Time to give some repsect to Neil Michael Hagerty

New one is definitely in my top ten, no, top 5, no top THREE of 2005. Clearly a genius. One of the very last of 'em, too, I reckon. I gush about this new one on the "NMH Brings Tha Funk" thread.

Yeah, a CD-only release called 1-2-3, which I'm hoping is not what I think it is, cuz they charged a fortune for those single LPs under the guise of them being vinyl-only.

Of course I'll still BUY it, but...lame.

Ha ha ha - shit.

Because most of the songs on the new CD are so short and fragmentary, I think it's really meant to be taken as a "set," for better or worse, with the DVD (or even as a companion piece to seeing the current live show, which it looks like most of us won't get a chance to do).

Something curious is how a few of the new songs (a couple on the CD and one just on the DVD) have lyrics that include the title phrases of the "experimental" numbers from "Section 2." (They sing "Where's the party at, Peaches and Cream? It's been a while," "...hanging by a moment," and "Turn off the light, like a hero living it up.")

Then there's "Apache Energy Plan," which sounds like it could actually be left over from recording the album that had "AEP1," "AEP2," and "Energy Plan."

Altogether, it's more a "piece in the HHX puzzle" (or a weird EP) than a full-fledged "new album." I do wish the songs were fleshed out more (I have a feeling they did a lot of jamming in that room with the clothesline and the video camera), but as a treat for the tail end of the year of the mighty "All Night Fox" -- I'll take it!

i wasn't sure about All-Night Fox at first, but now i really love it. and the LPs have some amazing tracks on them.

YCBT, however, has some stuff on the CD which i doubt will ever grow on me -- i can't imagine ever finding a reason to listen to "Meet Me at the Dance" or the title track, or even "Diamond Tank" despite it's refrain.
i fucking hate Theatre Fire btw and pretty much everyone on Drag City except NMH/Trux/Hex. hopefully he's not picking up any cues from the dire post-rock "quiet is the new loud" whitebread wankery that is polluting record stores across the nation.

i just hope the next HHX album isn't with Fiery Furnaces or some shit. not that i think it will be, but whatever.

How is that? (You could say "Sick & Old" is controversial for me, because it's the first NMH song I just plain don't like.)

Are the Theatre Fire a "known" band, locally (or otherwise)?

Seriously, though, a CD made up of most of the first record and the "normal" songs from the second two (I'm just guessing) would be aces.

Dig his new publicity photo - such a sensitive soul...

(xpost!!)

!

I've been listening to "YCBT" a lot more than I thought I would (a few tracks almost every night, right before bed). It's very comfortable and lulling, doesn't "demand" attention, and sounds good in the background... all of which actually make it different from most other NMH things.

JUST KIDDING. I have grown to like YCBT a lot more over the last month, but I still think his best thing from 2005 was his book. It's surprisingly great.

Special Offer, Friends: Donate $30 dollars thru the Amazon Honor System - accepts all major credit cards, fast, secure and refundable -
In thanks for your donation you will Receive
1 T-Shirt & 1 Copy of Japanese CD Pressing of either
All-Night Fox or NMH & the Howling Hex
After making your donation respond via email
with your choice of gifts and shipping info.

Most of the other songs are shortened a bit, and remixed (more bass, some other stuff going on). It makes for a good CD (though the audience for these things must be getting smaller each time; as this thread suggests at this point...).

...already on a golf shirt! "Throw a blazer over later for country club mingling..."

http://www.cafepress.com/howlinghex.62710521

...or just kick back in your bunker and watch the Cialis Western Open. On your deathbed, you'll receive total consciousness.

http://dragcity.com/press/pimages/pdf/dc320.pdf

"A golden hour of rock and roll"!

Y'know I'd dearly love to give some respect to NMH, really I would. But he's done fuck-all since Royal Trux collapsed, and you've gotta admit that their appeal was pretty narrow to begin with.

I'm rich, and I'm too cool
To bother working on my rock songs, baby, yeah...
So why don't you buy my records?
Like I give a shit or don't
'Cuz, baby, yeah

[mumble mumble Casio mumble]

And did I mention that I'm rich
And that I never bother shaving?
It's so free
John Coltrane never knew which way was up
And motherfuckers sleep til three

And, baby, yeah

"Right back 'atcha. Got a hacky sack and a lighter?"

