One Track Mind

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

[ audio ]

When The Happy Hollows release their debut LP, Spells, on October 6th, they’re going to please a lot of music fans. The Los Angeles trio’s exuberant sound has broad appeal, touching as it does on everything from post-punk and art-pop to the femme-fronted Brit-pop acts of the ’90s and the genre’s more recent products. Spells was produced by David Newton (former guitarist of the far too often overlooked C-86 act The Mighty Lemon Drops), who infuses the proceedings with just the right balance of viscosity and fluidity.

“Monster Room” is one of two tracks the band is offering as a tease of the full-length, and it starts off in full swing with Sarah Negahdari sounding a bit like Laetitia Sadier in Stereolab’s heyday. Her delivery and the accompanying music metamorphose throughout the song’s four minutes, during which the touchstones are numerous and well placed: a dash of Art Brut, a splash of riot grrrl vocal antics, and a sprinkle of the feistiness of Elastica’s second album. Acoustic guitars paint a gentle background layer during the verses while guitar and bass ping pong back and forth in the foreground. Negahdari’s ability to self-harmonize in a multitude of different manners is easy to gloss over while listening casually but indicates a real talent. At times, she’s simply providing herself with a complementary set of pitches; elsewhere, she is filling in the empty spaces with more visceral shrieks.

If there is a knock on “Monster Room,” it is that it may run a little on the long side. Still, that is easily forgiven given the amount of ground the song covers. This track is an exciting peek at a new band that is bound to turn some heads. Here’s to what The Happy Hollows have in store for us.