The Hourly Radio - Live

Last Saturday (the 23rd), I got a chance to see The Hourly Radio open, along with Stars of Track and Field, for Shiny Toy Guns at the Webster Theatre in Hartford. Their debut album, History Will Never Hold Me, was released last year, and since then the band has been touring like banshees, crisscrossing the country over and over again, steadily building up their fan base and playing larger shows.

The night I saw them, they were first up, and played to an audience that was slowly growing primarily to see Shiny Toy Guns. If you didn't read my review of the album from February (here it is if you care), it really sounds to me like an homage to new wave / Brit-pop. I could be completely off with that assessment, but that's what my ears enjoy most about the band. It could have been the sound system (or the person manning the sound board), but that sound failed to completely come across in their live show. The album has been out for a while now, so maybe the band is shifting directions and growing in ways that differ from where they were in 2006. I'll have to wait until the next album to see, but in the meantime, I will continue to enjoy their debut.

Before going to the show, I was able to ask Ryan Short, guitarist for the group, some questions:

You guys have crisscrossed the country on tour in a little over one month. Any plans you have to relax once you're done?

RS: Not really... we are looking to be on the road most of the summer and the rest of the year. We'll get a couple weeks at home, but we'll be working on new material, etc...

'06 was a fairly big year for you with your debut album placing high on a lot of people's lists (Billboard, Music Slut, Torr, etc...). How has this year been to you and what do you hope to accomplish in the last 6 months of it?

RS: 2006 was great and we were glad the album was received so well by the press, but 2007 has been more about getting the music and our live show out there to people. There are still a ton of people who have no idea who we are so the fact that our record was on a best of list doesn't mean much. With the last 6 months we just hope to keep playing to bigger and bigger audiences. So far so good, our largest shows have all been our last few dates.

Do you already have some songs that you've been playing which will show up on the next album?

RS: On this tour we have been playing 2 new songs... some of form of those will probably show up on the next record.

Your tour plane crashes on a desert island. You can only one album to pick to listen to until you are rescued. What would it be?

RS: Wow we have a tour plane!?! Mine would be "Come Down" by Dandy Warhols. It has everything... 8 minute epic songs, slow burning shoegaze songs and pure pop songs.

What kind of music do you picture yourself playing in ten years?

RS: If I am still playing music in 10 years, at least as a career, then I imagine that means we had been fairly successful in our earlier years and we'd now be a little out of touch and doing some reunion tour and putting out a garbage record and trying to reclaim our youth and cash in.

The Hourly Radio - Crime Does Pay : History Will Never Hold Me

The Hourly Radio - He Said / She Said : History Will Never Hold Me

Visit their website, their label Kirtland Records, and become their friend on MySpace.

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Stars of Track and Field - Centuries : Centuries Before Love And War

Shiny Toy Guns - You Are The One : We Are Pilots