Ho-Hum still enjoying the ride
Posted on Sunday, November 12, 2006
Election Day was supposed to be the day that Little Rock’s Ho-Hum would release its 10 th album, Let Me Wear Your Coat.
Lenny Bryan, lead singer and songwriter of the four-man rock band that he founded with his brother Rod, says, “For some reason [the album ] didn’t come up on iTunes.” Whatever the glitches involved with the popular Internet music store, Let Me Wear Your Coat is a milestone for a group that has hung on during a long and eventful ride, experiencing the highs and lows of the music industry.
In 1996 it seemed that Ho-Hum was poised on the brink of national success with its debut album, Local, appearing on Universal, a major label. As it turned out, the goth-rock band Evanescence, which came along years later, became the best-selling rock band to emerge from Arkansas. But many would argue that Ho-Hum, returning to Little Rock after only one album on Universal, has turned out to be the best.
When Universal signed Ho-Hum, the band consisted of the Bryan brothers, guitarist Kevin Kerby and drummer Dave Hoffpauir and was managed by the late Paul Lovett. It was a big deal for Ho-Hum and for Arkansas music in general, with the Cate Brothers and Black Oak Arkansas being the only other rock acts that made any significant national impact.
At the beginning, Universal appeared to have serious interest in getting Ho-Hum heard beyond Arkansas’ borders. The label hired Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley, heavyweight producers who had steered albums by Bush, Elvis Costello and others, and packed Ho-Hum off for recording sessions in London and Muscle Shoals, Ala.
Lenny — a native of tiny Bradley, located in the state’s southwestern corner, about five miles north of Louisiana — recalls that his first trip to New York was when the label sent him there for voice lessons. Universal set Ho-Hum up with shows for five nights at five different venues in the city. Local came out in May of ’ 96 and was played and well received on radio stations in Missouri and Pittsburgh.
But the album never had any major radio play, and Ho-Hum’s relationship with Universal was over almost as soon as it started.
“The high point was going to London and working with those [producers ],” Lenny says. “And having the belief that Universal was going to get behind us but they didn’t. It was a short-lived high point.” Lenny says Universal never made a video and never seriously promoted songs off Local to radio stations, which, at that time, was crucial to any success, especially a band in a media outpost like Arkansas. “I think it was a cultural thing,” says Lenny of the ultimate parting of the ways with the big label. “Those guys didn’t get us. We didn’t want to be like anybody that was popular. But I don’t hate anybody from there. It’s not something I worry about or carry a grudge over.” Perhaps the most surprising thing that came out of Ho-Hum’s dance with the big time was that, when it was all over, the band didn’t break up. Instead, it came back to Little Rock and settled down to make some seriously exciting music.
IT WON’T DIE In the years after Local, Kerby and Hoffpauir left and the Bryan brothers marched on, first with drummer Colin Brooks and then with Brad Brown and Sam Heard, both of whom remain in the band today. Ho-Hum first put out its post-Universal albums on HTS, a label run by Lovett, and then started recording them on Playadel, the band’s own label. The first few records after Local were more of the same wellconstructed pop / rock — guitars, bass and drum being the primary instruments — that helped Ho-Hum gain attention in the first place. The band did indeed get better after being dropped by Universal, and its improvement can easily be heard on Sanduleak (1997 ), Massacre (1999 ) and Landau Zeal (2000 ).
Then came Funny Business, whose release date just so happened to be Sept. 11, 2001, and found Ho-Hum diving headfirst into electronic soundscapes and distorted vocals. The band’s sense of melody was still intact, but the comforting old rock that fans had grown to love had seemingly disappeared.
Fans pushed back. The Playadel Web site (www. playadel. com ) mentions how somebody tossed a copy of Funny Business onto the stage during a live show with a D-minus grade and the phrase “Bad acid ?” scrawled on the cover. Lenny now admits that he was trying to “kill Ho-Hum” with the album, “but it just [wouldn’t ] die.” START SMILING Ho-Hum used the occasion of its 10 th album to move to Max Recordings, a Little Rock label run by Burt Taggart. “For the past several years, I’ve been offering to Rod that if they ever got tired of putting their own albums out, that I’d love to help,” Taggart says. “And then earlier this year, I got a call from Lenny saying that there was a new record in the works and that he thought it might be the right time to try and work together on something. I’ve been a fan of the band from the beginning, but especially as the band has continued to grow even more inventive and independent. It just seems like we share some of the same ideas about music, careers and Little Rock.” “I was glad to go with Burt,” Lenny says. “I know that he’s got people going to his site. And we’re getting older and so it’s good that we don’t have to worry about it as much.” Certainly, the members of Ho-Hum have other concerns. Lenny is 35, married and employed full time as a social studies teacher. Rod, who closed his record store, Anthro-Pop, and now works for Boulevard Bread Company, made the ballot for governor as an independent candidate, the first one the state has had in 66 years. He was unsuccessful in his bid, but he was taken seriously.
