New Zach Hill Video - "Hindsight Is Nowhere"
Zach Hill plays drums in Hella, opposite Mick Barr (who's new metal band Krallice is great, by the way) on Shred Earthship and Volume 2, with Marilyn Manson's Twiggy Ramirez in Goon Moon, and behind Marnie Stern, etc. On his first solo record The Astrological Straits he does what many folks in bands do on solo records: He assembles a cast of friends and cohorts to guest, making it not so solo. To give you an idea, Astrological includes Les Claypool, the Deftones' Chino Moreno, !!!/LCD Soundsystem's Tyler Pope, both No Age guys, Stern, the Flying Luttenbacher's Jonathon Hicshke, the Advantage's Robbie Moncrief, some of the other Hella guys, etc. Sonically, it's warped, busy, rollicking, highly enjoyable. The collection's first video is for "Hindsight Is Nowhere," a pretty representative track that features Hill on drums/vocals/keys, Pope on programming/effects, and Hella's Carson McWhirter on bass. The video involves Play-Doh, a space helmet, cellphone and money eating, and quit cuts and kaleidoscopic effects. There's also a suggestive cactus.
For old time's sake: I once gave Hella a bad review in SPIN and they responded by turning said review into their tour shirt. I stand by the review (that album was not very good), but I also stand by Astrological Straits (this album is pretty awesome).
Astrological Straits is out 8/12 on Ipecac. There'll also be a vinyl version via anticon.
Posted at 11:02 AM by brandon in Video
Tags: Hella | LCD Soundsystem | Tyler Pope | Zach Hill
Didn't you say in your review of Nervous Cop's album that you weren't a fan of his? Why the sudden change of heart, Stosuy?
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Wow, good memory -- I wrote that Nervous Cop review in 2003! I was lukewarm/ho-hum on that album back then and have barely (if ever?) listened to it since. I just looked back at the review -- I said the record was "more interesting than Hella, less compelling than Deerhoof." (These days I don't find Deerhoof compelling AT ALL, but that's a different story.) As mentioned above, I also didn't like the last Hella album. I dig this record, though. It feels freer, is more fucked-up, has so much going on. It's good. I also like Hill's work with Barr. (I sorta like anything Barr does, to varying degrees.) Anyhow, this is my favorite of Hill's recordings to date.
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Whoa! Deerhoof are as good as ever. -81 for you.
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it's Mick Barr, not Mike Barr
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Haha. Typo. Fixed.
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Zach already released a CDs of completely solo material, as in all by himself. Church Gone Wild (as a 2 CD Hella album, with Spencer's solo debut as the 2nd disc) but you probably already knew that.
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True. This is by itself and not under the Hella umbrella, so to me it feels like the first true solo album, but you are indeed correct.
I will now stop commenting on this post.
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I have to say that Zach Hill is probably the best drummer around these days, minus of course chippendale and saunier( and other's) , HIll's got the chops of a god. I never understood why hella insisted on having vocals, shit's weird.
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