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The Handsome Family

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Bottomless Hole
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Bottomless Hole
Album: Singing Bones
Released: Oct 28, 2006
Label:

General Info

  • Genre: Country / Folk / Gothic

    Location ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico, US

    Profile Views: 392706

    Last Login: 6/13/2011

    Member Since 10/14/2004

    Website www.handsomefamily.com

    Record Label CarrotTop, Loose, Independent, Spunk, Mint

    Type of Label Indie

  • Bio

    CLICK THIS ITUNES LINK TO DOWNLOAD OR SAMPLE OVER ONE HUNDRED OF OUR SONGS..... .. .... .... ................................ .. ..The Handsome Family...... .. .. .. .. ......Add to My Profile.. | .. More Videos.. .. .. Words that in their everyday surrealism have no parallel in contemporary writing...Music that mines the deep veins of fatalism in the Appalachian voice — GREIL MARCUS .. .. As songwriters it's the eerie, ancestral voice of ‘Anonymous’ they ultimately resemble the most —THE CHICAGO READER .. .. This is music that moves forward by turning the clock back— haunting, primal and strangely heroic —THE LONDON TIMES .. .. Dark, elemental, mischievous and mournful —MOJO .. .. CHICAGO (January 26, 2009) - Taking place under bowed branches and deep within winding corn mazes, The Handsome Family releases "Honey Moon" through Carrot Top Records on April 14, 2009. Their eighth studio release, it celebrates the duo's twentieth year of marriage with a series of love songs that sharply contrast the dark themes of their previous seven releases. .... Full of an awed sense of emotion in the face of nature's mysteries, Brett Sparks (music) and Rennie Sparks (lyrics) branch from their usual canon of the dark and mysterious on "Honey Moon", to establish a theme rooted in the tradition of 19th century romanticism. For the first time there is no body count. Not one person dies. There is only one song about a lost love. It is an album of transcendence, of touching the divine, if only for a moment, through our love of someone else, even if he is a katydid. .... Rennie says of the pivotal point that influenced her writing on Honey Moon, "We were driving over some mountains in New Zealand listening to The Platters singing, "Twilight Time," and I could actually feel that gorgeous song healing little wounds all through my body. Life felt almost unbearably bittersweet after the song ended and I felt I had no choice except to sit down and try to write my way back into that mysterious palace where 'heavenly shades of night are falling." .... Fans of vocal groups like the Mills Brothers, The Inkspots, and the Platters for many years, Brett and Rennie's 'song' as a young couple was, "My Prayer." The Sparks' also have a profound love for the beautiful songs of great American songwriters like Berlin, Gershwin, and Porter who treat the subject of love with grace and transcendence. Theirs are songs of human beings making contact with the numinous. Their melodies and words are the finest examples of songwriting-- mysterious and sublime. .... The prospect of composing an album of love songs and avoiding triteness is fraught with peril. Brett explains, "Since we decided that all the songs would address the same theme (love), I decided that musically each one should be distinct to avoid the pitfalls of other records of this ilk. Each song should be its own world, have its own style. So it's a record of 12 self-contained entities. There are tin-pan alley songs, country songs, r & b songs, a bluegrass song, pop songs, jazz songs, and even rock ballads. This Record represents a concerted attempt to flex all of our songwriting muscles. Honey Moon is more musically and technically complex than anything I have ever done. I fell in love with the studio anew." .... Recording all their songs in a converted garage studio at the back of their Albuquerque house, "Honey Moon," is a headphone record with layer upon layer of cool weird treasures waiting to be discovered with successive listens. The twosome's seventh CD, "Last Days of Wonder" (June 2006), was one of Mojo's Top Ten American Albums for 2006 and was called "an unqualified triumph" by Uncut. Their songs have been covered by many artists, most notably: Andrew Bird, Christy Moore, The Sadies, Sally Timms and Cerys Matthews. .... They have appeared in the movie, I’m Your Man (2005), a tribute to Leonard Cohen as well as Searching for the Wrong-Eyed Jesus (2004). In 2004, a reader's poll in Mojo named The Handsome Family's third CD, "Through the Trees" one of the ten essential Americana records. Andrew Bird's version of their song, "Don't Be Scared" was recently featured in the movie, The Promotion. .... The Handsome Family record all their songs in a converted garage studio at the back of their Albuquerque house. In their live performances they are sometimes up to a six-piece band and sometimes just Brett and Rennie. They have toured extensively throughout the USA, Canada, Europe, Australia and New Zealand. .... Green Light Go Publicity.. National: Janelle Rogers.. Jrogers@greenlightgopublicity.com.. .... Tour: Heather Wisniewski.. Heather@greenlightgopublicity.com.. ..

  • Members

    Husband and wife duo Brett and Rennie Sparks. Brett Sparks: Vox, music, guitars. Rennie Sparks: Words, vox, bass, melodica. Sometimes, brother Darrell Sparks: Drums, vox and super special guests: Stephen Dorocke, David Coulter, Jason Toth, Eric Johnson, Dave Gutierrez .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. ..

  • Influences

    Gentleman Jim Reeves, Hank Williams, Cole Porter, John Cage, Howe Gelb, noises in basements, John Coltrane, strangers at crossroads, abandoned graveyards, George Jones, stray dogs, hissing cats, Lithium Carbonate (1800mg daily), old men in windbreakers, old ladies in polyester turbans, the clenched fists of small children, Harry Smith and his ilk

  • Sounds Like

    A little bit creepy and a little bit country..... DOWNLOAD OR PREVIEW TONS OF OUR SONGS THROUGH THIS ITUNES LINK.. .. .... ....

