THANKS to Tris McCall for delivering this thoughtful review of HIGGINS’ Straight A’s for the NJ Star-Ledger:
Straight A’s Higgins (Serious Business)
Those familiar with the High Llamas will know what I mean when I say that “Straight A’s,” the new disc by Higgins, is to “Zs,” their last, as “Hawaii” is to “Gideon Gaye.” Kevin Fish, Higgins’ principal songwriter, will: He shares with the High Llamas an appreciation of the impressionistic side of the Beach Boys and the impish, provocative side of the Grateful Dead. “Straight A’s” lacks the splashy instrumental rave-ups that made “Zs” so much fun. But by sticking to Higgins’ true strength — subtly magnificent pop melodies, Beatlesque vocal harmonies and graceful arrangements that scream of perfectionism but never sound less than relaxed — the band has topped itself. Every detail is framed for maximum impact: the thumping piano on “Satch Lab,” the portamento synthesizers and fuzz guitar on “Easy Thing,” twinkling music-hall spinet and rich strings on “T and T,” rattling percussion and slow-decaying snare hits by imaginative drummer Brian Kantor on “Never Here.” The productions are grand, but quietly grand; Higgins lets the band’s craftsmanship speak for itself. If you’re the sort of listener who pays attention to detail — and has the patience to let an album unfold at its own pace — Higgins may be the group for you.
“Sat Jan 28, Littlefield, Brooklyn, NY You will see Wilbury Night emerge, one time only, as a party thrown by people who believe in the Wilbury spirit, who prefer to play music together rather than separately, and who want you to join in. The January air is cold. Be at Littlefield in Brooklyn, together with your best friends and your coolest family members on this one night, conveniently a Saturday, the 28th of January to be exact, as we peer through the Wilbury prism into the heart of our loves for rock and roll music. Expect Benji Cossa, Higgins, Rocketship Park and the Unsacred Hearts to present a rich program built from their own reputable original catalogs and from the deep career catalogs of Lucky, Lefty, Otis, Nelson and Charlie T. Jr. This night will be warm and full of true love.”
This is one song from the forthcoming new HIGGINS album called Straight A’s. Amongst the few people who have heard this album, many of them consider “Do You Still” to be of their favorite. Kevin’s vocal sounds beautiful donchya think?
The Reutrn of the UNSACRED HEARTS: Sat Aug 27. Fort Useless. Brookyln.
It’s been two years since our pal Jeremiah started a DIY event space in Brooklyn (36 Ditmars Street, one block from the Myrtle Avenue/Broadway stop on the JMZ trains) and named it FORT USELESS. This was flattering to us since our first LP was called In Defense of Fort Uselessand was exciting since we knew Jeremiah to be a great guy and a keen rock lover. But hence, around that time, the Unsacred Hearts’ activity as a live entity began to dwindle, what with our regular bass-man Andy Bean becoming fully ensconced in his mission to fill the world with two-man-music, Joe and I making babies, all of us getting married, Dave working on his doctorate, Joe becoming a lawyer, etc etc boo hoo. But all this time we were slowly broiling our greatest achievement which is the album called THE HONOR BAR. Now that it is done, we have resolved to resuscitate our always visceral rock-show which at its peak has been known to melt faces, break hearts and build beery bridges of sweaty communal love for the-rock-and-roll. For this show, Dave and Joe and I are lucky enough to play with Misters Chris Buckridge (bass), Brian Kantor (percussion) and Josh Kaufman (musical genius). That’s six Hearts. We are gonna sound GOOD.
So come to this celebration on Saturday Night August 27th at Fort Useless. It’s the space’s 2nd birthday. I’m not certain exactly what time the Hearts hit the stage but it doesn’t matter because the mighty GOLD STREETS and the incredible SHARK? need to be seen and heard by your eyes and ears respectively. Don’t slack. Get with us 8PM at FORT USELESS. There will be beer.
-Travis
Unsacred Hearts’ Debut EP on WFMU’s Free Music Archive @freemusicarchiv
Hello team. I just put the first Unsacred Hearts EP up on WFMU’s Free Music Archive. Take it. Enjoy it. This is SBR01, Serious Business’ first release. Enjoy.
The year was 2003. It was getting cold outside. We never forgot that because the tiny one room rehearsal shack we’d rented from a friend in Long Island City didn’t really have heat. We had it all set up to record in there and we’d get together a couple times a week, never without warm coats or cold Bud tall boys, to make music. Thankfully Joe Willie was on the mic for the first time and we loved it. Since mid ‘95 he’d been writing lyrics for our several underachieving backyard rock partnerships, all of which Dave and I loudly and proudly rocked for. His words, always honest and poetic, had taken on a new urgency, especially since what it seemed like he was writing about, in some way, was our lives as underachieving rock-band-dudes. Somehow he endowed our continuing musical pursuits with dignity and purpose, and we were genuinely fired up about it. We’d been dosing ourselves with very inspiring sounds, specifically Richard Hell’s Blank Generation, lots of Mitch Ryder, Sam Cooke Live at the Harlem Square Club, all the bands in Michael Azzerrad’s Our Band Could Be Your Life. During this period we all lived in Joe’s house in Hoboken at the same time and we played our very first shows.-Travis
It’s been two years since our pal Jeremiah started a DIY event space in Brooklyn (36 Ditmars Street, one block from the Myrtle Avenue/Broadway stop on the JMZ trains) and named it 
