Austin Sound

We loved Hollywood Gossip’s recently released debut album, You’re So Quiet, the kind of pure shot of pop perfection that grabs you and doesn’t let go. The local quartet is exuberant and draws justified comparisons to any number of top poppers, but the group also has a distinctly Austin flavor to their songs, reveling in a willfully youthful and resistant celebration of refusing to let maturity take hold without a fight, even as it inevitably impedes with reality. As Jonathan Richman once implored, “Don’t let our youth go waste,” so we recommend you catch Hollywood Gossip this Saturday, January 24 at Club DeVille as they help Built By Snow release their new album. Also on the bill are the Bubbles and The McKenzies.

Profile: Hollywood Gossip

Year Formed:

2007

Members/Instruments played:

Tyler Womack — Vocals + Rhythm Guitar
Justin Crowell — Lead Guitar, Keyboard, Harmonica, Pedal Steel, Back-up vocals
Cory Ryan — Bass + Vocals
Tom Hudson — Drums + Percussion

Former Bands/Side Projects:

Tom Hudson — Silver Scooter, Subset, The Hackberries, Bright & Hollow Sky, Western Keys
Justin Crowell — The B. Sterling Band
Tyler & Cory are “band virgins”

Albums:

2008: You’re So Quiet EP — Self-Released

Influences:

The Smiths, the Decemberists, Saturday Looks Good to Me, the Lucksmiths, the Smoking Popes, Ted Leo & the Pharmacists, the Long Winters

Strangest comment or comparison ever made about your music:

One blogger said we “looked like a guitar picnic”, causing her “food daydreams.” Every now and then, we get compared to They Might Be Giants.

Favorite local bands:

The Octopus Project, Til We’re Blue or Destroy, San Saba County, Ringo Deathstarr, Canopy, Brazos, the Minotaurs, the Lovely Sparrows, Neiliyo.

Favorite local venue:

Club DeVille, inside or out.

Upcoming shows scheduled:

Saturday, January 24th with Built By Snow, the Bubbles and the McKenzies;
Wednesday, February 4th with Built By Snow and Harlem

Shows over the next month that you’re excited to see:

Los Campesinos at the Parish and the Morning Benders at Stubb’s. I think we all want to see Andrew Bird, but none of us got tickets in time.

Some of your favorite albums from the past year:

Los Campesinos! “Hold on Now, Youngster!”; Army Navy “S/T”; Wild Beasts “Limbo, Panto”;
Thao Nguyen “We Brave Bee Stings and All”; TV on the Radio, “Dear Science”

Ideal band (past or present) to open for on a national tour:

Superchunk

Austin Sound questions:
Sure, there’s lots of good Hollywood gossip, but give us some dirt on the Austin scene!

White Denim donate half of their proceeds to the Church of Scientology, where former member Bishop Massive is an OT-level IV.

Trail of Dead have custom drum sticks made from Janis Joplin’s femurs.

Haven’t seen Voxtrot in a while? Try the Hideout on Friday nights. They’re all part of an improv troupe called “Mothers, Sisters, Daughters and Wives.”

Y’all are one the poppiest damn bands we’ve heard in a while, so name one thing that you hate about indie pop music?

Singing poorly on purpose. It might be cute for a song or two, but after that, it gets trite. No one would laud a band for being unable to play their guitars or keep time.

For this reason, we send 10% of our profits to the National Indie Pop Voice Lesson Foundation. It was started by US Representative Sonny Bono in 1996 after seeing a Tullycraft show in his home city of Palm Springs.

Song Introduction:

“Bicycle” is half-fictitious. The song is about love frustrated by ulterior circumstances. At some point, you get old enough that you stop believing the dream girl is going to leave her lame boyfriend for you. But there’s still something there, and you still make romantic overtures. In “Bicycle,” the trips to the bicycle shop (East Side Pedal Pushers) is fictitious. The middle fingers were not.

“Bicycle” was actually saved from the scrap pile by Justin in the early days of Hollywood Gossip. Then, of course, Cory provided very trademark backing vocals. Tom was the first drummer that was able to really nail the song. Everyone else tried to make it a samba. It’s our most requested song.

Sound Off:

Hollywood Gossip thinks that the best venue to possibly see a band is at a house party. And not just any house party: The best ones are packed, hot, with half of the crowd in college or under 21. There must be moving bodies, but not enough room to really dance. You want it in a big, old house, inside, and if it’s really good, you can feel the floor shake. The band should be resolutely energetic, and there has to be at least one cover song in the set. These are the shows you really remember, years later. We think Austin had more shows like this in the past. We’d like to see more shows like this in the future.

Mp3 from You’re So Quiet:
Bicycle

Website:
Myspace