The Hiptones
Adelaide, South Australia, Australia | INDIE
Music
Press
Here's a brief look at what other people are saying.
Ross Wilson
No wonder they've scored a deal with a major label - this is blues for the masses & a great leap forward for the oz blues scene.
Renee Geyer
The Hiptones are one of our great young R&B bands… they're formidable - an oasis in an R&B drought called Australia.
Don Walker
RIGHT NOW is a great piece of work. (The single) “I’ve Been Loving You Too Long” is universal and could appeal to anyone.
Rhythms Magazine: Australia's Roots Music Monthly
Get ready to shake your ass and get it awn down to the roots/soul explosion of The Hiptones… their stunning roots'n'all debut album 'Right Now’…perfectly serves to illustrate their immediate, fresh albeit-vintage bluesy/soul sound.
Australian Musician Magazine
The Hiptones are the real deal, a tight groove based unit proudly displaying their retro influences on their sleeves. … gig-seasoned musicians doing what they love...... Real music by genuine musos. Faith is restored.
Sydney Sunday Telegraph
Smooth-edged toe-tapping R&B soul and blues, fleshed out with plenty of hammond organ.
Sydney Daily Telegraph
Their infectious blend of blues, soul and funk has been delightfully distilled by producer James Black on the album Right Now.
Beat Magazine-Melbourne
Technically speaking, frontman Snooks La Vie should have been born black…The Hiptones music is… a canny laid-back fusion of soul, funk, blues and gospel, … that gives a shot of adrenaline to the Australian roots scene… they don't make bands this good anymore.
PBS Melbourne
What a show…their attire is funky and retro-styled and their ability to play alive and kicking music is outstanding…Can you get a better vocal than La Vie? - probably not. He is sensational.
The Sunday Morning Herald - Melbourne
The album RIGHT NOW oozes class, delivering music that neither disguises its influence, nor slavishly replicates it. The album's compositions are safely in the hands of smooth singer Snooks la Vie and keyboardist/bassist Narmon 'Brother T' Tulsi. What a team.
The Advertiser - Adelaide
What polish, what shine, what class; all from a band whose name truly epitomises its sound.
- Assorted
Discography
RIGHT NOW SonyBMG 2006
MEET ME AT THE SANDS Independent 2001
Photos
Bio
Does the world really need another Soul band? James Black (RocKwiz) will tell you that the answer is "Yes!" but its gotta be The Hiptones! Their sound is a blend of Roots and Blues with a powerful pop songwriting sensibility.
Like all great bands, The Hiptones is an organic creation much greater than the sum of its parts. Over the last 7 years an eclectic group of musicians came together from the " roots" music scene in Adelaide, South Australia. The Hiptones grew and coalesced into the current lineup of Snooks La Vie on Vocals, Brother T on Hammond and bass, Adam Pringle on guitar and Mark Chewey on the skins.
For some reason, all the great towns that create roots music are never the biggest cities. It is something about being away from the centre of the commercial music industry. Think Memphis, Austin, Nashville and New Orleans (The Hiptones favourite) . One day when the rest of the world is exhausted from the current fads real music comes through and has its day. It seems like that time is now for The Hiptones.
While there are lots of bands that have their roots in the blues, there are few with a singer as good as Snooks La Vie. Less with a band that can entertain a crowd in a bar for five hours straight and even fewer that can write songs as good as the blues and soul classics that inspired them. The Hiptones is a roots band that can play with a style of their own and they write like they play.
They cruise around in a 62 T-Bird, wear funky retro clothes and play obscure vintage instruments. They listen to music most people have never heard of, but what they create together is very cool, very real and totally hip.In these days of artifice and contrivance The Hiptones are a band that truly care about the music. There has never been an air of despair about this band. These are 4 guys who consistently go all out to play to a room full of people keen to forget the weeks work and grind and dance to music that speaks to the mind and the body.
The Hiptones sound is a gumbo of the roots music with a pop sensibility. Out front is Snooks, a white soul singer with an incredibly powerful voice. Brother T drives the bass and Hammond organ deftly bridging the gap between retro funk and new soul. Adam Pringle lays down sublime guitar also being able to provide that Atlantic R&B funk attack and Mark on the skins, can do it all.
Their debut album Right Now is particularly special given that it brought the Hiptones to the attention of a major label SONYBMG. Thats extraordinary given that all the vocal takes are first and only takes, and the entire album was recorded and mixed in four days at Woodstock studios with James Black producing during a Melbourne heatwave in January 2006. Hot from the start, the Hiptones debut full-length album is a set of songs stripped back to their essence.
The album charted at No. 24 in the prestigious US LIVING BLUES Magazine - September 2008.
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