With 'El Amore de Los Muertos,' New London's Hempsteadys aim for the future
The fact that their long-awaited first album is a rock opera involving classic film monsters like Dracula, Frankenstein and the Wolf Man is probably ideal.
After all, The Hempsteadys, New London’s inarguably infectious party band, make music that almost can’t be described in anything but supernatural terms.
As such, “El Amor de Los Muertos,” a 12-song, horn-propelled blast of greatness, has a compelling love story at its hooky heart. Y’see, the aforementioned creatures live in a parallel universe, where Frankenstein is destined for an arranged marriage. But Frank has an extrasensory fixation on his dream girl — and she happens to live in our world. Therefore, the other monsters must find a portal to connect the two separate dimensions — and, hopefully, Frankenstein will successfully switch realities and unite with his decidedly non-Elsa Lanchesterish bride.
While “El Amor del Los Muertos” officially hits the streets on Nov. 3, the band celebrates with a pre-release party tonight in New London’s Oasis Pub. Copies of the CD will be available for sale along with plenty of merch, and The Shipwrecks open the show.
Inasmuch as the regular Monday night Hempsteadys gatherings are equal parts rehearsal session and Boys’ Night Out exercises in clubhouse camaraderie, the mythos of “El Amor de Los Muertos” began when guitarist/singer/songwriter Andrew Carey began to bring in snippets of songs and allude to a “monster musical” he was conceptualizing. His bandmates wanted to know more.
“It was a joke,” Carey says. “I’m a huge fan of old, classic horror films, kung fu, blaxploitation films ... I love all of those, so I started to imagine tunes that incorporated a lot of the elements.”
“Andy would have these songs and ideas and a story began to unfold at practices and at the bar afterwards,” drummer/vocalist Matt Covey explains. “And we’d ask him questions to fill in the plot holes and story line. The fact that we’d started out as a post-reggae band was a bit of a stretch for songs about monsters. It’s a leap, but somehow it all evolved.”
As for the band’s reggae roots, it’s undeniable. Anyone who’s seen or heard The Hempsteadys can probably recognize the driving core of ska/reggae. But the overall sound has become a much larger amalgam. Over time, they’ve absorbed all manners of outside musical and pop culture influences — see “Monster movies,” above — as well as the wide-ranging DNA components from the band’s 11 members.
Along with Covey and Carey, The Hempsteadys lineup includes guitarist vocalist Jordan Harrelson, guitarist/vocalist Jon Logan, bassist Shaun Burgundy, keyboardist Ricky Resnicky III, trombonist Jim Lockett, trumpeter Scott Crawford, saxophonist Cody Freeman, emcee/vocalist N.M.E. The Illest and percussionist Bryan Briggs.
“Yeah, the reggae was always there, but even in the beginning we were doing it our way,” Covey says. “People said we were ‘post-reggae,’ but that’s a term that can convey a certain level of pretention. I don’t think we actually want to be musically categorized — no one does, really — reggae synthesis of disparate dance music.”
Carey agrees. “We’ve become an all-everything band. We are to reggae what the Stones are to the blues or Talking Heads are to punk. Those forms might have influenced them, but they became something else entirely.”
Fair enough. And if The Hempsteadys formed after Carey and Covey saw the superb California retro-ska act The Aggrolites, that band’s incredible live energy was just as huge as the actual music. Gathering numerous pals from the vibrant southeastern Connecticut punk and hardcore scene, The Hempsteadys instantly coalesced into a high-energy, fun-centric performance unit whose through-the-roof stage act became an in-demand soundtrack for dozens of New London Saturday nights.
Need a party? Find out where The Hempsteadys are playing. Problem solved.
The thing is, over time, The Hempsteadys have, intentionally or otherwise, developed a sort of aura that might suggest the music is almost a by-product of the fun quotient.
“Well, it IS a brotherhood, and it IS an incredible amount of fun hanging around and playing with these guys,” Covey says. “Ours is a completely different approach than any other band I’ve been in or around. There’s a genuine connection, but part of that is a total reverence for the music and the tradition of being in a band. We’re not afraid to do and try weird things, and part of The Hempsteadys is that we understand musically where we come from — and then shatter it and deconstruct it.”
That spirit and sound is ebulliently evident on “El Amore de Los Muertos,” which is a beautifully, compassionately and precisely performed album, superbly engineered by Carl Franklin in his New London PWOP Studios. The songs were written and developed over a six-year period, then recorded in spurts in the last two years.
“Carl did awesome work,” Carey says. “We actually recorded fairly quickly once we were in the studio, and Carl was a huge help. He definitely knows what he’s doing and no one could have done what he did. And I think he realized we were serious about the project.”
Franklin, whose reputation as a sonic perfectionist is wonderfully captured on his own solo albums and with his Franklin Brothers band, says he thoroughly enjoyed the “Los Muertos” sessions: “I had a great time recording the Hempsteadys. They’re a great group of guys who inject lots of fun into it, but they take the music seriously. They took the time in the studio to get it right, sometimes scrapping entire songs and starting over. I don’t see much of that anymore. People want in and out as quickly as possible these days, you know?”
On a perhaps hidden level, the band’s attention to detail and commitment to do the best job possible on the album reflects a new maturity and focus.
“We wanted the album to be a top-level piece of work,” Carey says. “Over the last few years, we’ve started getting serious. We’ve had some personnel changes because the time had come to clear a path to the future. Our main goal now is to see how far we can take this. I can understand why people would think, wait, after all these years? But ...”
In advance support of the “El Amor de Los Muertos” campaign, The Hempsteadys undertook a brief summer tour. It was a calculated junket — as much to learn if and how the band could travel on a protracted basis as it was to perform shows in Hempsteadys-hungry East Coast venues. Now, with the official Nov. 3 release of the record, there’s a concerted national radio and media push and, yes, a possible national tour.
“Taking it on the road in a large capacity is definitely possible,” Covey says. “We’ve been trying to figure out how to do it logistically. We’ve got a lot of musicians, but we could go out in a 15-passenger van and with a vehicle for equipment. The thing is, we’re ready to try this. This has been an insane and great experience up to now. It’s time to take it to the next level.”
If You Go
Who: The Hempsteadys with The Shipwrecks
What: Pre-release party for "El Amor de Los Muertos," the first full-length Hempsteadys album
When: 9 p.m. Friday
Where: Oasis Pub, 16 Bank St., New London
How much: $5
For more information: (860) 447-3929, thehempsteadys.com
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