Albums : The Head and the Heart : Let's Be Still
Albums : The Head and the Heart : Let's Be Still
Listen To The Head and the Heart : Let's Be Still
Who is The Head and the Heart?
So many decisions in life and in the music we love can come down to a critical tug between the logic in our heads and the hot red blood beating through our hearts. Seattle’s The Head and the Heart live authentically in that crux, finding joy and beauty wedged there. Their music pulses effervescently—both explosively danceable and intuitively intelligent. With Americana roots and strong vocal harmonics that swell like a river, this band finds its anchor in solid songwriting that has even the jaded humming along by the second listen.
Leaving a variety of day jobs and academic pursuits, The Head and the Heart came together in the summer of 2009, during frequent visits to the open mic night at Conor Byrne in Seattle’s Ballard neighborhood. California-transplant Josiah Johnson and Virginia-native Jonathan Russell formed the core songwriting partnership, quickly adding keyboardist Kenny Hensley to the mix. Kenny, then 21, had packed up his piano and moved up to Seattle from California to pursue musical score-writing. The luminous Charity Rose Thielen, violin and vocals, had just returned from a year of studying and playing music in Paris. Drummer Tyler Williams cold left a successful band in Virginia after Jon sent him the demo of “Down in the Valley,” relocating across states to be a part of this. Finally, Chris Zasche, was bartending at Conor Byrne and mentioned one day that he’d be happy to play bass for the nascent band. It all felt right: The Head and the Heart was born.
Whether penning songs on the beach at Seattle’s Discovery Park, or working out melodies in the piano practice rooms at the Seattle Public Library, Charity describes the early months of the band’s existence as touched by a shared purpose and connection. She recalls an email she sent to Josiah that summer, confessing that she was “sleepless and penniless, but inspired nonetheless.”
The band entered Seattle’s Studio Litho in early 2010 to record these songs that had been kicking and twisting in the catalytic development of their live show. Recorded by Shawn Simmons at Studio Litho and Steven Aguilar at Bearhead Studio, the band was selling burned copies in handmade denim sleeves at local shows within a few weeks. Self-released in June 2010, the debut album helped build an impressive head-of-steam for the band through the second half of the year, gaining fans at influential Seattle station KEXP, local record shops (a consistent top 10 seller for Easy Street and the #1 album of 2010 at Sonic Boom), and venues up and down the West Coast, culminating with signing to Sub Pop Records in November. For the 2011 re-release of the album, “Sounds like Hallelujah” has been re-recorded, live favorite “Rivers and Roads” has been added, and the album has been re-mastered.
The songs resulting from those first inspired months pick at the multicolored threads of leaving home, finding home, and through that process of deconstruction, finding yourself. These are songs about crossing rivers and roads to get to the one you love, about family far away, and the desire to chase Technicolor dreams down foreign horizons. When people hear these songs, or see the band live, the first thing they have to do is tell someone else. Their shows are, simply, one hell of a lot of breathless fun. Each song explodes into a potent supernova on stage, where half the audience is zealously singing along with every lyric, and the other half is wishing they knew the words. The band has accepted nearly every show offered to them in the past year, from backyards strung with Christmas lights to coffee shops, open mics, and even high school classrooms in Middle America. From the first months of the band’s life, their reputation as a phenomenal live band has preceded them wherever they play.
The strength of Josiah, Jon and Charity’s vocal harmonies on the album makes it feel like these three were born to pour their voices together, as the band’s songs revel in jaunty bass lines with ebullient handclaps peppering the best moments. A palette of orchestral elements weave their way through the album, including cello, glockenspiel, and violin, all shading in the songs’ development. For all the times your toes tap while enjoying this band, often the lightness will deceptively belie the depth of ache in the lyrics when you sit down to really listen. There is magic in the music, but not magic contrived by trickery or posturing. “It seems actually that the more genuine and honest we are in the songwriting and performing, the more people relate to that transparency,” Charity muses.
This is an album for people who unabashedly sing and drum along on the steering wheel, and also for those who appreciate a well-crafted collection of songs that build into something wholly beautiful.
There is in this music a counter-cultural optimism, with roots that grow deep and melodies that lodge themselves far into that place inside you where the head meets the heart.
