THE HELLTONES – “EVERY TIME YOU PICK A FIGHT”
A SPILL EXCLUSIVE MUSIC PREMIERE
Oakland garage rockers The Helltones bring a beachy, modern doo-wop vibe to their new album Medusa (out Nov. 17), drawing inspiration from psychedelic surf, soulful Americana & retro rhythm and blues. Its harmonized backing vocals, sun-kissed hand claps, grooving organ and overdriven guitar create a cinematic album about love, addiction, picking fights, making up and navigating adulthood while maintaining your sanity.
Primary songwriter Darwin Siegaldoud started playing guitar when he was eight years old in Santa Barbara, CA, but only began treating it as a medium for self expression after high school, when he spent a year living in Israel on a kibbutz on the outskirts of Haifa.
“During that kibbutz year,” says Siegaldoud, “I had these two Canadian neighbors who were both rippin’ musicians. One was a fingerstyle guitar player who liked country. He’d always play Johnny Cash and Old Crow Medicine Show songs. The other guy was a producer who had Ableton on his laptop, and he showed me the basics of recording. After work we had all this time with nowhere to go and nothing to do. I just asked them to teach me. Teach me scales. Teach me songs. They did, and after a while it sank in.”
He moved back to Santa Barbara for a year before relocating to Oakland to study sound recording. The Helltones formed during the collapse of Siegaldoud’s early punk outfit Butch Nasty & the Blackout Kids (2012-2016). As the Blackout Kids fell apart in what Siegaldoud calls a “whirlwind of drug abuse and conflict,” Siegaldoud and drummer Paul Bowman decided it was time to start fresh. The two of them came up with a name, wrote a couple songs, and started playing as a guitar and drums two-piece called The Helltones. As the band and sound matured they added bass player Shane Lawton and guitarist Nathan Moody to fill out the sound.
Their 2018 EP Poltergeist was primarily about the demise of Butch Nasty & the Blackout Kids. “It felt like my family fell apart,” says Siegaldoud. “I was playing bass and didn’t contribute much in the way of songwriting. As it was ending I knew that to continue moving forward, to continue doing this thing I love, I’m going to have to start a new family. I’m proud of the songs on Poltergeist, but you can tell it’s a band figuring out how to be a band.”
Their Lazarus LP (2020) is centered around frustration with work, relationships, and life inertia. “I was bartending in Berkley and making good money. I was physically comfortable but felt like a failure, like I was allowing my life to drift onward without direction. I ended up self-sabotaging my way out of my job, my relationship, and my house. I lived in my rehearsal space for almost a year after that, and that’s when all the songs on Lazarus got written.”
They released The Helltones EP in 2021, a lo-fi collection of their earliest recordings. Bowman left the band in 2021 to move back to his hometown, and they brought in Cairo McCockran (drums) who Siegaldoud met while teaching.
Medusa opens with “Mike and Laura,” a sweet, mellow, doo-wop junkie love song. It’s about Mike Wright, the songwriter and guitarist of Butch Nasty, and Mike’s girlfriend Laura. Both lived with Siegaldoud as the band was breaking up. The two of them were in their own Sid & Nancy downward spiral of heroin abuse and addiction. “So you wanna feel good? Alright,” sings Siegaldoud. “Wanna lose yourself, tonight / I ain’t fakin’ so baby take my arm and let’s go.”
“Every Time You Pick a Fight” is an energetic, proto-punk rocker reminiscent of Detroit Cobras’ primitive rock n’ roll, especially as we get into the ripping guitar solo bookended by hand claps, girl group gang vocals and Siegaldoud’s howling voice.
The surfy bossa nova “I Hear Her Singing” is about the exhilaration of coming out of the pandemic quarantine to finally see live music again. Its laid-back organ and guitar groove meshed with the syncopated rhythm section conveys the imagery of a perfect night out. Maybe you’re moving through the dancefloor of a Mexican restaurant with a band playing, drinking with friends after such a long hiatus. “The sun goes down and twilight’s dusty halo / puts a restless feeling in my heart / the city calls and boy you know I listen / cause I don’t want to miss out on my part,” Siegaldoud sings.
The soulful “Nothing Compares to You” begins with a slow and stately bassline. The stripped down and intimate composition leaves space for the hauntingly tender organ before building to an explosive chorus. This epic love song lands somewhere between the sincerity of Alabama Shakes and the raw emotional intensity of Otis Redding.
The Sam Cooke via Marvin Gaye “When We’re Moving” continues that ’70s R&B feeling and the theme of longing to go out dancing with your friends. Its smooth dance groove drifts around Siegaldoud’s velvety voice as he sings, “When we’re moving / like the wind in the sycamore trees / I could die, I could die / It feels so fine.”
“Don’t Waste My Time” was co-written with singer Victoria Sepe who takes the lead vocals on this one. This retro rock n’ roll party banger delves into themes of possessiveness between lovers, to the point of sabotaging the relationship. It’s a get on board with me, or get off the ship kind of song.
The kickass Black Heart Procession meets Ennio Morricone intro to “All My Heart” leads into a four-on-the-floor surf-disco beach party. It’s one of those happy songs with bittersweet lyrics. It’s about knowing that on paper this person is perfect, but you still can’t say “I love you” like you mean it. It’s as though someone put Barry Manilow’s “Copacabana” into an indie rock blender and poured us a daiquiri of cool.
“Black Star Pirate BBQ” was written and sung by drummer Cairo McCockran about the greatest secret BBQ spot in the Bay Area. Unfortunately, it’s gone now, so we’re all out of luck. “Don’t You Worry” is a gentle acoustic tune about being on tour and missing your loved ones, all the while being wowed by the beauty of the road, particularly the Utah salt flats under a starry sky.
“Love Will Come” digs into the symbiotic relationship between an artist and their audience. “You Oughta Know,” written and sung by guitarist Nathan Moody, is a chillcore bop about how the family you find can be stronger than the one you were born into. The Motown-infused “Intentions” is about that stage in a relationship when you want to make a real commitment. Album closer “Jealousy” is about how that emotion in particular can destroy a relationship.
As with The Mythical Medusa, this album is about taking your demons, chopping their heads off, and using their severed heads to turn your other demons into stone. These songs are about the sultry, savage internal world of The Helltones, brimming with love, conflict, sweat, and twangy guitars. They’re about the risk of making yourself vulnerable by putting your emotions front and center, but knowing that that’s what it takes to make a relationship work. Medusa’s gaze turned her victims to stone, but The Helltones break through the pain and hard times with an album that exudes soulful heartache and energetic fun in equal measure.
ARTIST QUOTE
The Helltones
Medusa
(Independent)
Release Date: November 17, 2023
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