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v623/rocknrolldetox/neilcouch.jpg

t(^_^t)

props

http://cover6.cduniverse.com/MuzeAudioArt/480/481836.jpg ihttp://www.dailynexus.com/story_images/2002-02-14/hagerty.jpg

props

Hard to believe that Drag City has put out a record even more boring than the Red Krayola's absolutely stunning piece of nothingness, the Blues, Hollers, and Hellos EP. You cannot call this record comically bad because it is not, in fact, funny (with the exception of two jokes: the phase shifter at the beginning of "Six Pack Days" and that same song's refrain).

In short, I am stunned by this record's stunning statement of nothingness.

(And may I add that trying to listen to Neil Michael Hagerty's guitar soloing on this is like listening to a more boring Greg Ginn or something. Dude is no James "Blood" Ulmer.)

For me, "All-Night Fox" is solid blocks of hard-packed hooks... Though I understand see how it might feel too tight and unvarying, "dull and constrictive," to you (if you were including that one in that category). It's definitely worlds away from "Plays That...," which was as loose as it gets.

I also think "You Can't Beat Tomorrow" has lots of mellow hooks, and it's pretty darn loose.

Back in the day, the Trux could really strike the perfect balance between Hagerty's wandering and Herrema's ability to craft a coherent, cohesive overall pop unity to that wandering. Then again, I will never sell any of these records, and I will keep returning to them over and over looking for the reasons why Hagerty made this music. I think he's worth the time and work.

Morris (and everybody) have you seen any of these recent gigs? What are your thoughts?

Also, I'd love to hear a Hagerty psych-country/soul record: wandering solos, stoned note bending 'n' noodling, acoustic flavors, a little musique concrete, and Dead/Eat a Peach-like grooves.

I haven't seen any of the recent gigs; I really wish I had the chance. (He hasn't come anywhere near L.A. for a long time now.) I did hear mixed things about them...

The last time I saw him play, he actually had another guy playing "lead" guitar, and NMH himself was sort of playing "backup"...

The first time I saw Trux play (out of three total), it was the tour after "Sweet Sixteen" came out, which was my first Trux record, and I LOVED it (still do)... so I was *totally psyched* for some awesome jams. And what ended up happening was, the two hairy guys on drums and keyboards were grooving along with big grins; Jennifer did her Jennifer thing; and Neil stood there, BARELY playing his guitar... rather than play any of the riffs or hooks, he just chopped a little rhythm; or started to play a few notes, then stopped... I was like, WHY IS THIS GUY TORTURING ME??

I think I later read in an interview that they were in a particularly bad mood that night... something happened to someone in their touring crew, and/or they were having conflicts with the record label, etc.

Anyway, the point is that he can definitely make a point of avoiding "giving the people what they want" onstage, whatever his motivation.

I once drove down to San Diego to see him play, and it turned out to be an all-acoustic show, which was all right, but not the FIX I needed... then, the next night in L.A., I saw Dan Brown and Tim Barnes milling around before the show, and I was like, OH YESSS, IT'S ONNNN...

Well it sounds like you get 'em for free, so what's up?

Morris, I totally agree. You and I have very similar experiences and takes on it (especially when you want him to do more than he's doing on the axe). Yeah, Hag has gotta know that folks want that record that I want, and he probably believes that some psychedelic roots rock affair would be just too easy to produce. (That's why we have iPods now; I can simply make that record!) In this sense, he's probably the closest thing we got to that other Neil.

Today I'm going to jam the new one, one of the "funk" records, one of the out there limited jams, and end it with Thank You. Then again, maybe I'll pull the vaporizor out tonight and listen to his solo debut on headphones, which, for me, is up there w/Peter Green's The End of the Game as one of the great dead-of-night guitar noodle jams.

x-post: Yes, I do Morris. You could look it up.

i am seriously like three albums behind :( I haven't picked up anything since Triangles...

As reported earlier, Hagerty does NOT (shocker!!) play lead guitar -- instead, he lays down a nimble low-end, while another dude lets loose with chunky power chords and clumsy, meandering solos. The songs are long and hypnotic, with funky incantations repeated over and over... It's by far the grooviest NMH record, the jammiest, and the most stoner-friendly... and, without wanting to jump the gun, maybe my favorite so far!

xpost to morris Totally agree. The baritone guitar kicks ass. Also, maybe you'll disagree, but I think this one has more in common with Sweet Sixteen (an underrated record if ever there was one) than anything he's done since. Definitely in the top 5 of 2006, but no surprise there. He's the man.