Let's Be Still Review
When The Head and the Heart self-released their debut album back in ‘09, who could’ve guessed they’d sell over 10,000 copies by word of mouth alone? That got the attention of Sub Pop, the label who snatched up the Seattle band and sent them on tour to seek their fortune. The title of The Head and the Heart’s second LP, Let’s Be Still, can be read as an appeal for respite following two years of relentless touring. The same goes for the album’s idyllic cover photo, which has two band members sprawled atop raw sienna grass, gazing up at a clear blue sky. It’s a rare moment of peace for the young folkies, a well-earned rest following their interminable string of gigs. According to frontman Josiah Johnson, Let’s Be Still is “imbued with the experiences of traveling the world…a snapshot of a band that didn’t exist just four short years ago.” Johnson credits touring with groups like Iron and Wine, Death Cab for Cutie, and Dr. Dog for inspiring The Head and the Heart’s expansion into “new sonic spaces.” Guitarist Jonathan Russell, having been struck with the urge to go electric while opening for My Morning Jacket, agrees wholeheartedly: “I’m sick of just strumming my acoustic guitar.” Let’s Be Still benefits tremendously from this expanded and diversified approach, as the Seattle sextet experiments with groovy electric guitar riffs, coruscating synths, and deft time signature shifts that keep the listener off balance in all the right ways.
Throughout the album, The Head and the Heart stress that, although nothing is permanent and life in 21st century America is a hectic blur, we can prolong what’s worth cherishing by taking our foot off the accelerator, if only for a moment. The title cut spells this out explicitly, as the band cautions, “If we don’t slow down soon things might not last.” This plea for recess from a world “spinning a little too fast” conveys a sentiment with which frazzled Millennials can easily identify. “These Days Are Numbered” channels a similar perspective, as Charity Rose Thielen bemoans the finality of life in begging for a warm moment with her sweetheart. And, on wistful “10,000 Weight in Gold”, the band looks back on a broken family to highlight how folks assign nonpareil value to the things they’ve lost forever.
Although slowing down can liberate from the shackles of hurried, workaday lives, it can also enhance the anguish of growing apart from the ones we love. Some things ought to be drawn out and savored, while others are best dealt with expediently, or even evaded completely. To avoid paralysis and decay, we must sometimes blind ourselves to past and push onward as quickly as possible.
Opening track “Homecoming Heroes” is Springsteen’s “Glory Days” turned on its head. Backed by a shivering string section, the lyrics spurn fleeting victories and “the wave of their flag.” Rather than dwelling on past conquests and yellowing local newspaper headlines, it gets turned back on them (“I duck into alleys, I avoid the rallies/ It’s a choice of my own”). On “Gone”, the protagonist implores an ex-lover to repossess pictures and postcards so he can free himself of his antecedents. Putting forth a Herculean effort to trudge onward, Johnson, Russell, and Thielen all moan and groan amidst doubters and skeptics, “I’m tryin’ hee-ah/ Aw I’m trying here/ And fuck what they’re saying.”
Compared to their eponymous debut, Let’s Be Still leans more heavily on pop ditties, which enliven and invigorate the album. Lead single “Shake” features a rippling bass, peppy clapping, and jaunty piano spatters. “Summertime”, a sprightly number complete with punchy percussion and ebbing synths, finds Thielen laying her health on the line to woo a would-be beau. Snappy and coquettish, she offers to go into coal mines for love (“I will sing as your canary bird/ Take my soul and bury it in the earth”). As the drums threaten to drown her out, Thielen redoubles her efforts with skirling yelps and her sultry, soulful power repetitions of the title.
The Head and the Heart also broach a few topical issues this time around. “Another Story”, penned by Russell in response to the Newtown shootings, is an attempt at catharsis following the tragic and confounding killings at Sandy Hook Elementary. Spry number “My Friends” has the band leaning on comrades to bolster their faltering faith in love, god, and politics (“If everyone had rights/ Would anything go wrong?/ Would there even be a need for these politicians’ songs?”), apropos for a country with no Government.
Despite the band’s creative advances, most of the LP’s 13 cuts adhere to the same basic formula. Their songs begin sparsely, ride a steady instrumental build, peak with gorgeous harmonies, and conclude with a soft fade. That said, The Head and the Heart are at their best when breaking free from this rubric. The pedal steel guitar of alt-country waltz “Cruel” and blooming organ on “Fire/Fear” shine, while the folksy harmonica of “These Days Are Numbered” sounds like it could’ve been recorded at Big Pink.
When The Head and the Heart landed on Sub Pop, many dismissed them as one-trick ponies. Sure, they had fantastic vocalists, but Let’s Be Still proves the Seattle band is more than just a crisp set of pipes. Here, they draw upon lessons gleamed from touring with veteran groups, tinker and tweak their sound to the tune of fresh instrumentation and unconventional timing, and stick their toes in the swampy morass of sociopolitical commentary. And, in flashing the confidence to step outside their comfort zone of folksy harmonies and Guthrie-derived lyrics, The Head and the Heart insist they’re moving forward, not being still.
Contact The Head and the Heart
Facebook | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube | Soundcloud | Instagram | Google+ | GM | Press | US/Canada Booking | International Booking
Contact Consequence of Sound (COS)
Website | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube
Sources : The Head and the Heart Photo | Listen To Let's Be Still | The Head and the Heart Biography | Let's Be Still Review
Purchase : iTunes | Amazon | Walmart | Targwet
Listen To The Head and the Heart : Let's Be Still
Who is The Head and the Heart?
