The holloys is the hallucinatory brain-child of Los Angeles visual artist Jim Brown, crafting intricate and cosmic dance pop adventures.  A five piece – double drum, double bass, trumpet, guitar & synth – dance band. Amidst the funkiness is the philosophy that they are channeling their songs from an alternate dimension called Lake Land. Some peyote traditions were involved in the revelation. The band’s ranks have been filled with former members of Mars Volta, The Breeders, and At The Drive In. Last fall they played at the invitation only festival, All Tomorrow’s Parties, released a cosmically funky album called Art Wars—you could say sounds like Phil Collins leading the Talking Heads—and have a new split 7-inch with Dengue Fever.

“…A singular vision propelled by the type of creators that defy convention yet immediately engage with a catchy musicality all their own. Think of Sun Ra’s ‘cosmic’ philosophies and the many permutations of his band that touched on genres ranging from ragtime to the psychedelic, which in turn helped to shape the far-out phonic funk of George Clinton and his otherworldly notions of what music could be. Operating at least on the periphery of this tradition, Jim Brown has created an alternate realm in which the holloys lay out a most pleasing invitational sound track for us to explore.” -THE RED ALERT

“The Holloys produce sound structures; similar to the way sand and wind, over thousands of years, can hack away at rocks and produce eerie and precise architectures.”  -L.A. RECORD

“I don’t ‘make’ the tree. I don’t make sunlight or water or earth. What happens is magic. I just do my best to help facilitate that. The same way a ritual makes a space for the Spirit to enter.” -Interview with THE ORGAN GRINDER

“So what we’re treated to is succinct, crafted to perfection pop songs, the likes of which fans of Foals, Battles and even Vampire Weekend will lap up.” -THE LIVERPOOL ECHO

“But make no mistake this is music with substance, full of a variety of cultural influences and sounds from prog to dance to trance to afro-pop.” -MUSIC MULE

“The red road has colored my eyes and all I do is an extension of my personal relationship with the mystery power. My art and music is the way I recreate that relationship in a way that I can share its energy.” -Interview with NATIVE AMERICAN INDIGENOUS CINEMA AND ARTS

The band’s former bands:

Jim Brown (Blue Bird, Idaho, Jackie O-Motherfucker, John Frusciate w/ Joe Lally,
The Red Krayola, Glenn Branca)
; Bryan Lee Brown (Blue Bird, Dick Dale, Dave Grohl, Louie Bellson)
; Jon Theodore (The Mars Volta, Golden, One Day as A Lion, Will Oldham)
; Jose Medeles (The Breeders); 
Tony Hajjar (At The Drive In, Sparta); 
Jon Gonnelli (Rye Coalition, The Black Hollies)
; Alfrado Ortiz (The Beastie Boys, Morning Wood, Freska)
; Cliff Bryant (Isis, Red Sparrows)

He’s My Brother, She’s My Sister revives the magic of western swing. Folk and blues meets vaudeville glamour with a kick. Brother and sister Rob Kolar (of Lemon Sun) and Rachel Kolar split vocal duties, with Rob on guitar and banjo. Lauren Brown adds tap-dancing percussion upon her box. Pipe Ceballos stands at his floor toms and swings his hair wildly, reveling in rhythm. Finally, instead of a bass, we have Satya Bhabha on cello. This Los Angeles band’s mixture of colorful costumes, alleyway rhythms, and high energy makes the music come alive and crowds erupt in dancing.

LEMON SUN’S BIO, BY ROB KOLAR

A serene sandy coast. Men, women, and children scattered along the shore.  The burgundy-blue sky seems to bleed like water-color paint down to the horizon.  People gaze out over the ocean and their eyes catch a wondrous object in the sky.  A strange ball of flames inching closer from the heavens.  A massive orb heading towards us, bringing an eerie, yet hopeful sensation with its arrival.

When I woke from this dream all I was left with was the name Lemon Sun.  It seemed to describe what I had seen, or maybe it is the name the onlookers called the glowing sun.  The name stayed with me and inspired a lyric, which inspired a song, which in turn inspired this band.