So satisfying I didn't bother to stick around for Smog. (Not that I wanted to; I went expressly to see the Howling Hex.)

To compare Hagerty to Gregg Ginn is so off the mark, it's just laughable. Hagerty never wanks and never has. Plus, he's continuously developed and adapted his approach, something I don't think Ginn has ever really done. Or Ginn stopped dead somewhere around the mid-80s.

Hagerty's best work has definitely been post-Royal Trux (much as I loved them).

Howling Hex duo set opened with a new version of "If You Can't Tell the Difference, Why Pay Less?" (completely new music, same lyrics) and ended with a spellbinding "Hammer and Bluebird" from the forthcoming record. Everything inbetween I assume is from the new album.

No All Night Fox material was played.

And lots of people took note that Hagerty was wearing - yes - a wedding ring. Something new for him. Make of that what you may.

Uh, he got married?

The wide net of The Howling Hex sound this time around shows the influence of Wolf Parade, Fela and The White Stripes.

"Also: Danity Kane, Broken Social Scene, Fall Out Boy, and uhhh... will someone other than the same 35 cultists please buy some Howling Hex CDs!"

Neil played all the 'hits' - "If You Can't Tell the Difference, Why Pay Less?," "Sick and Old," "Know That"...totally non stop dance party at the awesome but usually gloomy Pilot Light.

Chatted with the backup band early on in the night (Neil wasn't at soundcheck), and they detailed the previous night's gig, their first ever with Neil - no discussion, no rehearsal, not even a "this one is in E" - Hag just told the drummer to "count it off" and they went for it. Now, a dude has to be pretty confident in his abilities to pick up a band on tour and just allow his God-given talents to transcend such a potential fiasco, but I'll be fucked if he didn't totally slay. The clean-cut Hag totally looks like a straight Anthony Perkins, and was, typically, a man of few words onstage. But his guitar playing was as intense and masterful as always, natch.

And the band? Holy shit. Hard to steal the show from someone like Neil, but at various times during the set, all of these dudes did. Absolutely terrific drummer and bassist, working very intuitively (they've played together before), crazy dude on sax who totally and ably channeled Skies of America more than once, and another guy who's only job was to sing along and beat a tamborine (this guy brought a certain energy to the performance that really brought it home - despite reading some of the lyrics off a piece of paper, he was really into it and didn't stop banging the tamborine for nearly an hour).

I've seen the Hag a bunch, and was expecting a killer gig no matter what, but we still left absolutely awestruck. Pardon my over reliance on 'wow' words here, but shit, why the fuck wasn't this gig sold out???? Why aren't there lines around the block all over the country to see the Howling Hex?? I'd wait on 'em.

Btw, he posted the various lineups for this tour on his blog thingy:

The Howling Hex Instrumentation
Texas: Gtr/Vox + Drums
Tulsa-St. Louis: Baritone Gtr/Vox + Gtr/Vox
Nashville-New Haven:
Drums, Bass, Sax, Gtr/Vox, Style Toasting
Cleveland-Kansas City:
Drums, Baritone Gtr/Vox, Gtr/Vox

by: hhex65 @ Mon Sep 11, 2006 at 00:57:39 AM MDT

http://www.metropulse.com/articles/2006/16_36/music.shtml

Going next week, can't f'n wait...

I was a big RT fan in the "Twin Infinitives" through "Thank You" period. I lost track after that. And that's my pathetic fault.

Now I'm slowly accumlating the later RT releases and delving into the NMH/Howling Hex stuff, and it is melting my goddamn brain.

"Plays That Good Old Rock And Roll" is so amazing.

There's absolutely nothing in the world I'd rather hear than NMH play the guitar.

Me neither!!

Any other tour reports? (I had a dream that it was announced the Hex won't actually be playing at Arthur Nights; instead, it'll be a "personal appearance," with Hagerty tending bar and tersely answering questions. Bummer!)

Yeah maybe if they don't mind there not being any songs of note.