So many decisions in life and in the music we love can come down to a critical tug between the logic in our heads and the hot red blood beating through our hearts. Seattle’s The Head and the Heart live authentically in that crux, finding joy and beauty wedged there. Their music pulses effervescently—both explosively danceable and intuitively intelligent. With Americana roots and strong vocal harmonics that swell like a river, this band finds its anchor in solid songwriting that has even the jaded humming along by the second listen.
Leaving a variety of day jobs and academic pursuits, The Head and the Heart came together in the summer of 2009, during frequent visits to the open mic night at Conor Byrne in Seattle’s Ballard neighborhood. California-transplant Josiah Johnson and Virginia-native Jonathan Russell formed the core songwriting partnership, quickly adding keyboardist Kenny Hensley to the mix. Kenny, then 21, had packed up his piano and moved up to Seattle from California to pursue musical score-writing. The luminous Charity Rose Thielen, violin and vocals, had just returned from a year of studying and playing music in Paris. Drummer Tyler Williams cold left a successful band in Virginia after Jon sent him the demo of “Down in the Valley,” relocating across states to be a part of this. Finally, Chris Zasche, was bartending at Conor Byrne and mentioned one day that he’d be happy to play bass for the nascent band. It all felt right: The Head and the Heart was born.
Whether penning songs on the beach at Seattle’s Discovery Park, or working out melodies in the piano practice rooms at the Seattle Public Library, Charity describes the early months of the band’s existence as touched by a shared purpose and connection. She recalls an email she sent to Josiah that summer, confessing that she was “sleepless and penniless, but inspired nonetheless.”
The band entered Seattle’s Studio Litho in early 2010 to record these songs that had been kicking and twisting in the catalytic development of their live show. Recorded by Shawn Simmons at Studio Litho and Steven Aguilar at Bearhead Studio, the band was selling burned copies in handmade denim sleeves at local shows within a few weeks. Self-released in June 2010, the debut album helped build an impressive head-of-steam for the band through the second half of the year, gaining fans at influential Seattle station KEXP, local record shops (a consistent top 10 seller for Easy Street and the #1 album of 2010 at Sonic Boom), and venues up and down the West Coast, culminating with signing to Sub Pop Records in November. For the 2011 re-release of the album, “Sounds like Hallelujah” has been re-recorded, live favorite “Rivers and Roads” has been added, and the album has been re-mastered.
The songs resulting from those first inspired months pick at the multicolored threads of leaving home, finding home, and through that process of deconstruction, finding yourself. These are songs about crossing rivers and roads to get to the one you love, about family far away, and the desire to chase Technicolor dreams down foreign horizons. When people hear these songs, or see the band live, the first thing they have to do is tell someone else. Their shows are, simply, one hell of a lot of breathless fun. Each song explodes into a potent supernova on stage, where half the audience is zealously singing along with every lyric, and the other half is wishing they knew the words. The band has accepted nearly every show offered to them in the past year, from backyards strung with Christmas lights to coffee shops, open mics, and even high school classrooms in Middle America. From the first months of the band’s life, their reputation as a phenomenal live band has preceded them wherever they play.
The strength of Josiah, Jon and Charity’s vocal harmonies on the album makes it feel like these three were born to pour their voices together, as the band’s songs revel in jaunty bass lines with ebullient handclaps peppering the best moments. A palette of orchestral elements weave their way through the album, including cello, glockenspiel, and violin, all shading in the songs’ development. For all the times your toes tap while enjoying this band, often the lightness will deceptively belie the depth of ache in the lyrics when you sit down to really listen. There is magic in the music, but not magic contrived by trickery or posturing. “It seems actually that the more genuine and honest we are in the songwriting and performing, the more people relate to that transparency,” Charity muses.
This is an album for people who unabashedly sing and drum along on the steering wheel, and also for those who appreciate a well-crafted collection of songs that build into something wholly beautiful.
There is in this music a counter-cultural optimism, with roots that grow deep and melodies that lodge themselves far into that place inside you where the head meets the heart.
