The Hazey Janes new single, ‘Girl In The Night’ is out now as free download via www.armellodie.com. Watch the rather splendid video (directed by Andrew Maclean) here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3cL1mI7iKEU.
‘Girl In The Night’ is the second single to be taken from The Hazey Janes forthcoming album, The Winter That Was , released on Monday 24th October 2011. It showcases their americana melodies and jangle pop rooted in classicism of the likes of Big Star, early R.E.M et al.
Those dates in full:
OCTOBER
Oct. 23rd – The Twa Tams – Perth
79–81 Scott Street PH2 8JR
Oct. 24th – Dukes Corner Album Launch Show – Dundee
13 Brown Street, DD1 5EG
01382 205 052
NOVEMBER
Nov. 25th – Sneaky Pete’s – Edinburgh
73 Gowgate EH1 1JW
0131 225 1757
Nov. 26rd – Woodend Barn – Banchory
Banchory AB31 5QA
01330 826520
www.woodendbarn.co.uk
DECEMBER
Dec. 2nd – Club Jubilee – Camden Barfly – London
49 Chalk Farm Rd Camden Town
www.jubileeclub.com
Dec. 3rd – Sticky Mike’s Frog Bar – Brighton
9-12 Middle Street, BN1 1AL
Wildwood Promotions.
www.wegottickets.com/event/135915
01273 749465
The Hazey Janes have undergone their fair share of globe-trotting since releasing their rightly praised eponymous mini-album some 8 years ago.
They escaped the Caledonian rain and absconded to Spain to record their debut long-player Hotel Radio at the studios of legendary Spanish producer Paco Loco (Josh Rouse / Jeff Tweedy) in Cadiz. The record was met with significant acclaim upon its release in February 2006 and the band set forth, playing shows both everywhere and anywhere. They headlined throughout the UK, and as well as playing in support to the likes of Elbow, Idlewild and Snow Patrol the band made two trips to the SXSW festival in Austin, Texas, where they showed their versatility by being able to open for both Susanna Hoffs and The Presidents of the United States of America.
The band hopped Stateside again in 2007 to New Jersey, where they recorded a new album entitled Hands Around The City with esteemed producer John Agnello (The Hold Steady / The Walkmen / Sonic Youth). Unfortunately for the fan-base that the band amassed on their travels, the album has become stuck in limbo. Somewhere between the cosmos of legality and the galaxy of small print it remains unreleased to this day, much to the band’s dismay.
“From an early stage we made a conscious decision that this, our third record, was going to be a different experience from the last two. For a start, we would make it much closer to home than previously, but not necessarily restrict ourselves to the same room/studio. Secondly, we’d produce ourselves with our friend Robin Sutherland engineering. Having been fortunate enough to work with experienced, creative producers in the past it felt like the right time for us to be making an album on our own and bar the occasional power cut and a butterfly infestation, the process as a whole was pretty painless” Andrew Mitchell.
Like a temporal vortex or dimensional doorway the ominous pitch-bending groan of opener ‘Cascade River Gardens’ pulls us, the listeners into Dr. Who’s famous TARDIS. Spinning us round before dropping us firmly in familiar Hazey Janes terrain, albeit with the band harnessing a new found vitality in their sound.
The beefed up brash power pop of ‘Carmelite’ states the intentions of The Winter That Was with fervour, Liam Brennan’s unyielding rhythm augmented by Matthew Marra’s punchy, melodic bass-lines. A heady foundation on which to build, and Alice Marra’s vintage synthesizers coupled with Andrew Mitchell’s chunky guitars thrill the listener with every layer they add. Deeply enchanting and surprisingly brisk, ‘Girl In The Night’, succinctly distils the band’s striking three-part harmonies with a healthy dollop of 80’s drive-time rock, stirring and infectious.
On consideration, Scotland has had a long-standing affinity with Stateside music and The Hazey Janes specialise in the West Coast variety not least on ‘Aspen’ – loosely based on a tale about the exploits of Hunter S Thomson – and the startling ‘You Only Stand To Lose If I Stay’ which sees Andrew delivering the most soaring of vocals.
Punching the epic button like never before, ‘Wake To Guide Love’ and ‘Southern Lawns’ find the band enriching their modus operandi with playful production and instrumentation, incorporating harps and pianos, and even bashing a mandolin with a rubber mallet – nothing like letting out some of that pent-up Dundonian aggression, even if it is on a poor, defenceless mandolin! There was further amusement whilst recording too as Matthew explains;
“The generous people at Vintage Strings of Dundee allowed us to sneak into their shop one evening to simultaneously record a few pianos for Southern Lawns. Unfortunately, a passing police car assumed we were ransacking the place. Once we explained the nature of a piano’s weight, however, they left us to it. If only we had left the tape rolling.”
