I have a cool looking band.

You know you wanna...free download!

Pop Montreal 2011 and forthcoming European Tour!

I'm pretty excited about this. I just learned that I've been accepted to perform at the Pop Montreal International Music Festival the last week of September! The fest includes some pretty heavy-hitters, including artist Art Spiegelman, Girls, Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks, tUnE-yArDs and tons of others! Check out the lineup HERE.

Then, in late October, I head to Europe for dates in Poland and Germany. Going to be a good fall.

In terms of more immediate matters, I'm playing The Cameo Gallery on Tues, Aug 2nd in Brooklyn with a pretty fantastic lineup of psychedelic rockers:

(you can get more details here) 

Bandcamp page up, Severe Insomnia, and a new digital single

http://hannisbrown.bandcamp.com/

Severe Insomnia is now digitally available on Bandcamp and includes a free download of my very Jeff Parker and Co.-inspired "Imitating Chicago (Underground)."

Also on the site is a "new" digital single: "A Reason to Push." Originally written for the Lo Recordings/Arctic Circle service last year, I am finally able to release it on my own. It's a breakup song...kind of a downer. But I hope that you like it!

New reviews of both of my albums!

Pretty happy to see that both my albums are getting reviews. Here's one for Severe Insomnia 

(pssst...I've sneakily made this album digitally available to stream and purchase here)

And a new one for Oh Ah Ee

And a creepy, artsy picture of me.

This Sunday, April 17th. The Rock Shop

I'm really really excited about this upcoming show. I'm playing with two of my favorite up-and-coming New York bands: Prairie Empire ( http://www.myspace.com/prairieempire), a really cool folk-y group, led by Brittain Ashford, and BAD BUKA (http://www.myspace.com/panonianwave), a phrenetic Gypsy-punk group that's on its way to blowing up.

I'll be playing the middle set w/my band: Wes Reid (drums), Lucas Dedmon (string bass), Melaena Cadiz (vocals), Matt Steckler (alto sax), Fernando Arruda (bari sax), and Elad Gellert (soprano sax....he's filling in for usual member Jeff Hudgens). Our set's been going over well! I'm impressed/surprised by the response we're getting, since it's pretty weird stuff.

For directions, etc, check out the Rock Shop's site: http://www.therockshopny.com

SEVERE INSOMNIA glass package, hand-painted by Polish artist Ania Werner! I'm really excited about this limited edition pressing of my new instrumental album, which you can purchase by scrolling 3/4 down this page!

The Release of "Severe Insomnia!"

I'm very excited to announce that my second album, "Severe Insomnia," is now commercially available via the great left-of-center UK/Polish label Lumberton Trading Company! Entirely instrumental, the record mixes musique concrète, orchestral recording, prepared guitar, chamber ensembles, hyperventilations, and electronics. I'm excited about this release and have had great response to the music thus far! Lumberton and its sister label Fourth Dimension Records have released work by the likes of Thurston Moore (Sonic Youth) and Michael Gira (Swans), among many other noisemakers current and past, so I'm quite thrilled to be on its roster.

While the music of "Severe Insomnia" is taken from various performances, it's very much inspired (as the title implies) by the haziness and unease that comes from insomnia. One of the pieces was also originally the score to an excellent, Student Academy Award-winning stop animation directed by the awesome Robyn Yannoukos, which you can check out here: 

"Severe Insomnia" is limited to 500 physical copies (it's not digitally available), with 25 available as a special, hand-painted, glass-packaged edition, which can be requested by clicking here!

You can also purchase the "regular" edition, as well as my album of weird rock, "Oh Ah Ee" (which, I'm happy to report, is still getting excellent reviews that you can check out on the "press" tab of my site) via the discography page of my website: http://hannisbrown.com/discography.html

A CD release party is in the works--please check out the "shows" tab of my site to learn of upcoming events (I've been performing lately with a pretty awesome seven-piece band of saxophones, clarinet, drums, upright bass, guitar, and vocals).

New Year, new album coming, lots of shows

It's 2011 and already it seems that this year's going to be great. Not ecologically or politically, obviously. But for me, egocentrically.

In early February 2011, my NEW ALBUM (!) “Severe Insomnia” will be released on UK/Poland label Lumberton Trading Company. The album is almost entirely instrumental...mixing orchestral music, electronics, found sounds, hyperventilations, etc. 

Initially, it’ll only be available as a Physical CD, which you’ll be able to get from various international stores and at shows. The first 25 will come in hand-painted glass cases.

I have a fantastic live band to help me realize my fantasies and anxieties. Wes Reid has been a musical collaborator for the last few months. He's an awesome drummer who really manages to incorporate the found sound element I used for "Oh Ah Ee" (my first album). Then I have some great horns: Matt Steckler, Fernando Arruda, Jeff Hudgens and an upright bassist: Lucas Dedmon. My friend--Brooklyn-based folktress Melaena Cadiz--is singing harmonies. We had two shows late last year and I was really invigorated by everyone's playing.

Here are two clips, captured on my friend Jennie's phone. Not perfect, mind you, but a pretty successful first show, especially considering that we hadn't ever had a rehearsal with the entire band.

Here's a take on "Oh Ah Ee:"

  

...and an excerpt of "My Head Is Underwater"