Artist Profile: Heypenny
UPDATE: So turns out the blogosphere is not “bereft of any mention” of Heypenny; a couple other blogs are already on the Heypenny bandwagon. Cable and Tweed have a nice little write-up of them here, Nashville-based Out The Other featured them here, and I Guess I’m Floating, who seem to just be doing everything right these days, featured them here. Check those out for more mp3s and info.
Audacious claim: Heypenny are the best band you’ve never heard. But I don’t mean that in the way the mainstream media gives any band on an indie label and not on the radio this title. Yeah, The New York Times called The Hold Steady the best band you’ve never heard in 2005, but face it; nearly all of you have heard The Hold Steady and whatever other band these major publications assume you’ve never heard. But Heypenny deserves this title, because, due to what must be the result of some astronomical error somewhere in the solar system, Heypenny are not only unsigned, but - with the exception of Zack’s post on them last month on All Things Go - even the omnipresent blogosphere is bereft of any mention of them.
Thus, chances are, unless you’ve had the luck of stumbling across their MySpace page or have seen them perform in the Nashville area, your ears have never been graced by the glory and brilliance that is the music of Heypenny. Heypenny are the product of creator, lead singer, co-producer, and all-around mastermind Ben Elkins (pictured above), who began writing what would become the songs on Heypenny’s incredible debut, Use These Spoons, in 2003. Use These Spoons, unofficially released in 2005, is an absolutely remarkable album, and had I heard it last year I can assure you it would have been firmly entrenched towards the top of my Top 25 Albums of 2005 list. Elkins cites Wilco, The Beatles, and Iron & Wine as some of the artists that influence Heypenny, who get their name from those “Give a penny,
take a penny” trays at American convenience stores (called Ha’penny in the south), but many of the songs on the album conjure up more accurate comparisons to The Decemberists, The Unicorns and at times even shades of Bends-era Radiohead. That said, the diversity of the songs on the album is Spoons’ finest strength. First track, “Dooley”, sounds like The Beatles singing lyrics borrowed from Colin Meloy’s songbook, while “Let It Rain” and “Walnut St. Bridge” (both of which are available for download here at All Things Go) slow things down and reflect the Iron & Wine influence, and standout track “Brave” was immediately reminescent of Radiohead’s “Just” for me, though I can’t necessarily pinpoint why. However, I by no means wish to give the impression that Heypenny are merely stealing and rehashing the styles of other bands, as that is most definitely not the case. No two songs on Spoons’ better exemplify the undeniably unique style of Heypenny than “Secreterror”, on which Ben plays a ceiling fan as an instrument, and “Parade”. The latter of these two masterpieces is easily one of the best songs of the last few years, and you’d be hard-pressed to find a more enjoyable five minutes of music anywhere (seriously). You know what, this just in: “Parade” is so good it gets it’s own paragraph.
“Parade” opens with a slow, brief intro, before erupting into a cacophony of exuberance and enjoyment. Though the instrumentation is unique and the top-notch production sets it apart from other songs of the lo-fi indie-pop genre, Elkins appears to channel the whimsical stylings of The Unicorns in the vocals and lyrics here (sample lyric: “I. Like. Chocolate cake./Bring me a few pieces… Make a fist, cram the chocolate in/Yeah, it tastes bloody, but you keep mashing it down”… brilliant). “Parade” and the aforementioned “Secreterror”, as well as “Seems So Small” (which features a strings section), are great testaments to the astounding production of the album, which was produced by Elkins, who worked along side Charles Allison, and is some of the finest lo-fi production in recent memory, on par with Isaac Brock’s recent work for Wolf Parade on Apologies To The Queen Mary.
As you’ve probably gathered, I really like Heypenny and think they’re pretty great. Unfortunately, Ben and the gang have no formal plans to tour outside of the Nashville area until at least mid-to-late April, but in Zack’s excellent interview with him he described the Heypenny live experience as a cross between “Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood on PBS and avalanches on Discovery Channel”, so you should definitely do everything you can to see them if the opportunity presents itself. I can’t [highly recommend] buying Use These Spoons enough, and you can do so here or at select indie record stores in the Nashville and Chattanooga area. Though relatively unknown now, Heypenny have world domination on their to-do list, and with a debut album like this, you can expect them to follow through.
MP3s:
“Parade” - Heypenny [highly highly recommended]
“Brave” - Heypenny [highly recommended]
“Secreterror” - Heypenny [highly recommended]