August 18, 2008

In The Studio With... The Hush Now

In The Studio With... The Hush Now
Music bloggers get invited to rock shows. It's a regular occurrence. And so -- when it is a band we like and we're not feeling lazy -- we cover them, either on our own dime or on someone else's. But we'd never been invited into a recording studio during our stint as a music blogger prior to receiving an invitation from new Boston-based indie rock quartet The Hush Now. Despite not yet releasing its debut, the band, fronted by songwriter and guitarist Noel Kelly, is already hard at work at recording a second set. As we had just reviewed The Hush Now's self-titled debut and found it really enjoyable [review here], we took up Mr. Kelly on his offer and sat in on sessions Thursday night. The recording of the new record has not been without a little drama. The basement room of the Charlestown recording studio the band was using flooded out not long after tracking began.

This seems to have been taken in stride, and as we settled into a black leather couch in the back of the control room last week basic tracks were already complete and Mr. Kelly was beginning vocal tracks. So for a couple hours -- while also joking around with bassist Mike DiMinno, drummer Barry Marino, keyboardist Kurt Schneider and producer David Newton (formerly of late '80s Sire act The Mighty Lemon Drops) -- we listened in as Kelly did takes of a soaring, guitar-heavy anthem titled "The Atheist." Surprise, surprise, there's a religious theme to the track, a theme the guys joked would bolster the case for reserved seats in hell. The tune touts big crescendoes, not unlike the preview track "Traditions" from The Hush Now, which we're posting again below. No word on when the band's sophomore set will be released, but since The Hush Now is still mid-album cycle with its debut, we expect it will be sometime in 2009. We'll keep you posted.

The Hush Now -- "Traditions" -- The Hush Now
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[watch The Hush Now MySpace dojo for pre-order information]

The Hush Now: Internets | MySpace | YouTube | Flickr

1 comment:

Justin Snow said...

Wow. I'm jealous. That's so awesome. And even more so that it's not a crappy band. I got excited when I got an e-mail from a band asking me to listen to their new album, which is cool, but nothing like being asked to go to a show or their recording studio. Good for you.