Heypenny

If you remember, the free mp3 of the week for last week's show came from a local band called Heypenny, a group a I discovered thanks to Rich at Cable and Tweed (and originally the fine folks at Grimey's).  Since last Wednesday, Ben Elkins (the mastermind behind Heypenny) has been nice enough to both send me a copy of Use These Spoons and give me a bit more background info on the band. 

I'll share a little of both in a second, but first I wanted to let you know that Heypenny will be playing tonight at the Basement, as a part of the free New Faces Night. They'll be in the later 9 p.m. show (there's also a 7 p.m. show), with Supercool, United Front and Wes Charlton. 

The bio Ben sent me is so charming I'm tempted to post it in its entirety, but I'll try to summarize (with lots of quotes) as best I can.

Ben Elkins is originally from Fayetteville, Arkansas and has been playing music for about seven years.  "Until recently he hadn't really found his 'voice' or his 'sound', but he totally thought he'd found 'it' and 'it' sounded jam-bandy and tricky and organic.  But now he thinks he's really found it and Heypenny is the result."  The result is also Use These Spoons, which Ben recorded over a nine-month period while living in Chattanooga.

After moving to Nashville, Ben assembled a band - intitially just to play the music from Use These Spoons, but now with the hope of recording future albums.  Currently the lineup includes guitarist Kevin Bevil, who has been playing with Ben off and on for the past few years and who "can play some really hard stuff on guitar that's only supposed to be played on the piano."  Jeff Irwin is the group's bass player, and there are currently several possibilities for a drummer.  Tonight at the Basement, the percussion duties will be handled by a Rhythm King ("that's a drum machine from way long ago, and we're going to play along with that cause it sounds rad").

Here are two tracks from Use These Spoons, which you can buy directly from the band here.  The whole album is excellent, so I suggest you get your own copy. :)

"Seem So Small"
"Parade"

From the band's website - "Dooley" (last week's free mp3 of the week).

And go download the excellent "Secreterror" AND "Walnut St. Bridge" over at Cable and Tweed.

Comments

[Rich]

What, no love for "Walnut St. Bridge"? That's a fine tune, that is.

I can't believe you get to see Heypenny tonight and I can't go. *whimper*

[Illman]

I can't believe the best track from Heypenny hasn't been posted. The song "Brave" is the ultimate track!

[Zack]

I love Heypenny. I just did an interview with singer Ben Elkins over at our site, www.all-things-go.blogspot.com. you can check the interview here

http://all-things-go.blogspot.com/2006/02/all-things-go-presents-heypenny.html

Also, if you bought the album, you will discover that the song titled Secreterror is actually supposed to be Brave and vice versa. This straightens the lyrics up a bit.

[Rich]

Zack -- yep, I noticed that on the album too. Also comes up wrong on the CDDB, so I had to manually change the id3 tag and file name. I have a feeling that will be a long-standing point of confusion for people.

I've had a request for more stuff from this album, but I know 6 of 10 tracks are already available online. I really want to encourage people to buy the CD though. Hmph.