Howling Bells - HowlingBells

Tue 18th Jul, 2006 in Music Reviews

“Dude, the singer from Waikiki was definitely looking at me”.

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah, she was making eyes with me”.

While I have never been one hundred percent certain of what the term ‘making eyes’ actually means. I am certain that our bass player believed that Juanita Stein (the then lead singer of Waikiki) was infatuated with him and had been staring in his general direction for most of the bands pre show ritual. Now I do not claim to be a master of interpreting the advances or motives of women (especially up and coming rock stars) but I do believe that if Juanita Stein was gazing in my friend’s direction it was probably more of a questionary look as to whether the human head has always so closely resembled that of our more primordial ancestors than any attempt at mateship.

Waikiki played a strong set that night. However, the audience seemed slightly lost as the band dispersed their hit pop numbers such as ‘Here Comes September’ with more ambient (dare I say even progressive tunes). The sad truth of the matter seemed to be that mixing pop/rock sensibilities with more intricate numbers doesn’t really appease anyone. The people who liked the pop songs were at the bar for most of the night and those who may have liked the other side of Waikiki probably never made it past the pop choruses to the gig. Soon after this Waikiki disappeared into the Australian music scene abyss with Juanita Stein helping out on the Give Goods release ‘I Want To Kill a Rich Man’ (along with Paul Dempsey of Something For Kate and Evan Dando) and very little else occurring.

But here they are! The heart of Waikiki (minus a guitarist and plus a bass player), returning with a new band The Howling Bells releasing a powerful, original and consistent debut long player. In fact it is nearly unfair of me to bring up my little brush with Waikiki fame as this work is far more musically and emotionally mature than even the best of their former band. Opening with ‘The Bell Hit’, Joel Stein wields some haunting guitar lines that meander through some dark instrumentation and sweet breathy vocals from his sister and arrive at a moody alt-country chorus.

The first single from the CD is ‘Low Happening’ and moves into a more familiar tempo with some powerful vocal deliverance from Juanita that are punctuated by a slick rhythm section and some scattered, unusual guitar work. While this song has the characteristics of a lead single (up tempo, rocky and barely three minutes) the true strength of the album is the depth of the material and the overall mood (which makes you feel as though you have stumbled into your local saloon circa the spaghetti western era) and to separate any individual tunes from such an album may be selling the work short.

The producer of the Howling Bells release is none other than Ken Nelson (whose other credits include Coldplay) who contributes much to the tight, brooding and sometimes downright eerie nature of the tunes. Indeed, his work on the track ‘Across the Avenue’ alone is worth what I can only imagine would be a hefty price tag. The song starts with a simplistic guitar riff and Juanita’s tempting vocals and swings into a dreamy band entry that builds to a controlled chaos, dripping with delayed vocals and guitar lines that are reminiscent of Radiohead’s ‘Climbing Up the Walls’ from OK Computer minus the explosion of a Thom Yorke finale.

I can understand why the team behind Waikiki decided to take the gamble to abandon the image that had been forged by their early successes. In this instance the risk has reaped great plunders and the band deserves their early UK and Australian success. Even after hitting the teens in the number of times I have played this release I still cannot pinpoint any direct bands that encompass what the Howling Bells are doing. If pressed the list would include Radiohead (particularly in production qualities), some earlier Augie March in the minor sound of the ballads and a healthy dose of garage rock that echoes some bands like the Killers and builds from Juanita’s work with the Give Goods. With this said the album blends all this into a tight, nearly conceptual package that never abandons the dark and evocative mood it creates. The Howling Bells have crafted a fine debut album and one that is worthy of a space in your CD collection.

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