Music
Press
"Volume Two is a pretty, mid-temp collection...It's the kind of record that would make a fine soundtrack to a road trip through rural Texas. The moody, atmospheric music sounds simple on the first spin, but it's really multi-layered." - NY Post
"[Hillman] crafts brooding, stark and moody high-lonesome music custom made for late nights and ugly mornings. An immediately enthralling and mesmerizing album, remarkable for its dramatic range of dynamics, unique song structures and the occasional freeform freakout...'Volume Two' not only eschews but transcends the belaboured alt.country tag." - Vancouver Courier
"The lightest brush stokes of country invade the sound of 'Volume Two'...but the muted melancholia of Sid Hillman's singing and playing transcends any narrow stylistic boundaries." - Billboard
"See the beating heart of Americana yet? It's there, obscured by the dust of an old, sleepy town with clapboard houses and the sound of the Sid Hillman Quartet...Hillman is the quintessential Americana, crooning cowboy, crafting songs that slice like paper cuts and ache with all the lonesome, scuffling intensity of a freshly broken heart." - ESP Magazine
"Far from alt-country, grounded in folk, and inspired by country, the Sid Hillman Quartet is best described as well-written songs from a well-worn band that knows the score. I give it an A." - InMusicWeTrust.com
"Singer-guitarist Hillman intensifies and abstracts trad-country's melancholy." - Washington Post
"...LA's Sid Hillman makes independent country rock from a singular perspective." - Boston Phoenix
"...darkness-on-the-edge-of-alt-country heroes..." - St. Paul Pioneer Press
"Music to daydream by." - Durham Independent Weekly
"...On his second album with the Sid Hillman Quartet, 'Volume Two' (Innerstate Records), [Hillman] writes Quaalude cowboy music, parched ballads along the lines of Sparklehorse and Giant Sand, music for when the bars are closed but you don't want to go home. With his burnished, straightforward voice and long, flat vowels, he sounds as straight and lonely as a desert back road." - Variety
Discography
1998--Self-Titled 5-Song EP. Self-Released
2000--Self-Titled LP. Self-Released
2001--"Three Songs" EP. Promotional Only to college radio
2002--"Volume Two" LP. Innerstate Records (U.S.), Evangeline Recorded Works (Europe)
2003/2004--"Tercero" LP. Trocadero Records (Europe)
2006--Completed "Round About Way" (Still unreleased)
Photos
Bio
Formed in 1998, the Sid Hillman Quartet released a 5-song EP that same year and began building a following in Los Angeles. In 2000 they released a full-length LP, and opened for Mojave 3 on a sold-out 19 city U.S./Canada tour. They received national critical acclaim and charted on CMJ college radio across the U.S. They followed up in 2001 with an EP entitled "Three Songs" which was released to College Radio only, where they again charted across the country. In 2002 they released "Volume Two" (LP) on Innerstate Records (U.S.) and Evangeline Recorded Works (Europe) and Sid opened solo for Neil Halstead on a 4 week U.S. tour. "Volume Two" received major publication critical acclaim and spent two weeks on the CMJ top 200 charts. Also in 2002, the Quartet won the People's Choice Award for "Best Country Band" (encompassing Americana and Alt-Country) for the L.A. Weekly Music Awards. In 2003, Sid toured, opening for Lisa Germano, and the SHQ completed their third full-length LP "Tercero." "Tercero" was released in Europe on February 7, 2005 on Trocadero Records. From February - March 2005, the Quartet spent a month touring in Germany, Austria, Belgium, Switzerland and Netherlands in support of "Tercero" and returned to growing crowds in the fall of that year. In 2006 the Quartet completed another full-length album entitled "Round About Way."
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