"at the end / when the show got out / we spilled out onto the street / from the bridge to the reservoir / they had no chance just to keep the peace..."
The anthemic emo noise pop punches and youthful adrenaline of "Dead Clade", by San Francisco based HLLLYH (formerly known as Los Angeles' Mae Shi), is as much (a more than) scrappy rebirth as it is a monstrous resurrection. I somehow missed the 7 year rocket fueled trajectory of Mae Shi as my dive into the indie L.A. scene began around the time they officially closed shop. And while that is hardly an excuse, as I should have felt their aftershocks and surely did, there were certainly many DIY comets that also burned at different levels of brightness but whose lights dimmed or were snuffed out over the shear oppressive weight of keeping a band together. Roses, Post-Life, Wide Streets, Palm Reader, Wild Pack of Canaries, Peter Pants, Moses Campbell, Dirt Dress, Abe Vigoda and more come to mind. A decade in the gritty life of an indie rock, punk, tropical punk, emo pop band feels sometimes like a lifetime is tough and the more subversive / abstract, that life struggle can be seemingly impossible AND within a sprawling place like So Cal it feels like iconic venues have a shelf life too.
"Dead Clade" feels so kinetic, electrically charged and standing as a hybridic distillation of emo and all the strains of pop, punk, indie rock and various mini-strains too. This propulsive power pop opera with shouty anthemic vocals soaked in wistful rebellion pulls you in close especially during these tumultuous times. I am almost instantly feeling a collision of bands like Los Campesinos! / Tokyo Police Club / Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin / Architecture in Helsinki / Jeff Rosenstock (and surely more as I delve in deeper). This song does, if I am to be honest make me feel a bit sad, old and maybe tired too. I used to frequent The Smell, Pehrspace, Echo / Echoplex, and dozens of Loft, Warehouse, Bike Shop shows but that was before life too me 3000 miles away (luckily there was a music scene there too). Suffice it to say, those L.A. years (for me specifically from 2009 to 2014) was a boiling pot of energy and artful weirdness.
LINER NOTES:
[The Mae Shi —the who were part of the punkish, arty, do-it-yourself scene centered around The Smell in Los Angeles in the early to mid-aughts and who had several releases on Kill Rock Stars/5RC before going dark after the critically acclaimed HLLLYH album release in 2008 on Moshi Moshi/Team Shi and playing 300 shows in ’08 & ’09 including Pitchfork Festival and Primavera Sound— have reunited under the name HLLLYH, and on Wednesday will be announcing the new album URUBURU out June 27th via Team Shi.]
Rebirths can be painful but oh so rewarding. Are all you 2000's DIY bands listening??
-Robb Donker Curtius
THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM
https://www.instagram.com/hlllyh_/#
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3RztewlRzU&feature=youtu.be
https://x.com/themaeshi
On Wednesday, HLLLYH is announcing a new album called URUBURU, out June 27th release date via Team Shi, and the original plan was for it to be a new Mae Shi record. So let’s start with the Mae Shi.
The Mae Shi were born in Los Angeles in 2002. They were part of the punkish, arty, do-it-yourself scene centered around The Smell, the city’s oldest all-ages experimental art venue. Over a seven-year period, the Mae Shi played more than 300 shows, from house parties in Olympia and Historic Filipinotown to Primavera Sound and Pitchfork Fest, and released several albums and singles.
In 2008, after several releases on Kill Rock Stars/5RC, the band released HLLLYH, a concept album about humanity, god, and the end of the world, on Moshi Moshi in the UK and Team Shi in the US. People liked HLLLYH quite a bit.
Then, in 2009, after playing more than 300 shows all over the world, the Mae Shi went dark, making HLLLYH their final statement. In the spirit of the Velvet Underground and Menudo, the band ended its run with a lineup featuring no original members.
So that’s the Mae Shi. What’s HLLLYH the band?
In 2022, founding member Tim Byron set out to “get the band back together” and crisscrossed California, pitching the other former members of the Mae Shi on one final album. This new album would be built from spastic drums, guitars, hoots, hollers, claps, and candy-coated synths, like the band’s previous records. It would draw from 20th century mysticism (Gurdjieff, Crowley, McPherson, McKenna) and trace a hero’s journey from the spirit world and back. Like the Mae Shi, it would be arty, poppy, big, ponderous, and cheap.
Tim’s call to action was answered. Decades-old hard drives spun to life. Tim unearthed half-written Mae Shi songs and began sketching out dozens of new songs using the Mae Shi palette. Jeff Byron signed on as de facto producer and engineer, as well as singer and guitarist. Ezra Buchla, who had spent the last two decades using voice, viola, and software to explore new sounds and ideas, agreed to play the role of punk singer once again. Brad Breeck offered vocals, opinions, and moral support. Corey Fogel showed up at Jeff’s house with a car full of drums, wrenches, and timpanis.
You can hear the fruits of this labor on the first single "Dead Clade," one of the interconnected stories of punk house party disasters on the upcoming album. Able to be tracked back to 2009, it is the second oldest song on the record and spotlights a palatable energy with an anthemic bombast.
Check out the new single and video for "Dead Clade" via YouTube, along with HLLLYH's cover of The The's "This Is the Day" as a bonus b-side.
While the original plan was for URUBURU to be the final Mae Shi record, it felt more like the first chapter of something new than the final chapter of the Mae Shi. During the process, Tim had written dozens and dozens of songs, and his plan to release “one more record” had morphed into a plan to release several interconnected albums.
So HLLLYH the band was born, making URUBURU the first statement of a new band. HLLLYH the band has continued to rapidly mutate since completing URUBURU. The band has recruited three new members: Dan Chao, James Baker, and Burt Hashiguchi. Sometimes HLLLYH plays Mae Shi songs live.
The product of these efforts is URUBURU, an end-of-the-world story written on a mobius strip. Built from bright colors and loud sounds, it is a puzzle to be solved, written in English, Morse code, and machine language.
HLLLYH resides in the San Francisco Bay and played its first show with Brainiac at Bottom of the Hill in San Francisco on January 18, 2025.
HLLLYH is glad you’re alive.
HLLLYH, Los Angeles emo noise pop, power pop, hybrid pop, art punk, indie rock, emo punk, "Dead Clade", upcoming NEW album "URUBURU", formerly Mae Shi, San Francisco based,
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