Goodbye Blues

It might break your heart to know that The Hush Sound's third album,
Goodbye Blues, almost never existed. Nearing the end of 2006, the
Chicago foursome which formed in the very beginning of 2005 and
released their debut album, So Sudden, in October of the same year
was on the verge of bidding each other and their band adieu. They had
just released their sophomore effort, Like Vines (which has sold over
60,000 copies to date), through Pete Wentz's Decaydance imprint
on label Fueled By Ramen, but thankfully had embarked on a sold-out headlining tour which came to its pinnacle during a packed show at
Philadelphia's Theater of the Living Arts. Suddenly the band realized
that people cared, and then, even more importantly, that they did too.
Once we did the headlining tour, we realized there were all these people
coming to see us and saying how much they genuinely appreciate the music, says vocalist/pianist Greta Salpeter. We realized that we were part of something greater than all these little problems we had.
Goodbye Blues was actualized over the course of two months in Kevin
Augunas (Cold War Kids) North Hollywood studio, beginning in September of
2007. The album bridges an expanse between invitingly catchy pop buoyancy
and a certain emotional and intellectual depth The Hush Sound has never
fully explored before. Standout tracks like Medicine Man , Honey and
Hurricane reveal not only the group s new sense of maturity, but their
burgeoning skill for sculpting emotive, relatable songs that exist not just
as moments of music but as, what Greta sees as little pieces of art.

inspired by laney. done for my favorite band the hush sound. (www.myspace.com/thehushsound)
played with shutter speed today.
i really need to get to know my camera more.

barack obama t-shirt ftw.

the hush sound performing with boys like girls and hellogoodbye at kool haus in toronto, ontario on april 19th.

Poor Charlotte Hollis. She's been shunned by the community for decades, ever since the fateful night in 1927 when her lover was hacked apart with an axe. Her antebellum southern mansion is slated for the bulldozer, as it stands in the way of highway construction. Charlotte's only hope lies in her cousin Miriam (Olivia de Havilland), coming down from up north to help settle things. Miriam, however, has other designs. Together with her boyfriend Drew (Joseph Cotten), she embarks on a scheme to systematically drive Charlotte out of her mind (not a great leap) and get her mitts on the family fortune. From there, things only get more complicated. Charlotte puts the "gothic" in southern gothic, as a great showcase for completely bizarre, overwrought, and out-of-control performances from all involved. Agnes Moorehead plays Charlotte's loyal, disheveled housekeeper to the hilt, with an odd inflection that calls to mind Amos and Andy more than southern gentility. As the drunken, conniving Dr. Drew, Cotten's accent is indeterminate at times, and seems to come and go. As great as the supporting players are, though, the crown goes to Bette Davis as the shrieking Charlotte, a portrait of isolation and decay stuck in a world of tragic delusions inside her crumbling mansion. De Havilland is a close second as the scheming Miriam; the scene where she slaps the holy snot out of a hysterical Charlotte is itself worth the price of admission. Mary Astor (in her last role) and Cecil Kellaway (as a kindly Lloyd's of London adjuster) put in the only performances with any restraint, acting as counterweights for the rest of the cast. Besides, you'll never get another chance to see Joseph Cotten playing the harpsichord and singing, or caked in mud and lily pads! With Robert Aldrich's claustrophobic direction, Charlotte is as Southern as a field of kudzu, and as subdued as a train wreck. --Jerry Renshaw