Videos

My Friend

05:04 | 888 plays | Feb 27 2009

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Bio:

CLICK THIS ITUNES LINK TO DOWNLOAD OR SAMPLE OVER ONE HUNDRED OF OUR SONGS...
The Handsome Family..
....

The Handsome Family

Add to My Profile | More Videos

Words that in their everyday surrealism have no parallel in contemporary writing...Music that mines the deep veins of fatalism in the Appalachian voice — GREIL MARCUS

As songwriters it's the eerie, ancestral voice of ‘Anonymous’ they ultimately resemble the most —THE CHICAGO READER

This is music that moves forward by turning the clock back— haunting, primal and strangely heroic —THE LONDON TIMES

Dark, elemental, mischievous and mournful —MOJO

CHICAGO (January 26, 2009) - Taking place under bowed branches and deep within winding corn mazes, The Handsome Family releases "Honey Moon" through Carrot Top Records on April 14, 2009. Their eighth studio release, it celebrates the duo's twentieth year of marriage with a series of love songs that sharply contrast the dark themes of their previous seven releases.

Full of an awed sense of emotion in the face of nature's mysteries, Brett Sparks (music) and Rennie Sparks (lyrics) branch from their usual canon of the dark and mysterious on "Honey Moon", to establish a theme rooted in the tradition of 19th century romanticism. For the first time there is no body count. Not one person dies. There is only one song about a lost love. It is an album of transcendence, of touching the divine, if only for a moment, through our love of someone else, even if he is a katydid.

Rennie says of the pivotal point that influenced her writing on Honey Moon, "We were driving over some mountains in New Zealand listening to The Platters singing, "Twilight Time," and I could actually feel that gorgeous song healing little wounds all through my body. Life felt almost unbearably bittersweet after the song ended and I felt I had no choice except to sit down and try to write my way back into that mysterious palace where 'heavenly shades of night are falling."

Fans of vocal groups like the Mills Brothers, The Inkspots, and the Platters for many years, Brett and Rennie's 'song' as a young couple was, "My Prayer." The Sparks' also have a profound love for the beautiful songs of great American songwriters like Berlin, Gershwin, and Porter who treat the subject of love with grace and transcendence. Theirs are songs of human beings making contact with the numinous. Their melodies and words are the finest examples of songwriting-- mysterious and sublime.

The prospect of composing an album of love songs and avoiding triteness is fraught with peril. Brett explains, "Since we decided that all the songs would address the same theme (love), I decided that musically each one should be distinct to avoid the pitfalls of other records of this ilk. Each song should be its own world, have its own style. So it's a record of 12 self-contained entities. There are tin-pan alley songs, country songs, r & b songs, a bluegrass song, pop songs, jazz songs, and even rock ballads. This Record represents a concerted attempt to flex all of our songwriting muscles. Honey Moon is more musically and technically complex than anything I have ever done. I fell in love with the studio anew."

Recording all their songs in a converted garage studio at the back of their Albuquerque house, "Honey Moon," is a headphone record with layer upon layer of cool weird treasures waiting to be discovered with successive listens. The twosome's seventh CD, "Last Days of Wonder" (June 2006), was one of Mojo's Top Ten American Albums for 2006 and was called "an unqualified triumph" by Uncut. Their songs have been covered by many artists, most notably: Andrew Bird, Christy Moore, The Sadies, Sally Timms and Cerys Matthews.

They have appeared in the movie, I’m Your Man (2005), a tribute to Leonard Cohen as well as Searching for the Wrong-Eyed Jesus (2004). In 2004, a reader's poll in Mojo named The Handsome Family's third CD, "Through the Trees" one of the ten essential Americana records. Andrew Bird's version of their song, "Don't Be Scared" was recently featured in the movie, The Promotion.

The Handsome Family record all their songs in a converted garage studio at the back of their Albuquerque house. In their live performances they are sometimes up to a six-piece band and sometimes just Brett and Rennie. They have toured extensively throughout the USA, Canada, Europe, Australia and New Zealand.

Green Light Go Publicity
National: Janelle Rogers
Jrogers@greenlightgopublicity.com


Tour: Heather Wisniewski
Heather@greenlightgopublicity.com
..

Member Since:

October 14, 2004

Members:

Husband and wife duo Brett and Rennie Sparks. Brett Sparks: Vox, music, guitars. Rennie Sparks: Words, vox, bass, melodica. Sometimes, brother Darrell Sparks: Drums, vox and super special guests: Stephen Dorocke, David Coulter, Jason Toth, Eric Johnson, Dave Gutierrez

Influences:

Gentleman Jim Reeves, Hank Williams, Cole Porter, John Cage, Howe Gelb, noises in basements, John Coltrane, strangers at crossroads, abandoned graveyards, George Jones, stray dogs, hissing cats, Lithium Carbonate (1800mg daily), old men in windbreakers, old ladies in polyester turbans, the clenched fists of small children, Harry Smith and his ilk

Sounds Like:

A little bit creepy and a little bit country.

DOWNLOAD OR PREVIEW TONS OF OUR SONGS THROUGH THIS ITUNES LINK
The Handsome Family..

Record Label:

CarrotTop, Loose, Independent, Spunk, Mint, Bertus

Label Type:

Indie

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