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2009 Clippings

If any of this sounds a bit over the top, bear in mind that HUMANWINE could've hopped onto one of the bigger indie labels and become an overnight bohemian sensation, Gogol Bordello style. But they didn't. Unlike the many, many bands who lash out against corporate art, HUMANWINE aren't hypocrites.Boston, Providence & Portland Phoenix Feature June 24, 2009

Mass Exodus ep

With a previous EP ("Rivolta Silenziosa") the US wandering HUMANWINE introduced us full-on to their narrative world of Vinland. They matched the metaphor-as-politics (and vice versa) stories with a gutter-circus-folk sound style that was a stunning marriage of simplicity and subtlety. It's sepiachord required listening.

On their full-length follow up, "Fighting Naked", the band continued to explore their Vinlandish themes but the music had more of a "rock" feel. The end result was good, but the band seemed a little uncomfortable in their new skin.

The new EP ("Mass Exodus") finds the band returning to a three song format and returning to more pared down arrangements. The results are arresting.

Of the three pieces found on this CD the last, "Our Devolution is Televised", best continues the work that Vinland fans love. It's political (of course) and features an infectious circus bounce. It could easily have been slipped in as the fourth track on "Rivolta Silenziosa" and held its own against the great songs found there.

The opening piece on this new EP is also overtly political: "1st Amendment". Its "be the media" messsage might come across as a nuts-and-bolts politcal screed... were it not so spare and, well, pretty. It builds and flows nicely showing off the performers individual strengths especially Holly Brewer's remarkable voice. Its a perfect appetizer for the middle piece: "Megan Rose".

"Megan Rose" seems to pre-date the existence of HUMANWINE as a band and features Holly alone, just her voice and a piano. When the song starts you'd be forgiven for thinking that this is merely a ballad of friendship to the title character. It *IS* that, but takes stomach-wrenching turns that are all the more powerful because you don't see them coming. This is the key to tragedy: you don't see it coming. "Megan Rose" is a beautiful, seductive PUNCH IN THE GUT that will make you cough up a bit of blood and still make you want to play it over and over... even if, like me, you found yourself on the verge of tears the first time you heard it. This really is one of those songs that descriptions fail for, you have to sit down and listen to it. And you should.

HUMANWINE's DIY aesthetic has never been more clear in their sound ~and~ in the EP's visual presentation. Not only does the look and feel of the packaging clearly place the band in the line of descent from seminal grass-roots political rollickers Crass but HUMANWINE does something other bands never seem to do: give credit where it's due!

Lots of politically charged punk bands have aped the art of Crass, but this is the first time I can think of where credit for inspiration is given to the artist responsible for this distinctive look: Gee Vaucher. Kudos.

Recommended.
-Sepiachord

Pirate Cat Radio
HUMANWINE / Fighting Naked / Nervous Relatives Records
HUMANWINE is one of those bands that is hard to pin down in terms of genre - while punk in their ethos, they tread a line of gypsy klezmer operatic circus rock. All the songs are forceful and raw, but are smoothed out with strong but melodic female vocals. All vocals focus on a political stance or a social issue (usually fighting for the proletariat everyman). I can see these guys playing at a collective of bike kids in Philly just as easily as opening for Gogol Bordello.

Tracks:
1. UnEntitled States of Hysteria
2. Big Brother (reminds me of a female Jello Biafra here)
11. When In Rome (slower and prettier)

For Fans of: Gogol Bordello, Cabaret Voltaire, Devotchka

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2008 Clippings
The Pitch
"HUMANWINE's songs are often a grotesque take on proletariat life. But so enchanting is lead singer Holly Brewer that lyrics such as, "Will this dust ever settle/Even better now the sky is bent/I've got a stomach full of finger-nails/And another's femur on my head" will propel listeners into believing they're hearing a vaudeville act." - Andrea Noble

Boston Phoenix
Have gunk will travel
Being at home on the road is one way to cut costs — if a drastic measure — but HUMANWINE seem more interested in building than cutting. The goal for their next tour is to make week-long stops in select towns (“like the circus”), picking up and dropping off musicians along the way, continually establishing unique fan bases, mingling with collectives, letting their music change from show to show and doing so until the grease, or their energy, runs dry — though I’d put my money on the grease. If the daydream of touring at its most frivolous lately seems like it’s for everyone, the vision of touring at its most sustainable suggests that it most certainly is not.
READ ON