Lemon Sun began as a recording project. Something to pass the time as I tried hopelessly to keep band after band together. Just an overpriced rehearsal space in the smelliest part of Los Angeles (Vernon, where the Farmer John meat factory resides) with some basic recording gear and a guitar. Every time we unlocked the door we ran inside to avoid the stench of rotting flesh and prayed that the metal band next door was not rehearsing so we could get a solid vocal take.

Once the recordings were done and thrown up on good ol’ Myspace, people caught word of the sound and rather quickly a band was formed.  Things happened quite fast.  An opportunity to play in front of 10,000 people at an arena with the ‘hot at the time’ Killers proved to propel us into a small but helpful spotlight.  We quickly established ourselves in the ever-evolving Echo Park/Silverlake music scene with a successful Echo residency.

Despite being embraced by many local bands and crowds, we always felt estranged from the somewhat exclusive and self-aware persona of the ‘east’ Los Angeles music scene. This is because at its heart Lemon Sun aims to write pop music.  Not in the vein of Lady Gaga, Justin Timberlake or most of the overproduced ‘tracks’ you here on the radio but rather to follow the footsteps of our heroes like The Beatles, David Bowie, T. Rex, Tom Petty, Supergrass, The Doors, and many others. We want our songs to convey something melodic, lyrical, and even spiritual within the context of a memorable hook and progression.  Lemon Sun continues to build its growing fanbase and as other bands seem to lose their ‘flavor of the month,’ Lemon Sun writes songs that live on.

Led by myself, Rob Kolar, along with a cast of revolving characters that have been in and out of the band for the last 5 years, the band continues to expand its sound, embracing folk, psychedelic, surf, and blues in our new songs. An emphasis on the ‘visual’ side of the band has grown with new music videos gaining a lot of attention and further expressing our ideas.

Lemon Sun’s current lineup includes the young and talented Patrick O’Connor on lead guitar and vocals. I spent several months sleeping on Patrick’s couch when I was homeless and helped teach him to play guitar. Felipe Ceballos is a Colombian drummer who I met in San Francisco and he used to play with popular SF band The Mayfire.  We met again at a downtown LA warehouse party, pretentiously called “The Love In.”   He was wearing an amazing general’s jacket and ascot scarf so I knew it was meant to be when he mentioned he was looking for a band.  Scott refuses to tell us his last name or age.  He’s a truly amazing bass player and veteran of the music scene.  Scott plays like he was an original member of a classic blue-eyed soul band. Newly acquired John Rogers I met by chance outside of Spaceland. He made me laugh trying to do a Russian accent. On a whim I asked him if he played keys and could sing.  He said yes.

Lemon Sun has plans for a Spaceland residency in October, 2010.  We have headlined many clubs in LA including The Troubadour, Spaceland, The Echo, and The Roxy. The band recently performed with Mexican rockstars Zoe, along with notable bands Cold War Kids, The Killers, Silversun Pickups, The Hotrats (Supergrass), Local Natives, The Growlers, and many others.

We are currently in the midst of recording new material for a forthcoming album.  The first release featuring our stellar new lineup. In the meantime, we’ve just put out a compilation called Preludes that features old crowd favorites and a  few new songs. Enjoy.

Someone once asked, “I wonder what kind of music the kids who experienced hurricane Katrina will be like?” and it made me think, if there was anyone in the late ’70s who ever wondered what the music of a post-Vietnam war orphan would be like – I am the only musician I know that can answer to that. If anyone ever wondered. – Michael Nhat

Michael Nhat’s life has been a whirlwind. He came to America hidden in a box on an airplane. The plane crashed and everyone except the children in cargo died, including his mother. He was sent back to an orphanage in Vietnam. Upon returning to the States, he learned the rap game with a rough crowd, but was able to distance himself from that once finding his home in Los Angeles. He volunteers at the Smell and is one of the most prolific and unassuming musicians ready to rise above ground.

Much like his music, Michael Nhat’s story is anything but conventional, yet he delivers it with the nonchalance of a milkman.

