Kasey Anderson & the Honkies’ Hit the Road; and Release Music Video “The Wrong Light”

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PORTLAND SHOWS:

  • 5/18/11 – Mississippi Studios (with Gasoline Silver) – Portland, OR
  • 5/28/11 – Mississippi Studios (with Sera Cahoone) – Portland, OR


Official website: http://www.kaseyanderson.com
Myspace page: http://www.myspace.com/kaseyanderson

Seattle and Portland-based Kasey Anderson & The Honkies have a lot going on.  The band has just released their debut full-length, “Heart of a Dog” (Red River Records), and with the album’s release are releasing the music video for the album’s first single, “The Wrong Light.”

See the music video at http://vimeo.com/20160548?ab

The band’s Daytrotter session was recently released, too.
Daytrotter session: http://www.daytrotter.com/dt/kasey-anderson-concert/20032242-37382272.html

Also, the band has recently released an iPhone app: http://itunes.apple.com/app/kasey-anderson-the-honkies/id418992858?mt=8

TOUR DATES:

  • 5/18/11 – Mississippi Studios (with Gasoline Silver) – Portland, OR
  • 5/19/11 – Great American Music Hall (with The Knitters) – San Francisco, CA
  • 5/20/11 – The Mystic Theatre (with The Knitters) – Petaluma, CA
  • 5/22/11 – Amnesia (with Gasoline Silver) – San Francisco, CA
  • 5/25/11 – Bar Pink (with Gasoline Silver) – San Diego, CA
  • 5/27/11 – Redwood Bar (with Gasoline Silver) – Los Angeles, CA
  • 5/28/11 – Mississippi Studios (with Sera Cahoone) – Portland, OR
  • 6/11/11 – Tractor Tavern (with Lazy Susan) – Seattle, WA
  • 6/18/11 – King Cat Theatre (with Soul Asylum) – Seattle, WA

Comprised of Kasey Anderson (vocals, guitar, percussion), Andrew KcKeag (guitar, vocals), Eric Corson (bass), and Mike Musburger (drums), Kasey Anderson & The Honkies bring a wealth of a “who’s who” of Northwest rock to their latest offering.  McKeag has spent time in Presidents of the United States of America and The Long Witers, Corson in The Long Winters and, of course, Musburger from The Fastbacks, Young Fresh Fellows, The Posies, The Supersuckers, and countless other cult Seattle power-pop and indie-rock bands.

“Heart of a Dog,” which was produced by Kasey Anderson and The Honkies and Jordan Richter features guest appearances by The Decemberists’ Jenny Conlee (accordion), Richmond Fontaine’s Dave Harding (bass), and several other friends and fellow NW musicians.

With all this going for it, it is no surprise that “Heart of a Dog” has allowed Anderson to move beyond the “roots-rock” or “alt. country” tags he’s previously been welcomed with, and make the rock record he’s envisioned for quite some time.

“I was tired of playing solo shows and I was even more tired of the words ‘roots rock,’” Anderson says by way of explanation. “I just wanted to make a rock ‘n’ roll record.”

Comprised of ten tracks that cannot be mistaken for anything other than rock ‘n’ roll, from the sinister riff of the album’s opening track, “The Wrong Light,” to the barroom piano of the plaintive closer, “For Anyone,” “Heart of a Dog” captures an energy that Anderson insists can come only when “everybody’s in the same room, at the same time.”

To further ensure that each song carried its own immediacy, Anderson – who made his first foray into the producer’s chair on “Heart of a Dog” – refused to play guitar while tracking with his band. “The natural tendency of any ‘backing band’ is to follow the lead of the guy who wrote the songs, especially when he’s got a guitar,” Anderson says. “I wanted to let the band dictate the groves.”

McKeag, a veteran of the Seattle music scene for nearly two decades (with service in The Supersuckers, The Long Winters, and Presidents of the USA to his credit), handles the responsibility ably, filling “Heart of a Dog” with an impressive array of guitar work, from the Stonesy swagger of “Mercy” to the bluesy, Waitsian stomp of “Revisionist History Blues.” Even the album’s more somber material – “Your Side of Town” and “My Blues, My Love” – feature sprawling, atmospheric guitar. “Heart of a Dog” bears the same beautifully literate lyricism that has become a hallmark of Anderson’s work but, in allowing room for McKeag and The Honkies to shine, Anderson has opened up sonic possibilities left unexplored on his previous albums.

Once the band had finished tracking, Anderson invited friends by the studio to, as he says, “play whatever they wanted so long as it was interesting.” Ralph Huntley (Richmond Fontaine), Jenny Conlee (The Decemberists), Garth Klippert (Old Light), Lewi Longmire (Blue Giant), and David Lipkind (I Can Lick Any SOB in the House) all dropped in, leaving Anderson with “more good noise than [he] knew what to do with.”

As Anderson and co-producer/engineer Jordan Richter sorted through all of the “good noise,” they found one very interesting common thread: laughter. “There was somebody laughing at the end of every take, no matter how good or bad,” Anderson says. “Not nervous or embarrassed laughter. Excited laughter; people having fun. We left some of it in. If people listen to this record as loud as I want them to, they’ll hear it.”