Holy Hail makes music to reflect on in a “post-Obama” world

By Britt Julious
Published: November 14th, 2008 | 2:55pm

Three years is a vast expanse of time in which a calamity of social, political, and economic changes can usurp one’s understanding of the world. In the last three years, for instance, a wave of national and international tragedies besieged the world’s attention on a grander scale, making everyone more closely involved in the hopes and upsets than ever before. It’s no surprise then that Brooklyn-based band Holy Hail used this expanse as a lyrical theme.

Since 2005, the new-wave–Americana rap band has been cultivating a following through live sets with bands such as the Gossip, New Young Pony Club, and the Rapture, and seeding the New York club scene with their highly addictive songs reflecting on recent historical events. On the band’s debut LP, Independent Pleasure Club (Kanine Records), the charismatic songs that defined vocalist-guitarist Cat Hartwell, bassist Michally Kaye, and vocalist-keyboardist Kevin Cooke’s early aesthetics are mixed with new tunes born out of these troubled observations, even as a new sense of hope envelopes the nation.

As Hartwell and Cooke recently disclosed, the release of their LP does come at a peculiar time. Many of the songs that lyrically have a political bent were written when the band first broke onto the scene. “It was something we were always doing but not consciously,” Cooke said. “A lot of the songs we didn’t realize were political until afterwards.”

Hartwell concurred, adding, “We're living in the post-Obama world now. It's really funny to have the album out now.” The consensus among the band members, however, seems to be that although the atmosphere after the 2008 election isn’t as hopeless as the one that spawned some of Holy Hail’s more political songs, there are still issues that need addressing, some of which come across in the tracks on Independent Pleasure Club.

“Backwater,” a reflection of the tragic force and devastating response to Hurricane Katrina, is a song enveloped in dirty synths, near-lethargic rhythms, and a guitar riff that can only be described as brilliantly chaotic. And “Elemental” — written in response to President George W. Bush’s policies during the Iraq War — simply put, is cool: Slinky, feline rhythms are complemented with vocals that jump back and forth between sing-talk harmonies and ethereal coos from Hartwell and Cooke. “We felt helpless,” Hartwell said of the impetus behind these songs. “And there was nothing that we could do about it. The only thing we could do about it was write a song.”

The dearth of their material is not only laced with international and national concerns, but “Double Dutch” — written during the early years of the band’s genesis — focuses on the local social issue of rapid gentrification in parts of New York City. The track reminisces about the “old New York City” — the one constructed of gritty street corners, cracked sidewalks, and the sort of freedom that let emerging artists and musicians flourish under more favorable circumstances. This New York, the lyrics suggest, is dying. For a group like Holy Hail, the city’s transformation is one that can’t help but be reflected in their lyrics “I’ve lived here seven or eight years in Brooklyn, and before that in the Bronx, and we just wanted to write something to remember it,” Cooke said.

“Gentrification is such a crazy ‘Catch 22,’” Hartwell added. “We know that we are a part of the problem, and, yet, people come in and push us out.” However, she noted, “There’s romantic New York imagery that we never got to experience. There's a lot of romanticism about old New York. There’s a lot of that in that song for us.”

Although the band doesn’t get to envelop themselves in that idealized romanticism of New York, for now, Holy Hail seems to be filling a void, bridging the gap between what once was and what might be. “New York has become less diverse, less gritty, more corporate, and more brand. It's harder now to move here as a struggling artist,” Hartwell said. “But there's still an energy here, even though it's a struggle.”
—
Holy Hail MySpace