Nhat’s played almost every living room venue in Los Angeles. He’s the token rapper at the punk show. In his preppy clothes, he’s not so much the fish out of water as the guy you can expect the unexpected from. Although he raps, he sees himself as an experimental sound artist rather than a hip-hop dude. On his first full length album, Michael Nhat, we can begin to unravel the emotion, humor, the love lesson, the life quandaries, the enigma that rattles behind his thick glasses. Swimming To Cambodia, his follow up album on Annie Hall Records, will be released on August 31, and features a different vibe, more collaborations, and another window into this guy’s rattling mind.

…A diminutive twentysomething, dressed crisply in a black pullover and white button-down, sitting in a chair with his head slightly bowed. Newcomers probably don’t know what to expect, but Nhat fans can bank on a saucy, effervescent performance…Anywhere Michael Nhat plays is a party… (L.A. Record)

While a few of the songs on Michael Nhat are sample based, Nhat created most of the beats on a keyboard, and the various interludes were captured by himself and friends on a mini-recorder or extrapolated from voicemails. His collaborator in duo 1000 Apes In A Room, vowel wizard Kthei??? appears on two hidden tracks, “When Dracula Met The Wolfman,” and “Tongue Part 1″ – the only song not produced by Nhat himself. “Tongue Part 1″ features the handiwork of Japanese producer Timmo. Travisaurus appears on “Dirt” and Cardio Pulmonary collaborated on “Ponds and Lakes.” With sword-like finesse, Michael Nhat cuts depth with humor and abstract rhythm. The wide-open frontier introduces a new voice to experimental music.

Asked what he hopes people get out of his songs, Nhat says, without flinching, “I hope they get laid.”

Random Patterns writes experimental pop songs that swarm around textures, building walls of noise to decorate with psychedelic energy. Synths, horns, guitar, and samples navigate through progressions while strange, poetic lyrics absorb you into a parallel universe where gnomes might pick your pocket. The band resides in Los Angeles and co-run art/music collective Heard Of Elephants.

The spine and pulse of the band, drummer Dan Melancon channels Buddy Rich. Stationed beside him, Mickey Ilves indulges the keyboard’s high-end. On the other side of the room, Jay Watford plays the sampler like a scientist and Mike Allison adds warm synth rhythms, vocal harmonies, and some saxophone. Meanwhile, lead singer and guitarist Chris Frias evokes every genre of the 1950s at once, with reverb.

some press:
“…is that a glockenspiel? maybe; is that a sax? definitely…” – LA Weekly
“…hit the same part of my brain as half-forgotten, possibly made-up songs from the musical interludes on Sesame Street…” – LA Record
“…post-pop that has an inwardly psychedelic twist and doo-wop/folky quality…” – The Mixster
“…combines the funk and jazz fusion of the Budos Band with the ambient, dreamy melodies of Animal Collective…” – Evil Monito
“…blend jazz, synth-pop and psychedelia to create a multi-layered, deftly-arranged and genre/era-mixing sound…” – My Old Kentucky Music
“…really cool…” – Aquarium Drunkard

Amanda Jo Williams was born a little white girl in Georgia. She had a lot of outdoor fun, especially with her brother. She quit college very abruptly and moved to New York at 19 after attending a modeling convention in Columbus, Georgia. It was a rip-off but Amanda met an agent. He said, “Come to New York.” After a year on the runway, some lovers and things, Amanda and friends took a bus to Kingston and hitchhiked with a woman to Woodstock. They slept in the woods the first night and Amanda was scared. In town the next day they met a crazy Woodstock shaman. He took her to artist Paul McMahon’s house, the hippie hangout. Paul would teach her to play guitar when she was pregnant with his twins, Ginger & Hominy. Williams was about to enter nursing school when she came to Los Angeles in August 2008 to play Manimal Vinyl’s Spaceland residency. In December 2008 she moved there to pursue music full force. She writes freak folk songs, a little bit of country rap, and explores the wonders of video art. She lives on a Topanga hillside, a bit like a gypsy.

