The Hunger Artists
Gig Seeker Pro

The Hunger Artists

Glendale, Arizona, United States | SELF

Glendale, Arizona, United States | SELF
Band Folk Punk

Calendar

This band has not uploaded any videos
This band has not uploaded any videos

Music

Press


"The Hunger Artists will satiate your indie folk desire"

While some bands shun haters, Glendale group The Hunger Artists says bring ‘em on.

“I actually kind of like getting hate mail,” says vocalist Troy Simons, 25. “I know that’s weird, but I feel like I’ve done something right. If somebody’s taking the time out to say how much they dislike me, obviously I’ve done something to inspire them.”

The band has their fair share of fans, too, though, even though the guys have only been together for about the past six months.

The indie folk band honed their sound, recorded some tracks and have played about 15 shows in the past two months.

This Saturday, they headline a packed post-holiday show at Modified Arts. Simons told us about how the band’s “pirate folk punk” sound got off the ground.

How would you describe the band’s sound?
Troy Simons: I don’t really know. (The band) started out as something to do because we got tired of our music feeling like we were pressured to make music a certain way, so we just wanted to have fun with it. People always describe it as something new. Out bassist jokes and calls it “pirate folk punk.” We mix a lot of different music in there.

What kind of music has the band been listening to lately?
TS: Ray Reeves, Skinwalkers, Hello the Mind Control, Snail Quail—a lot of local bands. I think Arizona has a really great music scene. I think we tend to appreciate our underground arts scene a little bit more than most people (from other cities) do.

What’s been the band’s best live experience?
TS: The best live experience was one of our free shows at a house party. We played over at the Mix Tape Network’s (a local music collective) potluck, and there were a bunch of people there, and they were clapping and dancing and singing, and that to me is kind of cool.

How would you say you fit in with the Valley’s music scene?
TS: We’ve made quite a few friends since we started making music, and we’ve been supporting a lot of people out here and doing a lot of different things. We just kind of play our music and hope people enjoy it.

What sticks out most to you about your fans?
TS: It’s a pretty diverse set of people. There are people that I didn’t even think would appreciate our music at our shows. We have some guy who comes to them who I’ve always known as being this death metal fan, and he really likes our music, and it’s just kind of been a shock. I think Phoenix in general has really good fans. A lot of them are local artists, and a lot of them are people we know.

The Hunger Artists Influences: Vocalist Troy Simons says he’s influenced by many artists from the 1950s, including Woody Guthrie and Bobby Darin, plus more recent groups such as Neutral Milk Hotel and Marcy Playground.

The Hunger Artists Genres: Folk, Indie

Better described as: A happy-go-lucky band with sing-a-long sensibilities that would be perfect to listen to around a campfire (or in a club with a couple hundred of your closest friends)

Behind the name: The group is named after one of Simons’ favorite stories, Franz Kafka’s A Hunger Artist, about a man who starves himself for fame and attention. “I’ve always been a big fan of (Kafka’s) books,” Simons, 25, says. “A lot of Kafka’s stuff is really weird and has a lot of existential meanings behind what he’s trying to say.” And that theme translates to The Hunger Artists’ music, which often has several meanings. “Anything and everything (inspires me lyrically),” Simons says. “It’s usually a great deal of things mixed in there. On Where Did We Go Wrong?, a lot of people think it’s about a girl or a relationship or whatever, but one section’s about me and my mom’s fights that we’re always getting in, and the other’s just about trying to figure out where I’ve gone wrong with people in general.”

If you’ve got two minutes to check out the band’s MySpace page, listen to this: For a super-fun track with lots of hand clapping and “da-da-da” background vocals, play “Bobby Darin.” The acoustic track is high-energy and raw, and it makes you instantly want to be friends with the pretty girl-seeking band members.

Currently working on: The band has plans to have their tracks professionally recorded and release an EP soon.

Music is… “Artistic expression is, I guess, the best that I can say, just a way to let out things in my opinion, and it’s fun,” Simons says.

The Hunger Artists
$8
Dec. 27- 7 p.m.
Modified Arts
407 E. Roosevelt St., Phoenix
602-462-5516
http://www.modified.org; http://www.myspace.com/corp...
Quirky folk band The Hunger Artists, from Glendale, performs with Yukon Ho!, Jace Carmichael, Greenwich and Universal Spunk.


- Nicki Escudero


"the hunger artists played an energetic set at the trunkspace"

I wish there was an award for “best place to see a show when you’re sick”, because The Trunk Space would be a top contender. Their coffee bar offers four varieties of hot tea, including a very soothing and delicious herbal tea. From the moment I walked in, I felt like a friend invited me over to meet his crazy, yet loving extended family. An entire wall is devoted to merchandise, including vintage clothing, vinyl, CD’s, cassettes, and finger puppets.

The crowd flooded in once The Hunger Artists started playing. They opened with
“Consider if you Will”, an extremely catchy song that combines the fast, aggressive acoustic guitar of Andrew Jackson Jihad with the sing-along choruses of Screeching Weasel. The repetition of “must be the wrong hat” was as memorable as a song like “I Wrote Holden Caufield”.

Fans who were dancing to the intro of “Don’t Wake me up” erupted into a small scale mosh pit when the song’s tempo increased. The audience’s energy peaked at the final “hey!” of “Anxiety”, a song that illustrates the gypsy punk melody of Gogol Bordello. The Hunger Artists encouraged fans to sing along to “Bobby Darin”.

Troy, the singer, insisted that fans stuck around for The Ocean Floor and Ah Holly Fam’ly because “they’re better than us”. He later noted that The Hunger Artists seemed out of place for being “the loud band”. In spite of their musical differences, they put on an energetic twenty-minute set that stimulated the crowd.

Be sure to check out The Hunger Artists' Youtube!
- melissa fossum


"hello the mind control,the hunger artists and stellaluna at modified"

Glendale-based band, The Hunger Artists, energized the audience from the start. When Cousins and front men Troy Simons and Thomas Acres entered the room wearing dresses, I knew I was in for an interesting set.


(I have that same green dress.)
Almost before every song Tommy(in the green)announced:

“You guys gotta sing and dance to this one,” which kept the crowd shaking the whole show. Every single song proved to be catchy.

Not only were The Hunger Artists energetic and filled with passion, they were a refreshing blend of all genres. Almost every song infused folk, rock, doo-wop, punk or r&b (they covered “Beautiful Girls” by Sean Kingston). Troy’s raw screaming and Tommy’s sweeter vocals balanced each other awesomely.



Next on the Agenda

Half of the recording is finished for their first cd, Two Shots for Bad Timing, which should be ready by November, and Morgan said they’ll possibly compete in ASU’s Battle of the Bands.

- april stolar


Discography

Our Single Cowboy poetry is on two cd's one we released as a split with Great Job and two other compilations.(The real cochella & Brootal sunfest) plus our song Don't wake me up is circleing both the U.S. and the U.K on a compilation called Tri-lingual and friends. We are currently working on our first full lenght album called Two shots for bad timing.

Photos

Bio

The music we write is a blend of our failures and mishaps and hopes and evaluations of everything as we see it. With horns and guitar leads and even bass lines roaring behind acoustic based music. Between the raw energy and soul it sends a message in which most fans seem to relate. With topics of fear of losing your imagination as you get older to wondering why we are still starting fights or especially, not wanting to feel sorry for our selves. All with an up beat sound that makes you want to dance and clap and sing along.We formed in 2007 In the back yard of our parents house and moved on from basicly Three people to Several others that helped us along to find our sound.