The band can’t get together as often and so live dates are few and far between. But, even with Ho-Hum permanently planted in Little Rock, the group is recognized by critics and still followed by ardent fans outside the state.
Stop Smiling, a magazine based in Chicago with a popular Web site, www. stopsmilingonline. com, just released a glowing review of Let Me Wear Your Coat.
“This is indie rock as it was meant to be — homegrown, homemade, devoid of pretension, devoid of an apathetic front that attempts to present itself as coolness.” The group’s records are out there; even Local, which is out of print, can be bought new or used on Amazon. Let Me Wear Your Coat will eventually find its way to iTunes.
Lenny’s hopes for Ho-Hum remain the same as they were when the band was being courted by Universal.
“People that listen to our albums are reading my diary. I want to make music and have people hear it. I just want an audience.” Lenny dishes out Ho-Hum thoughts Lenny Bryan, Ho-Hum’s lead singer and songwriter, speaks about each of the 10 albums his band has released. 1996 Local, Universal I was really tired of most of the songs at the time. We had recorded some of them three or four times before we ever recorded anything for Local. I wish we would’ve used some of the demo tracks instead. The demos were better on a couple of them. I really felt like I was under a microscope during the recording. Too much scrutiny, from the band, and record company. I did love working with [producers Clive ] Langer and [Alan ] Winstanley though. Mostly because they had recorded lots of stuff I had listened to growing up: Dexy’s Midnight Runners, Madness, Morrissey, Elvis Costello. I learned a lot of technique from them. Great guys. Tired songs.
1997 Sanduleak, HTS Wanted to throw down some songs quick. Songs that rocked. Dave [Hoffpauir ] quit as drummer, so we had to relearn a bunch of “new” songs again with another drummer, Colin Brooks. Pretty good songs. I was trying way too hard to be the Replacements throughout most of the album. We cut it in a week. Lots of people seem to really like it.
1999 Massacre, HTS Breakup / Rebound / Found New Love Record. Really made conscious effort not to sound like influences. I can’t listen to most of it because I think it is my weakest album vocally. I do really like some of the tracks though, until I start singing. Brad Brown’s first album with us. He’s willing to try lots of stuff with his beats....
2000 Landau Zeal, Playadel One of my favorite albums we’ve done. “Till the Cows Come Home” is maybe my favorite Ho-Hum song. This one is really the first album where I think I got the sound in my head onto the CD. I wanted it to sound more ragged and broken, but free. I think my attitude was “Anything goes from now on.” My personal life was a little more stable by this time. Thanks, wife.
2001 Funny Business, Playadel I tried to kill Ho-Hum with this, but it just won’t die. There’s some pretty and pretty strange stuff on it. People thought I was trying to replicate things on Radiohead’s Kid A. Funny Business was already recorded when Kid A came out. Sometimes you just have to turn it all upside down.
2003 Near and Dear, Playadel This is the first album that I recorded entirely, except for the hidden track at the end. I felt totally confident making this record. The songs are really strong; we were free to take as long as we wanted to make it. Nobody was standing over your shoulder... except Rod [Bryan ]. Oh yeah, and Brad. We can have some conversations, let me tell you. Now some of those arguments should have been recorded. That happens with every record though, bar none. This is also the first album that Sam Heard played on with us.
2004 Fear of High Rollin ’, Playadel This album was kind of written while it was being recorded. I scrapped lots of stuff I had been writing, and just made it up as we went along. I think it’s one of our best, but most flawed albums; we could’ve taken a few ideas a little further. Made during a rough patch. Most of the songs are about breaking on through to the other side, if you know what I mean.
2004 Now I Love You, Playadel I used a lot of songs that weren’t used on Fear of High Rollin’. I decided that I wouldn’t edit myself, and just put it all out. I probably worked harder on this album than any other. I was never really knocked out by the songs. No, I take that back, I just worked on it a little too long, and it wore me out. I really like the album cover.
2005 Losty, Playadel I love this album. Very focused and mature. I feel that the songs are fully realized, though simple and spare, which is often what I like to hear in my old age. It’s really a love letter to myself.
2006 Let Me Wear Your Coat, Max I really wanted the record to sound like a band playing in a room. I think it does for the most part. Probably some of my best lyrics. I think this is probably the best group of songs we’ve had on one album. I want people to listen to it and see if it fits.
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