Put them in a pile with synth heavy pioneers OMD, Gary Numan, Kraftwerk (sans vocoder), Hot Chip, Devo, and Flaming Lips (circa 2002), with traces of Can, pursuing psychedelic soundscapes like Animal Collective. The vocals range from galactic whisper to an intensity similar to Cedric Bixler (Mars Volta/At The Drive In) or Isaac Brock (Modest Mouse), and at times the playfulness of Beck, Liars, and even Beastie Boys.

The band spent its last few years living at the notorious Vermont House, an underground venue where HST wrote and released The End Of The Sky, and established a command post for the D.I.Y. community, inspiring a rise in underground non-venues. It also served as a command station for the band’s own record label, How To Be A Microwave. —Read more about the House at this link.

When time came to move on, Halloween Swim Team packed up and sought solitude in the city suburbs to finish its new psychedelic synth-pop album, ANTENNAAA, some of which they will release as a 3-part EP series of new songs, rarities, and live recordings. The band has since emerged with a vengeance, racking up miles in its graffiti-covered van playing endless shows. Quite a beauty, the giant van’s front grill is missing because the previous owner hit a deer and the headlights are attached by bungee cords. There’s a pink elephant on the side. The band can be seen at rock and roll clubs, living rooms, restaurants, barns, rooftops, and even lugging its instruments up desert rocky mountains to play in middle of nowhere.

Halloween Swim Team recently performed live at three L.A. radio stations in the same week, at KCRW, KXLU, and Indie 103. The band’s cover of “Look Back In Anger” appears on the highly anticipated Manimal Vinyl compilation We Were So Turned On: A Tribute To David Bowie, alongside Duran Duran, Megapuss, Ed Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros, and more.

Rich Soil Pleasures

Rich Soil Pleasures was recorded at The Hobby Shop West in Highland Park, CA, and produced by Mudrock in exchange for building his ceiling (Mudrock’s notorious for some ‘90s hard rock releases he enjoys bashing now). Recently, the band participated in Live At The Hobby Shop, a summer series of live in-studio concerts that also included performances by Imaad Wasif, Jail Weddings, Lou Barlow, and Emily Lacy.
link to Live At The Hobby Shop recording

THE BUNDLES PROJECT
The Great Nordic Sword Fights’ video joins Learning Music’s remix and Teira Johnson’s artwork to complete the Psychic Luau bundle. Each song on Rich Soil Pleasures has been assigned a different artist, director, and musician to create original art, video, and a remix inspired by the music. Each bundle will be given its own release.
Psychic Luau by Random Patterns (mp3)
Psychic Luau remix by Learning Musi (mp3)
Psychich Luau artwork by Teira Johnson

Amanda Jo Williams
http://www.myspace.com/amandajowilliamsmusic
“Pure magic. Simple, mysterious, and other-worldly. Like a Sexton fairy-tale.”—Lach (Anti-folk founder)
“This is unequivocally the best country album I’ve heard in years. I get just as much pleasure out of it as I get from Emmy Lou Harris or Gram Parsons or (gasp) Johnny Cash.”—Coke Machine Glow

He’s My Brother, She’s My Sister
http://www.myspace.com/hesmybrothershesmysister
mp3: “Tales That I Tell”
“They make debauchery and estrangement so glamorous. The songs are as catchy as a radio pop jam, but throw off the trappings of plastic pop and wrap you in fur, folk, and the last drops of moonlight.”—L.A. Record

Henry Wolfe
http://www.myspace.com/henrywolfemusic
“His songs caught me by surprise. Sweet, poetic and endearing…I can’t wait to hear more.”—Spicy Times With Nora & Jinners

Paul McMahon
He’s a songwriter, an inventor, and a Woodstock historical marker. His artwork from the ‘70s has shown in the Metropolitan Museum Of Art. He’s visiting L.A. to speak at CalArts & Otis.
http://www.paulmcmahon.tv/
mp3: “You’re My Guts”
“With Paul McMahon riding along with me on the road of life, I have help with the flat tires” —Chief Shoveler of the Cowpies

Matthew O’Neill
http://www.myspace.com/matthewoneill
“Uniquely classic songs, awesome shamanic hillbilly jams.”—Taos Messenger

L.A. RECORD
White Noise
Metl Reserva Especial Tequila