September 17, 2004 | Posted by mark at 2:43 PM

No Promenades Here Until the End of the World

Haywood
Haywood - Bacon. We all have a go-to band. That cd all scratched up from being played so much. The one that never leaves your car. Haywood's "Men Called Him Mister" [Buy It] is one of those albums for me. This song in particular is the icing on the sweetest cake. A seven and a half minute waltz that deftly and beautifully retells the story of Footloose, Ted Pauly's masterpiece is that perfect song for driving home at night along a quiet, tree-lined road. I can't tell you how many times I threw this onto my cd player after another unsuccessful night out. It's just so perfect. A slide guitar reminscent of Mazzy Star, and Rob Viola's always spot-on drumming, this piece is nothing short of perfect.

So it's pretty exciting then that I get to announce a set of demos from Haywood's upcoming album. According to Viola, it will be an entirely-studio affair, so expect no touring. Described as a labor of love, the new album is being based around singer Ted Pauly's demos and are going to be heavily produced. The band has been broken up for several years now so I'm sure there's a lot to worked out in the songs and studio. Here are two to whet your appetite.

Haywood - Mermaid (demo)
Haywood - Your Bag (demo)


Your Bag is a great little acoustic rocker that name drops Nashua, NH and Montpelier, VT, which keeps a New England boy like me happy. Mermaid, you can imagine, is about mermaids, which should keep the rest of the robots happy. Keep in mind that these are rough, home-studio demos. So don't expect lots of gloss or sheen just yet. There are more where this came from, at varying levels of completion. Expect more in the future as things get more and more refined. I'm not expecting you guys to like Haywood as much as I do, but we should all be excited that such a great band is getting back together.

Comments

Aw. I too love Haywood, and these songs are really good, especially Mermaid.
Bacon has always been among my favorites, but I think a couple more of my favorites are "The Kids Are Taking Aim" (the theme song for my college radio show) and "Little Black Dress Club".
Viva La Haywood. Nice post, Mark.

Posted by: David at September 17, 2004 3:18 PM

All Haywood is good Haywood, but I'd like to give props to the ditties that first appeared on "Great Cats Give Chase" -- "My Self Empowerment Song," "Crosswords" and "Just Like Moths" in particular. Viva la Wood.

Posted by: j at September 17, 2004 3:38 PM

Hmm. I never gave Haywood the time of day back in the Age of Indie Rock. I have their split w/Mariner Nine (great band!), but must've not liked the track too much, because I can't for the life of me recall it now.

Regardless of the past, these two demos are particularly good. I like Mermaid a lot and Your Bag sounds eerily like another of my favorite indie-obscure bands, Minnetonka. Touchingly close and four-tracked sound that will (possibly) be ruined when the "real" album is cut.

Posted by: --s-tephen at September 17, 2004 7:01 PM
Post a comment









Human verification is easy! Type g in this box to prevent your comment from being rejected:


Remember personal info?

Human verification:

To help us fight the good fight against comment spam, you must enter your anti-spam key as indicated on the left. Don't forget to do this! Your comment may end up in the junk bin if you dont...