a r t i s t : Hella
t i t l e : There's No 666 In Outer Space
d a t e : 2007
l a b e l : Ipecac Recordings
c a t : IPC83
s o u r c e : CDDA
g e n r e : Indie
r l s. d a t e : Dec/2006
t r a c k s : 11
b i t r a t e : VBRkbps
s i z e : 100,1 MB
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HELLA
THERE'S NO 666 IN OUTER SPACE
2007 will be the year of Hella. The California-based group's
first release for Ipecac, There's No 666 in Outer Space, sees
longtime Hella members Zach Hill (drums) and Spencer Seim
(guitar) joined by an extended line-up. Zach considers the
rebirth to be "Easily the best thing we've done under the
moniker, for sure."
Hella's re-birth? Zach certainly believes so. "It's a whole
different story. It's the most concentrated effort we've ever
made. We're perceiving it as - in a non-religious fashion -
basically being born again. We're definitely handling this
like it's the first record we've ever made. It's not some
experiment or project. Musically, it's obvious how it differs
from the others. I think it's different in everything -
different in spirit, different musically, different people.ö
Hella, a champion of the duo set-up (after all, all of their
releases up to this point consisted of just Hill and Seim),
say the limited line-up was done out of necessity. Spencer
explains ôWe only started playing as a two piece because we
couldn't make it work with everybody.ö Zach adds ôWhen we
initially started Hella, we had an idea that it was going to
be a full band, and it didn't happen that way, so we just
started out playing as a two piece. It just kind of
snowballed, and ended up being a duo for years - but we kept
in the back of our minds that we wanted to follow through with
our original vision of eventually doing a full band.ö
Interestingly, two of the new members arenÆt new faces to
either Spencer or Zach, as both guitarist Josh Hill (Zach's
cousin) and bassist Carson McWhirter were in a pre-Hella band
alongside the aforementioned duo. However, when finding a
singer led to a dead end, the quartet went their separate
ways, and the two-man version of Hella was launched. But upon
recently finding Nevada City-based butcher-come-singer Aaron
Ross, Spencer and Zach knew that the time was right for a
multi-member Hella line-up.
Rest assured, the addition of new members has certainly not
taken away from the groupÆs precision sound - it only expands
on it. ôIt's definitely a bit different, just because we need
to keep our parts very interesting and play them the way we
want to play. But also leave room for everybody. It's
different also because maybe one of the other guys will come
to practice and have a few parts, and we'll just start
learning their parts - when in the past, we'd been used to
either Zach or I would have a part, put them together, and
they'd work somehow. Having other input as far parts and song
structures is a new thing - not having to rely on either Zach
or I, which is really nice,ö Spencer remarks.
Although the majority of the albumÆs songs were freshly penned
last year, four highlights - "World Series," "The Ungratefull
Dead," "Friends Don't Let Friends Win," and "The Things That
People Do When They Think No One's Lookingö û were unfinished
tracks that were holdovers from the aforementioned earlier
Seim-Hill-Hill-McWhirter band. Spencer clarifies the process,
ôGetting this record together was about updating the songs we
wrote a while ago, and just writing all together. It came
together really smoothly, I think that we all play super well
together - it was meant to happen, I just think it took a few
years for everybody to be in the right head space to do it.ö
While the albumÆs mysterious title will be interpreted in
different ways, Zach û who came up with the title û sheds some
light. ôIt means what it says - it's putting things in
perspective as far as, you can relate it to anything - the
cycle of how things get carried away and how the 'mob
mentality' happens. When you can put it in a different light,
how ridiculous it all seems - how petty and miniscule
everything is, in the concept of the universe or space. How
things evolve into such a massive brainwash - whether you're a
right wing conservative or an anarchist - all these ideas that
don't exist anywhere else.ö
Despite being off the road for the majority of 2006, the
new-look group hopes to make up for lost time, by spending
most of the year touring in support of ThereÆs No 666 in Outer
Space. Zach concludes, ôEverybody that's playing with us now,
we're all under the impression that will be playing with us
for a long time. This is basically 'our band' now.ö
Release date: January 30, 2007
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01-World Series [07:08]
02-Let Your Heavies Out [05:53]
03-The Ungratefull Dead [05:39]
04-Friends Don't Let Friends Win [03:23]
05-The Things That People Do [05:50]
06-Hand That Rocks The Cradle [04:19]
07-2012 And Countless [04:02]
08-Anarchists Just Wanna Have Fun [04:52]
09-Dull fangs [06:09]
10-Soundtrack To Insecurity [05:24]
11-There's Now 666 In Outer Space [07:22]
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60:01 min