show last night was kicked off by Hype of the States. This power-pop rock ‘n’ roll band had some great tunes and definitely made for an easy transition into the night. There were plenty of fun moments, some good rocking moments, and plenty of energy. The lead singer, Jezrael, had great stage presence. She engaged the audience, had plenty of laughs and seemed to love sharing the stage with The Hold Steady. Some of the more memorable songs included “Ziggy” and “Not Me”. - themusic.fm

Opening for the Steady were Hype of the States, a five-piece from Greenpoint whose refreshingly unpretentious pop-rock -- a cross-pollination of the pre-"Summer Feeling" Modern Lovers, Shibuya pop keyboards, and the feral stagecraft of Patti Smith -- gradually won over a crowd that, judging from its demographic diversity, was only assembled for the headliner. Lead singer Jezrael (yes, she's ready for the ubiquity of stardom) brought an insouciance to the proceedings that many female musicians have shunned as of late in the name of ponderousness. Rocking an outfit that would have seemed gauche on anyone else and probably elicited snarls from the trendoid contingent, she ably demonstrated that stagecraft needn't be sacrificed in the name of hipness -- or a good melody, for that matter. Guitarist Austin Raukus may well be the Ricky Wilson of his generation, an understated guitarist whose distinct style makes this band half as interesting as they are (the rock-solid rhythm section ain't so bad either). Keep an eye out for this bunch -- they're really good, and may presage a turn back to a more dance-oriented rock sound. - brooklynmusic.blogspot.com

Huddled in a dark corner at Rosemary’s Greenpoint Tavern on Bedford Avenue, Hype of the States lead singer, Jezrael, is successfully ducking the outstretched hand of lead guitarist Austin Raukus. He’s trying to cover her mouth.

“We want to sell out!” Jezrael, she announces with a giggle, leaning away from Raukus’ hand. “I’m serious! We do! We don’t want to be cool, we don’t want to be complicated. We just want to make pretty music.”

The Williamsburg-Greenpoint-based five-piece has certainly succeeded on that front. Having just put out their unabashedly hooky debut EP, Some Like It H.O.T.S. (get it?), Hype of the States are entering their third year of existence and, armed with a cache of danceable pop songs, seem to be on the verge of taking their biggest leap into the deep end of the overcrowded pool of New York City’s music scene.

But for tonight – a night that saw the group play to a modest crowd at Spike Hill as part of a five-band bill – they’re content with pounding a few Styrofoam “buckets” of beer before they try to take on the world. Or Brooklyn.

Formed in 2005, Hype of the States is the brainchild of both Raukus, 27, and Jezrael (“Jez” to her friends), 32, who decided on an unseasonably chilly June afternoon at Jones Beach that they wanted to be in a band. The pair, from Iowa and Minnesota, respectively, had been in bands in their home states, but both shared a desire to get involved with what was happening musically in New York. With the water ice-cold, they decided to remain on the beach and hatched the original idea for the band.

“We decided to sit there and just come up with this fantasy band,” says Raukus, the tall, rail-thin guitarist whose push and pull playing style with keyboardist Mike Weiser is at the center of the band’s tightrope walk between full-on pop rock and art punk. “We pretty much knew the direction we wanted to go in right from that day.”

Together, the two began rehearsing in the basement of M Shanghai’s Bistro on Havemeyer where they would plug directly into the PA system to work out their early melodies. After some failed attempts to find a bass player, Jezrael enlisted pal Kristina B. Nameless, who had played in bands in her native Saskatchewan. She knew drummer Sandilicious (aka Sandy Glover), a veteran of the classic New York hardcore punk band Spider Cunts, through her job bartending at Black Betty’s on Metropolitan – which is owned by Glover. She soon joined the band, as well.

Despite the diversity of their musical backgrounds (Weiser, the band’s fourth keyboardist, is classically trained and gives private lessons), settling on a sound was surprisingly easy. “We had a collective agreement that we were going to make pop music,” says Nameless. “That sort of informs everything that comes after. I’ve done a lot of other music that could certainly be considered a lot more complicated, but that can be very confining. Settling into something that sounds great and there’s no question of how it works and how people respond to it, it’s really exiting – and liberating.”

It's also a decidedly more accessible - even radio-friendly - sound than you'll hear from many of their Williamsburg-band contemporaries. Not that that matters to the band's tiny, charismatic frontwoman, who proudly avoids the pretensions and classifications that often define any indie rock scene. "One of the reasons I wanted to come to New York from Minneapolis was to get away from that closed off attitude of, 'I'm punk rock. You're indie rock...' and all that," says Jezrael. "There's this really fine line too often that people and bands define themselves with and it's like, 'are you serious?' But I don't really think we appeal to those kinds of people anyway."
And while they'll gladly take comparisons to other popular female-fronted indie acts like Le Tigre or Yeah Yeah Yeahs, the band stops short of offering up any similarities they share with anyone else.

"People come up all the time and say, 'Oh, you sound like her, you sound like her.' I'm like, 'Really? Not Tom Petty?'" Jezrael deadpans. "Because that's definitely what we're going for."

www.myspace.com/hypeofthestates - Block Magazine