If I had to succinctly characterize the current musical period – having just watched the first hour of the 2013 Billboard Music Awards – I would use the phrase “overdoing it”. American Idol and the other television singing contests encourage contestants to go all out in their performances, and that attitude has suffused much of today’s music. On at least one occasion, I have heard one of the renowned producers who craft many of today’s hit songs (I forget who exactly) piece one together in a few minutes on National Public Radio during an interview, so studio wizardry has also become available to just about anyone – and it is all too tempting to take that too far. Refreshingly, Hollis Brown holds back in this regard; as Steve Leggett of Allmusic puts it in their rave review of their album Ride on the Train: “[The album has] a sharp, taut sound that only includes what is necessary to put the song over. . . . This is a band with a bright future.”
The bandmembers are native New Yorkers and originally included Mike Montali (vocals and guitar), Jon Bonilla (guitar), Mike Wosczyk (bass), and Mike Graves (drums and percussion). Their first release is an eponymous album, Hollis Brown that came out on Vibe Theory Records at the beginning of 2009. In 2012, the band released a couple of singles and an EP, Nothing and the Famous No One; and then their new album, Ride on the Train (with Dillon Devito replacing Mike Wosczyk on bass) was released on Alive Records this year. For some odd reason, I have seen all three of these records described as their “debut” album.
(May 2013)
