Hooray for Humans
The purpose is to rock, it has always been. To bridge through music the expanding chasm between joy and life, exulting and commiserating and wailing with those still courageous enough to dare it. They are fewer by day. Hooray for Humans is their champion.
The ancients stated their case with sticks and skins stretched over hollowed wood. H4H begins with the same, the trade plied by a curly-coiffed craftsman with an adjective for a handle, Sandy, attached in life to nothing but the drum, providing live pulses underneath five strings of Bass-ic Soul by Nate, who rolls beside creative bounces from Chloris as she lords with grace over Pearl Elite Series Congas and weaves her lilting harmonies into the vocal medley. Jeff, every bit the guitar hero-replete with perplexingly pained expression and long, loving gazes at his own instrument-twists the boiling stew with speedy reverberations and backup vocals supporting J, lyricist and voice of H4H, who ranges from smooth, polished cadences to livid intonations ripped from the night as his words canvass the spectrum of human emotion.
Tracks from band's first hour-long set are available as an EP Sampler and built in three-to-four minute hymns made for massive airplay. Part odic symphony, part self-vindicating power vehicle and pulled entirely from a visionary melding of rising harmonies, wicked string work and mellow changes layered over severe but crowd-pleasing beats certain to cause neck injury, "No Way Out," "Same Situation" and "Confused" are available as mp3 files at hoorayforhumans.com.
North Atlantic seaboard veterans all, the former endeavors of H4H members include Supermack, Snaggletooth-currently playing as the Little Kings, Medusa Complex, Fried Chicken and Zero Frequency, the legendary party band of Maryland's eastern shore. Combined, H4H has covered the North Atlantic seaboard, playing all manner of rock, funk, reggae, world beat and hip-hop to crowds from gritty Philly clubs to festivals in the West Virginia hills. Welcoming a diverse crowd to their party has become priority 1.
Hooray for Humans rehearse in dust-free environs beneath a red monster that bears down on the band like so many swine at the trough, kept at bay only by the purity of the sound and the lyric and the kick and the groove. Floorboards begin to creak in rhythm and a drummer howls as a singer postures and gyrates in pleasure as he is cleansed by the sound. A blue light bulb gleams behind a guitarist attempting to dance and play and wipe his brow all at once. Airplanes soaring behind her, the lithe conga player hops between drums and feels the repetitive glee of skin slapping skin. A bassist grins quietly as his thumb plucks his jagged weapon, knowing the idle talk through the set break will be his, and of nothing. And it matters little that these five self-starters cannot recall their meeting or the genesis of the band. If it were not fun, it would not be.
The music is everything. The music is the party, the music is the audience and the music is the religion of humanity. The sound of H4H music comes from souls torn in twelve directions by the Machinery of Now: computer blips and job stress and war, tension of man and woman and valleys of excitement and peaks of boredom-and gives it back with verve.
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