Let's Be Still Review
When The Head and the Heart self-released their debut album back in ‘09, who could’ve guessed they’d sell over 10,000 copies by word of mouth alone? That got the attention of Sub Pop, the label who snatched up the Seattle band and sent them on tour to seek their fortune. The title of The Head and the Heart’s second LP, Let’s Be Still, can be read as an appeal for respite following two years of relentless touring. The same goes for the album’s idyllic cover photo, which has two band members sprawled atop raw sienna grass, gazing up at a clear blue sky. It’s a rare moment of peace for the young folkies, a well-earned rest following their interminable string of gigs. According to frontman Josiah Johnson, Let’s Be Still is “imbued with the experiences of traveling the world…a snapshot of a band that didn’t exist just four short years ago.” Johnson credits touring with groups like Iron and Wine, Death Cab for Cutie, and Dr. Dog for inspiring The Head and the Heart’s expansion into “new sonic spaces.” Guitarist Jonathan Russell, having been struck with the urge to go electric while opening for My Morning Jacket, agrees wholeheartedly: “I’m sick of just strumming my acoustic guitar.” Let’s Be Still benefits tremendously from this expanded and diversified approach, as the Seattle sextet experiments with groovy electric guitar riffs, coruscating synths, and deft time signature shifts that keep the listener off balance in all the right ways.
Throughout the album, The Head and the Heart stress that, although nothing is permanent and life in 21st century America is a hectic blur, we can prolong what’s worth cherishing by taking our foot off the accelerator, if only for a moment. The title cut spells this out explicitly, as the band cautions, “If we don’t slow down soon things might not last.” This plea for recess from a world “spinning a little too fast” conveys a sentiment with which frazzled Millennials can easily identify. “These Days Are Numbered” channels a similar perspective, as Charity Rose Thielen bemoans the finality of life in begging for a warm moment with her sweetheart. And, on wistful “10,000 Weight in Gold”, the band looks back on a broken family to highlight how folks assign nonpareil value to the things they’ve lost forever.
Although slowing down can liberate from the shackles of hurried, workaday lives, it can also enhance the anguish of growing apart from the ones we love. Some things ought to be drawn out and savored, while others are best dealt with expediently, or even evaded completely. To avoid paralysis and decay, we must sometimes blind ourselves to past and push onward as quickly as possible.
Opening track “Homecoming Heroes” is Springsteen’s “Glory Days” turned on its head. Backed by a shivering string section, the lyrics spurn fleeting victories and “the wave of their flag.” Rather than dwelling on past conquests and yellowing local newspaper headlines, it gets turned back on them (“I duck into alleys, I avoid the rallies/ It’s a choice of my own”). On “Gone”, the protagonist implores an ex-lover to repossess pictures and postcards so he can free himself of his antecedents. Putting forth a Herculean effort to trudge onward, Johnson, Russell, and Thielen all moan and groan amidst doubters and skeptics, “I’m tryin’ hee-ah/ Aw I’m trying here/ And fuck what they’re saying.”
Compared to their eponymous debut, Let’s Be Still leans more heavily on pop ditties, which enliven and invigorate the album. Lead single “Shake” features a rippling bass, peppy clapping, and jaunty piano spatters. “Summertime”, a sprightly number complete with punchy percussion and ebbing synths, finds Thielen laying her health on the line to woo a would-be beau. Snappy and coquettish, she offers to go into coal mines for love (“I will sing as your canary bird/ Take my soul and bury it in the earth”). As the drums threaten to drown her out, Thielen redoubles her efforts with skirling yelps and her sultry, soulful power repetitions of the title.
The Head and the Heart also broach a few topical issues this time around. “Another Story”, penned by Russell in response to the Newtown shootings, is an attempt at catharsis following the tragic and confounding killings at Sandy Hook Elementary. Spry number “My Friends” has the band leaning on comrades to bolster their faltering faith in love, god, and politics (“If everyone had rights/ Would anything go wrong?/ Would there even be a need for these politicians’ songs?”), apropos for a country with no Government.
Despite the band’s creative advances, most of the LP’s 13 cuts adhere to the same basic formula. Their songs begin sparsely, ride a steady instrumental build, peak with gorgeous harmonies, and conclude with a soft fade. That said, The Head and the Heart are at their best when breaking free from this rubric. The pedal steel guitar of alt-country waltz “Cruel” and blooming organ on “Fire/Fear” shine, while the folksy harmonica of “These Days Are Numbered” sounds like it could’ve been recorded at Big Pink.
When The Head and the Heart landed on Sub Pop, many dismissed them as one-trick ponies. Sure, they had fantastic vocalists, but Let’s Be Still proves the Seattle band is more than just a crisp set of pipes. Here, they draw upon lessons gleamed from touring with veteran groups, tinker and tweak their sound to the tune of fresh instrumentation and unconventional timing, and stick their toes in the swampy morass of sociopolitical commentary. And, in flashing the confidence to step outside their comfort zone of folksy harmonies and Guthrie-derived lyrics, The Head and the Heart insist they’re moving forward, not being still.
Contact The Head and the Heart
Facebook | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube | Soundcloud | Instagram | Google+ | GM | Press | US/Canada Booking | International Booking
Contact Consequence of Sound (COS)
Website | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube
Sources : The Head and the Heart Photo | Listen To Let's Be Still | The Head and the Heart Biography | Let's Be Still Review
Purchase : iTunes | Amazon | Walmart | Targwet
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