The Early Years (1993 - 1995)
Alexis Hall, Mayo Thompson, 7" released, etc...
... to be cont'd
The Later Years (1995 - 2000)
Going it without a lead singer, Full length CD release... and breakup!
... to be cont'd
The Reviews
THE AUSTIN CHRONICLE:
HELLO I'M A TRUCK - S/T (Framed!)
If the Beach Boys provided the soundtrack for endless summers of hopeful romanticism, Hello I'm a Truck fits the bill for endless summers of ironic detachment. Like all that is good and bad about Southern California, this Silver Lake-bred quartet revels in the yin-yang of jaded observations and goofball witticisms. Their New Wave landscape of synthetic squawks and bleeps provides the perfect setting for "End of the Summer", a slightly melancholy tale about a suburban teen suicide pact that's nonetheless great driving music. "Ultrasonic Cotton Candy" goes even further by undressing The Hook all the way down to its adrenal core. The song pounds the perfectly obvious keyboard combination deep into your drums with all the frazzled energy of a poodle that never stops yapping. Later on, the band plots a South American coup d'rock in "Airwave Paraguay", only to succumb to the sugar rush infatuation of "Double Love Chew." You could get away with describing Hello I'm a Truck as Cars proteges with a better sense of humor, but the novelty of the New Wave aesthetic is a mere accouterment to their clever songcraft. Get this one while the sun's still warm.
4 Stars -- Greg Beets
MOD MAGAZINE 4:
HELLO I'M A TRUCK - S/T (Framed!)
Every so often a band falls in my lap that though I don't get 'em, the fact that their music baffles me keeps me listening. Pere Ubu used to perplex me. I was never quite sure if I liked 'em or not. Hello I'm a Truck pull the 80s L.A. new wave carpet out from underneath the unsuspecting indie rock kids while sneering at their tight t-shirt frail shells. The Pro-Keds equipped dancing feet move Levis thrift shop corduroy legs in a white-man-no-rhythm dance that rival Cyndi Lauper's charm. Funky neo-country skewed pop songs swagger and swing like the record collection of a Rodney on the ROQ record shopper in '82-'83. Very LA chic.
Keith York
SPLENDID EZINE:
HELLO I'M A TRUCK - S/T (Framed!)
There's Pop, and then there's Intelligent Pop. The former is clogging alt-rock radio waves with its anonymous, upbeat frippery; the latter -- identified by clever turns of musical and lyrical phrase and a tendency not to sound exactly like everyone else -- is practiced by, among others, Robyn Hitchcock, They Might Be Giants, XTC and now Hello I'm A Truck. But before I'm misconstrued, understand that Hello I'm A Truck have very little in common with the others on that list; they've just got a distinctive sound. Take, for example, "Long and Slender Too" -- a groovy little concoction of strummed ukelele, whining keyboards and staccato vocals (imagine Wire's fragmented tone poetry as delivered by Devo) that keeps you listening and muttering along but never needs to brainwash you into buying Mountain Dew. Likewise, the tryst-that-never-happened anthem "Girl Layin' With a Headache" combines a relaxed, poolside-style guitar with some subtle synth under-melodies, building to a guitar-chop intensive confrontation and some gurgly keyboard gargling. "My Uncle's Boat" combines the raw punk-guitar urgency of Pere Ubu with that whole "bring the song to a slow, complete stop with a trailing-off vocal, then start again full-on" thing that the Pixies did so well. Mind you, the band-names I'm dropping here aren't sound-alike hints so much as measures of quality -- while Hello I'm A Truck make use of elements you've enjoyed in other bands, their sound is their own. And trust me, you're going to like it.
[Review by George "wow, I got through the whole review without saying 'Hello I'm A Truck' will run you down' or anything dumb like that" Zahora]
GIANT ROBOT (No. 11, Summer 1998)
HELLO I'M A TRUCK - S/T (Framed!)
With spacey vocals, prog-rock keyboards, and quirky guitars (and uke), this band's sound is futuristic and arty, but not pretentious. More like Devo than Gary Numan, they rock with tons of hooks to grab onto, but nothing that sounds like anything you've heard before. Song titles like "Ultrasonic Cotton Candy", "Airwave Paraguay", and "Double Love Chew" exemplify the rhyming-but-weird sensibilites of this almost-Silverlake (but better) band. [Framed Records, PO Box 49961, Austin, TX 78765]
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