Can it be a tip-off if we’ve talked about the band several times before? Who cares? Heypenny has a new album coming out next week and a tour to support it, so we want to make sure you know about it. Check out our review and hear the first single below.
The new album A Jillion Kicks has been a long time coming. Originally recorded in Nashville and London, that version was scrapped and followed by a successful Kickstarter campaign that gave them the opportunity to try it again. Round two took place in Chattanooga, and from the final product – it was clearly the right choice.
AJK “kicks” off with the song “Purple Street,” which comes out swinging with a tight minimalist beat, heavy synth bass and singer Ben Elkins declaration of “I want to know what you’re about.” It’s a perfect opening statement from a band whose dance anthems are never short on the latter half of that phrase – anthem. Heypenny has always made the call to party down sound like a matter of life or death, one in which the audience is just as crucial a part of the movement as the band, and that energy and immediacy has been captured masterfully on AJK.
Elkins vocals regularly crackle with the same kind of nervous energy as Steve Bays from Hot Hot Heat, but he also demonstrates a softer more melodic ability as well. This duality gets put to good use as several of the songs on the album shift between herky-jerky post rock to cool-down melodic passages that help showcase the band’s impressively ambitious approach to making the kids dance, giving the songs an epic feeling of several different movements within each song.
Simply put, A Jillion Kicks is just as inventive and fun as the best work from the Flaming Lips, but one you can dance your ass off to as well. One of our favorite live acts for a long time, Heypenny now has the distinction of also having one of our favorite albums too.
Check out the first single and lead off track “Purple Street” here.
A Jillion Kicks will be available at www.heypenny.com on 2/22/11. The band will have copies of AJK available at all dates of this tour, so those lucky towns on the first week of it can get their copy early.
2.16.11 The Bishop – Bloomington, IN #
2.17.11 Melody Inn – Indianapolis, IN #
2.18.11 Cosmic Charlie’s – Lexington, KY #, &
2.19.11 The Duck Inn – Evansville, IN #, $
2.20.11 Off Broadway – St. Louis, MO
2.25.11 JJ’s Bohemia – Chattanooga, TN
2.26.11 Mercy Lounge – Nashville, TN
3.10.11 Whitewater Tavern – Little Rock, AR %
3.13.11 Rogue – Fayetteville, AR @
3.15.11 Canton Co-op – FREE SHOW – Dallas, TX *
3.16 – 3.20.11 SXSW – Austin, TX
3.24.11 Star Bar – Atlanta, GA
3.31.11 Knitting Factory – Brooklyn, NY
4.02.11 Balliceaux – Richmond, VA
4.08.11 Gilligans – Murfreesboro, TN
# – w/ Andy D
& – w/ Big Fresh
$ – w/ The Features
@ – w/ Colourmusic
% – w/ Bonnie Montgomery
* – w/ Ha Ha Tonka
Leave a Reply