1. Lost all sense of evolutionary inspiration, which was massive from the first album through Thank You
2. Made incomprhensible statements about their artistic intentions, as with the wtf supposed "'60s/'70s/'80s trilogy of albums"
3. Impossible to tell the extent to which they were TRYING TO BE BAD ON PURPOSE as, I guess, a *postmodern rock and roll gesture* (i.e., "the rock and roller turns into a hack at some point")
4. NO IDEA what the hell his recent output is supposed to be

I did and then I turned it off.

you. will. not. get. my. goat!

Tim Ellison in a nutshell. Music that he professes not to understand, yet that *still* doesn't prevent him from running his pompous fucking mouth.

Tim sure is hung up on the notion of "artistic intention". Why is that?

YOU are the one who seems to have an issue with incomprehensible statements about ... artistic intentions. That is what you wrote, is it not? So it's *your* BS, not mine. You've been called on this twice, and you've weaseled out of responding -- twice.

Yes, Hot Hot Heat. People do express opinions on here.

Would you say this philistine kneejerk formula is your entire basis for criticism?

There's no formula involved in deciding whether you think something is junk or not. And no to your question, obviously. Don't ask me any more dumb rhetorical questions please, if you don't mind.

YOU are the one who seems to have an issue with incomprehensible statements about ... artistic intentions. That is what you wrote, is it not?

An issue? No, not particularly; I've never noticed that I have this issue, in particular, before.

So it's *your* BS, not mine. You've been called on this twice, and you've weaseled out of responding -- twice.

Called on what? You don't make sense or argue clearly. Plus, you're hostile.

Now please feel free to continue making a fucking fool of yourself.

Shakey Mo Collier, the Audiobot, your impression is incorrect. I don't expect nuttin'. I have always been curious about Hagerty's intent, however. In the early days, he characterized the Royal Trux project as being grotesque rock music satire. The concept behind the first Royal Trux record I did not like, Sweet Sixteen, was described by Hagerty as: "Take every bad idea that rock's ever produced, put it all into songs and then use a contemporary rock producer from 1996 to mix it in a complete middle-of-the-road rock way."

Given this history and the strange nothingness of his current music - which I am certainly not the only one to comment upon - it certianly seems natural to me to wonder about his intent.

i think, at least with all-night fox, he's going for a spector girl-group/trux combo and it works fantastically.

PERSONALLY, I do wish the new album had a little more variety in the tone and arrangement. The songs are catchy, if a little long, but after four or five, my ears get tired of the same three instrument sounds and the same trio vocal chanting. Of course, I can't wait to see what they do next, and I'm regretting having to skip the Chicago show they did last week.

Interesting... did he say this in a recent interview someplace?

http://www.junkmedia.org/index.php?i=1873

Haha, yeah hstencil, that clears it up in typical Hagerty fashion.

x-post: certainly have not made remarks, allegedly of a "snide" character or otherwise, every time people express enthusiasm. i am interested in neil hagerty, being a former fan.

I honestly can't read this as anything other than a PeeWee Herman-style "I meant to do that" joke. I always take artists' rationalizations of their own work to be contrived and self-serving, there's a natural tendency to dishonesty and misdirection there, for a number of reasons.

man his blog is so great

"I also got stabbed in the palm with a knife (thanks, dear) but the scar healed pretty good."

I have no Howling Hex records. Which should I start with?

Neil Michael Hagerty & The Howling Hex is my fave
http://csakbennhajogerendazatto.freeblog.hu/files/2010/11/largle.jpg

it's maybe the most traditional classic rock sounding one?

^^^amazing record

I would say don't start with Earth Junk lol

http://blog.wfmu.org/freeform/2011/10/earth-junk-a-conversation-with-neil-hagerty.html

aw that's a great interview. there's another with him on the BOMB website at the mo, too. psyched for a new hex record in december! imma check out his carnival music recs

woah!, this is so deeply otm: https://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=108525182507900, internet giving me comfort
via this http://monsterfresh.com/2011/09/04/neil-michael-hagerty-howling-hex-interview/

New album in December? Do tell!

in that last interview, @monsterfresh, which is rad & is conducted by a total fan, he i think is talking about it in the conditional tense but says it's no drums, a similar set-up to earth junk. still no listing on DC.