Saturday, January 5, 2019

FREE DOWNLOAD!! Heavy H&S EP by Heavy Hands garage stoner rock album review by Fuzzy Cracklins

Heavy H&S EP by Heavy Hands
Heavy H&S EP by Heavy Hands

Get yourself a copy of the new debut Heavy Hands stoner rock EP Heavy H&S and read the band interview with Fuzzy Cracklins after the jump.......



There are a variety of sounds going on here, from the bluesy fuzz of Another to the slightly Eastern tinge of Desert King to the alternative rock of Colorado. It is all anchored in a solid foundation of stoner rock. These guys might be from Boston but they could just as easily be from Joshua Tree.

There is a lot to like about the desert stoner guitars and rhythms on this album, and also I am digging the fuzzed out vocals on some of the tracks. This reminds me of the psychedelic vocals from bands like Wooden Shjips and Destruction Unit which are good company to be in.

I have to say that as much as I like this EP, it is Mrs. Cracklins who is going totally crazy over it. That works for me because this gives me another album I can play at a loud volume during happy hour. As you know, the list of albums which get approved by Mrs. Cracklins is pretty short, so this is a good thing!

The guys from Heavy Hands took the time to answer some interview questions so let's check it out!


FUZZY CRACKLINS: Who is who in the band photo and who is playing what?

Aaron in on the far left with the Beanie, he does all the vocals and plays guitar on a bunch of songs. Dan is next to him and also has a beard - he plays drums. Sean is in the beanie with the longer hair, he plays guitar. And last but not least Jeremy is far right with the short hair, he's the bassist. 

FC: When and how did you guys meet and form the band?

We formed in the beginning of 2018. Dan and Sean met in college, years back. Sean had a kit at his place and Dan would come over to jam. We really just liked to drink beer, smoke, and play loud, there was no intention of being a band. After Sean had been playing in a few different bands over the years I think he finally convinced Dan to join him. Now, with most of our friends moving away after college we had to resort to craigslist to find other musicians. It kinda sucked to be honest - It was tough to find folks that were a good fit. Luckily we nabbed Aaron who just moved here from Minneapolis and Jeremy was one of the many bass players we auditioned. We would later learn that the same day Jeremy auditioned for Heavy Hands, he got a new job - he remembers it as a really good day haha.

FC: How did guys from Boston get so into desert & stoner music?

While Jeremy is the only Massachusetts native, Sean and Dan have been in Boston for a while (Sean is from NJ and Dan from PA). We can tell you there isn't a huge desert/stoner rock scene here but it definitely exists. Sometimes its hard to genre define but there's more of a garage rock and psych thing here which has some cool overlap with us but it's definitely a different beast. I think the older we got the more we got into desert rock or rather it's the only genre that has stayed that important to us, we always come back to it. There so much about rock music that we enjoy and we hope we capture a lot of the "best of" moments from different genres, but for us desert rock has always helped us capture how we feel and helps us tell our story.  

FC: Who are some other bands you guys like that you would give a shout out to? No band is too big or too small. 

We wanna give a shout out to Dori Cameron and the Invisible Monsters, they recently played at Brighton Music Hall and have been killing it lately. Also our boys in Brooklyn from the band GRASS. We're super stoked that they are coming up to Boston to play with us at the Midway Cafe in February. Also we think everyone should check out the self titled album that Blue Manic just put out. Last but not least our friends in Bad Kiss, they're an up and coming punk band that puts on a great live show.  

FC: What are the bands your parents listen to? [Fuzzy asked this because Heavy Hands calls out on their Bandcamp page "Every once in a while we rebel against our parents by making even softer rock."]

Aaron: Ha, um, my dad listened to anything vaguely Celtic sounding and mostly revolving around Enya and my mother’s music preferences seemed to mostly be shaped by the Lawrence Welk show.

Dan: SRV, Zeppelin, Stones, Hendrix, The Band.

Sean: My Dad is super into jazz and a guitarist himself. His favorites are Pat Metheny, John McLaughlin, Wes Montgomery etc.  My Mom's taste was pretty diverse but the ones that stick out are a little more typical like The Police, Cindy Lauper, Sheryl Crow, The Beatles, Roy Orbison, etc.

Jeremy: Both my parents had 100.7 out of Boston on in the car all the time. As a kid I gravitated toward Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, the Who. I was exposed to a lot of the other classics, like the Beatles, Skynyrd, the Allman Brothers, everything they play on the classic rock stations. By the time I was a teenager I was trying to catch up on the grunge phase, and kind of skipped over the 80s.

FC: Upcoming gig dates?

We are playing at the Midway Cafe in Jamaica Plain on 2/23 and have a show in the works for March, we will be sharing the details very shortly so check our social media for updates!

FC: What else do you want to tell your fans about?

We just want to say thank you for the support and to stay tuned because we have some big things planned for 2019. We are proud to have recorded, mixed, and mastered our EP completely by ourselves. It is by no means perfect but there's a real freedom in having that level of artistic control as well relief in being able to set our own schedule and ultimately have more studio time. This means you can expect more new music to be released this year and some killer live shows!

FC: Thanks for your time, guys!!

Don't forget to grab a download code! If one is used, try the next one. Redeem at https://heavyhandsma.bandcamp.com/yum Be sure to login to Bandcamp first and check "Add to my collection."

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