The band Falling Still could be the goofy missing link between the Black Keys and Nirvana, if this makes any sense, they probably are more Foo Fighters than Black Keys when I think about it, but there definitively was some of this furious bluesy sound in some of their elaborate garage rock. Their CD ‘Hot Piss’ release party on Tuesday night at Hemingway’s on Hollywood boulevard was a mix of blasting sound, lights and images projected in the back of the stage. They played very loud and very fast, and the thunderous sound made the walls of the dark bar — covered with books and old fashioned type writers — vibrate.
But first of all, ‘Hot Piss’ is the title of their CD? You immediately get the right feeling, these guys don’t get themselves seriously even though they are seriously talented musicians who want to party like there’s no tomorrow with hard-hitting rock’ n’ roll songs with not-so-hidden anthemic dimensions despite the sort of drunken surrealistic humor of the songs entitled ‘I’m pissed’, ‘Blackhole Hotel’, ‘Gods of the Echospace’….
Bassist Bret Hamilton explained a little bit about it in a press release: ‘This is a more honest representation of our creative process than anything else we’ve done. We’re just three filthy-mouthed degenerates trying to make something beautiful’…’This EP is a rite of spring for us’.
Originally from Akron, Ohio, the trio is now based in Los Angeles, and they couldn’t have looked more disparate, vocalist/guitarist Eric Podnar looked like the intellectual of the band, bassist/vocalist Brett Hamilton had adopted the trucker-hat bearded grunge rocker look and drummer Jeremy Cull looked like a classic California surfer. However, they all shared this passionate energy when playing their songs in front of an enthusiastic public: a few talkative and drinking girls on my right began to dance frenetically, seemingly having a great time,.. Although I don’t drink, I got the impression that the whiskey was complementary? Logical for a place named after Hemingway, right?
The CD is just a five-song EP, but it seems to be a better choice according to Eric Podnar who declared in an interview:
‘We’ve found that the EP format of releasing fewer songs more often helps keep things interesting for both us and our fans. We have so much music we want to make right now, and by regularly putting out new material and tirelessly playing live, we’re finally in a position to get it all out there’.
They effectively have already released a previous and self-titled EP in February, so these guys are certainly very prolific. I am not exactly sure which songs they played during their CD release, but most of the tunes wanted to make you get up and party, with shouted lyrics, a sort of rock-bluesy explosive quality, often bursting in punk and aggressive distortion or grunge psychedelia. Then they were suddenly getting calmer with a quiet pop ballad,.. which actually didn’t stay quiet till the end, so needless to say, they were again one of these bands very difficult to pigeonhole.
The highlight of the night was the video they screened while playing ‘I’m Pissed’ live, and they then embarked everyone in a sort of trippy road trip landing in a forest housing giant mushrooms… you get the feeling. Actually, the whole night was a trip, a trip with exhilarating and thunderous garage rock, dancing girls and whiskey bottles.