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HERMIT THRUSHES
HOMETOWN:
Philadelphia, PA
BIO:
Hermit
Thrushes are a strange, ambitious power that only the
east coast could have birthed. Cryptic lyrics in English
and Greek sit comfortably overtop angular guitar parts,
melodic bass lines and fine-tuned drumming. Standard
rock instruments are supplemented by melodic doublings
on trumpet, spare glockenspiel lines, noisy organ chords
and drums filled with metal.
In the Fall of 2006, Yianni Kourmadas (guitar, vocals)
embarked upon an extended trip to Greece. Far removed
from family and friends, he wrote and recorded a handful
of songs on a guitar he trash-picked in Athens and
collected hours of field recordings. The songs and
sounds he captured reflected happiness, curiosity and
loneliness. When he returned to his home in
Philadelphia, a small group of friends assembled to
perform and record these songs. After three months of
playing together, the recordings (both the basement
recordings of the young band and the recordings made in
Greece) would become the first Hermit Thrushes album,
Benaki (named after the museum in Athens that Yianni
had spent entire days perusing and obsessing over).
In just two years, Hermit Thrushes have completed two
albums, a 7" record, a cassette tape, four national
tours, dozens of weekend tours, a series of radio
interviews and in-studio sessions, and they have
performed at various festivals including the 2008 CMJ
Marathon in New York City.
Their stage show has been the subject of controversy and
frequently features cross-dressings, rainbow outfits,
outrageous acrobatics and high kicks.
Hermit Thrushes have shared the stage with Elf Power,
Pattern Is Movement, Nat Baldwin (of Dirty Projectors),
The Mae Shi, Karl Blau, Cut Off Your Hands (UK/New
Zealand), High Places, Slaraffenland (Denmark), So Many
Dynamos, The Winks (Canada), Vic Chesnutt, School of
Language (mems. of Field Music, Tortoise, Owls), Vampire
Hands, EAR PWR, Royal Bangs, Mutators, Brothers and
Sisters, Panther (Kill Rock Stars), Soft Circle, etc.
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BAND SITES:
MYSPACE PAGE
AGENT: YIANNI
AVAILABILITY:
OCTOBER - NOVEMBER 2010
UPCOMING SHOWS
TOOLS:
MAKE AN OFFER
PROMO MATERIALS
LABEL:
JOYFUL
NOISE RECORDINGS (US)
SINGLE GIRL, MARRIED GIRL
(US)
SLIPSHOD MUCUS KISS (US)
DISCOGRAPHY:
2009 - SLIGHT FOUNTAIN CD/LP
2008 - BENAKI CD
FREE MP3:
Snowflake Heart
REVIEWS:
Tucking freaky pop inside
knotty indie rock, Hermit
Thrushes are best known for
their live shows, during
which they swap
mean-spirited banter with each other,
wear color-coded outfits and
brandish a trumpet when
needed... Hermit Thrushes
offer more proof that our city's
newest generation of indie
bands can colorfully defy
genres while happily
erupting all over the place.
-Philadelphia Weekly
Hermit Thrushes were the
highlight [of the evening],
cross-dressing in
Technicolor as they bounced their
thrash-folk asses around
-Impose
Magazine
This is the new wave
of interesting 'pop' that we keep
getting. Restores my hope in
humanity and indie
rocker/popsters in that its
not a regurgitation of the
Shins or Death Cab, it
actually has unpredictable
choruses, hooks and themes,
rhythms, but still qualify
as pop in the use of
melodies and singing. This is the
future folks, plain and
simple.
-KZSU Zookeeper
This is a whole ensemble
which loves to play together
but somewhere during
playtime they get way carried
away and start throwing
things throughout the room and
everything popcorns for a
while. It's where this is the new
psychedelic and rainbow is
the new black.
-Collective Family
Hermit Thrushes are one of
those bands you really need
to see live. [...] Known for
their outlandish costumes,
scrappy banter, and raucous
on-stage antics, this
Philadelphia fivesome
definitely understands that chaos
is an art form.
-uwishunu.com
Enough can't be said about
the mad angular psych-folk
sounds of Philly's Hermit
Thrushes or its brilliant bristling
recent CD Benaki.
-City
Paper (Philadelphia)
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