Northeast Performer
In the same way that HUMANWINE constructed the ethereal Vinland, they have managed to create their own world within the conventional sense of reality and the rules have been written. The traditional ways of addressing issues in songs and playing shows have been supplanted by a new methodology. The old ways have been cast aside in favor of widespread collaboration, stylistic crossbreeding, audience involvement, and an undying commitment to controlling what they put out and let in. Once you cross that threshold and are under the big top, enjoy the show. [read on]
-T. Blake Littwin

Boston Phoenix
BEST FEMALE VOCALIST: Holly Brewer
Even without Holly Brewer up front, HUMANWINE would be a pretty exotic band — mashing together heavy cabaret, arty pop, twisted circus music, and whatever else strikes their fancy. But it’s Brewer who draws you in, the singer who makes all the weirdness inviting. Offstage, Holly Brewer is a friendly force of nature, prone to expounding on the political backstory in HUMANWINE’s songs. But her intensity darkens onstage, where her piercing stare and facial tattoos seem well-matched to the deep, foreboding tone of her voice....Although she doesn’t work much outside the band (which she co-leads with guitarist M@ McNiss), she appeared this year and last at Shaun Wolf Wortis and Suzi Lee’s annual Mardi Gras show at T.T. the Bear’s Place, where she did the most chilling cover of the traditional “St. James Infirmary” I’ve ever heard.
— Brett Milano

Boston Herald
"To stand out in the ultracompetitive Boston music scene, a band must bring something extraordinary to the table or have a good gimmick. At a glance, HUMANWINE is an act that manages both. But scratch the surface and the gimmick reveals itself as a philosophy that encompasses music, art, politics and life itself."

2007 Clippings
401 Media
"Holly Brewer is that rare hard music female singer that actually sings well and shows her pipes and range on this disc along with the ability to howl with the best of them when needed. They fill a void in music and I think can be appreciated by lovers of all types of music.
So far this year, this is the best, most complete CD I have heard. Each song seems to have earned its exact place on the CD. There are no throwaway filler songs. Even the pirate inspired "Dim Allentown Cove (Part 1)" is catchy and will have you singing along even when you don't want to.
The standout track on this record is "Rivolta Silenziosa" M@'s menacing vocals dual with Holly's vocals and you can't help but feel you are in the middle of some weird old world fairytale and that is what make these songs great, because they certainly have political undertones, but you certainly can listen to them and just have fun.
Punk rock types could learn something from the uncategorizable HUMANWINE who take influences from all over the place and put them together to create their own new sound."

Bostonist
"It started with comic books flying from the stage. Some people need eBay or Craigslist or a recycle bin to offload their Arion: Lord of Atlantis collection; HUMANWINE 's Holly Brewer needs an audience. Friday night's crowd at the Paradise had come to celebrate the release of the first HUMANWINE album, Fighting Naked, and to catch airborne back issues. When M@ McNiss and the rest of HUMANWINE appeared, they launched into "Big Brother," a defiant rant that's both paranoid and mocking of paranoia: Let him watch! Placed on a continuum of political art with, say, Get Your War On on the accessible, affable end, HUMANWINE would be somewhere past the middle, but not quite at the other extreme, with the giant puppet heads and the poetry published in MIM Notes. Brewer, McNiss, & co. are, after all, artsily protesting the post-apocalyptic woes of an alternate universe America-shaped country called Vinland. It's a place of ruins and fascism, or so we gather."

Boston Music Spotlight
"In just a short time on the local scene, HUMANWINE’s message has been well received by a growing fan-base that is much more like a small family. Just like McNiss and Brewer, their fans are thoughtful and reflective on problems in today’s society. Although their music isn’t the most customary, they’ve found people really respect and appreciate the gap they seemed to have filled in the music business these days." - Erin Kelly

Boston Globe
"In lesser hands, giving one’s band an all-caps moniker might be considered empty hubris, but Boston’s HUMANWINE makes musical statements just as brazen and bold. The cracked cabaret stylings and elaborately weird performances staged by co-founders Holly Brewer and M@ McNiss have garnered the band three Boston Music Award nominations (outstanding new act, outstanding lead female vocalist, outstanding local punk band) and a slew of gushing publicity. HUMANWINE also took ‘‘BEST NEW ACT’’ honors in the WFNX/Boston Phoenix Best Music Poll this year."

Northeast Performer
"Each HUMANWINE song is conceived as a mini movie soundtrack involving actors, color schemes and a plot filled with antagonists, protagonists, conflicts, resolutions that take place in the fictional ‘Vinland’. Like any good surrealism, it is the realism that packs the artful punch, and the emotional content of HUMANWINE‘s songs are as real, powerful and accessible as their very human composers."- Sonja Tordorovich"

RFT
"The sign of a good storyteller is the ability to lift listeners out of their own lives and transport them to a new realm."

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