THE HMMM

Hailing from Los Angeles, the fun tween bop sensation The Hmmm has released a down-loadable EP entitled “Kiss Me Until We Dive” that you can download by following the link. Recently I caught up with the boys in The Hmmm for an interview:

What inspired you to get involved with music and develop the sound that is The HMMM?

Well, we actually started making music together while Jacob was living in Santa Fe and I was living in Los Angeles. So, there wasn’t a whole lot of discussion about what our sound is or where it would go.

Where do you live and where have you lived? What do you value about the community or scene in your area? Do you wish that somethings would change? Favorite club?

We both live in Los Angeles now and have temporary memory loss and can’t remember where we’ve been. We don’t go out much so we couldn’t talk about the scene. However, our favorite club is definitely Wig Out! at Bordello downtown. Its like a crazy cabaret costume party. Highly Recommend.

Do you often collaborate with other bands/artists, are you apart of any sort of music collective? What bands or artists have you connect with most on a personal level? Who would most like to work with and why?

Collaborations, we do have some collaborations on the full length. But its a secret for now. What band do we connect with on a personal level…as a single entity we have a love affair with Häxor och Porr. We feel conspiracies coming up our pants. The people Hayden wants to work with most are Kate Bush, Kate Pierson, and Toyah Wilcox. It’ll be a fiery haired inferno of sound! Jacob wants to work with Missy Elliot.
(Hayden says “yeah me too!”)

Do you have any personal, political, spiritual, emotional or other views you specifically like to get across with your music? How do you plan to translate that to your audience, and how do you feel about their responses so far? What are your favorite books?

Our personal views are Save the Bees and Save the Whales. I think people dig the idea. They’re good to have around.

Hayden’s favorite books are written by V.C. Andrews and Silvia Browne. Jacob declined to answer.

Do you tour often or play shows often? Where have you been on tour that you would like to visit again? Favorite show you’ve played so far? Where would you like to visit? Where have you played that you like? Where would you like to play? Do you like touring or would you like to? What is the biggest obstacle you have when putting a tour together? Upcoming tour schedule? Booking information?

We honestly don’t play often. We’ve been working on our full length and putting together a new stage show and music video. Once we’re done with that we plan on playing a ton. We try and play at least once a month in Los Angeles so just keep checking the myspace for shows. Our favorite place to play is San Francisco…that city knows how to boogie.

We plan on playing a few shows throughout Europe this summer and we can’t wait. We’ll be posting more information and dates in the next couple of months. Booking information: wearehmmm@gmail.com

Biggest obstacle when putting together a show. Well, for our very first show we thought it would be a good idea to build a big whale that would blow bubbles and look super cool. Well, we built the whale but it was hardly super cool and it didn’t exactly blow the bubbles anywhere.

So, now we’re all about fly girls.

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Here is what Colin from the Gay Mens Social Crisis had to say:

http://www.socialcrisis.net

Posted on February 27th, 2009 by Colin

So I still check my MySpace. Yes. I know Facebook is superior. But I still check my personal MySpace about about two to three times a week. Because I am an internet addict who blogs.

Normally I immediately reject any friend requests from bands who I do not know. Recently, however, I made an expception to the rule because this one band had such a sweet picture. I took a second, listened to their music, and was blown away. As I’ve expressed before, I am a sucker for lo-fi sound. Also a sucker for lo-fi electronic music. And these guys sucked me in with their charm and grace and amazing style, and as I can’t seem to find anyone who’s blogged about them, I had to do it here.

Gentlemen, please meet The Hmmm.

The Hmmm are two dudes, Hayden and Jacob, who claim to be husbands. They out in L.A. who have totally fresh style and do a totally post electro-clash version of lo-fi indie electro. Also, I have mad internet crush on both these boys. They’re way cute, which always makes music sound better, right? I sure hope they’re swingers, because I would love to get in between that.

Reasons why they are the most crush-able lesser known indie act online after the jump.

1) After accepting their friend request, they sent me a picture of Spike from Gremlins 2: The New Batch (one of the greatest movies of all time I might add) while he’s still in Mogwai form playing around in a vat of colorful candies. See below:

This immediately internet endeared them to me as they obviously took the time to recognize we were now internet friends and to send me a picture of something that I specifically would appreciate. (Boys, please take note: I instantly crush on people who are into crazy imagery, please send me pictures of alternative icons and nostalgia. Extra points for creating cool Photoshop collages or blingies or sparkly .gifs.)

2) They have amazing fan art already. This dude made this for them and it makes me die because it’s so cute.

3) They have mad awesome personal style. Check out the following images. I totally want to party with these dudes.

Also, great facial hair!

4) They bake!

5) Their music is actually pretty fresh. While I’m a sucker for the genre, I think it’s actually pretty great quality. It’s like Magnetic Fields meets Casiotone for the Painfully Alone meets Beat Happening meet M83 or something like that. I dunno, I wasn’t a music major in college. Just did digital art. Hard for me to determine influences and musical history and all that. Do you have your post 2k music history textbook handy?

While I wanted to post some mp3s here for download, I couldn’t find any because they have not been blogged about on Hype Machine. So you’ll have to listen to it streaming off their MySpace page. Enjoy these fresh beats, guys. Hope you all crush on them as hard as I do.

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review by: http://www.myspace.com/deltamagnet

Musical entertainment arrived in the form of "The Hmmm" a eager-to-please couple from Los Angeles.

The majority of their songs shared the beach as inspiration. I enjoyed their insistence on the innocence of their work. While not shy about their sexuality they insisted on clarifying the song title, "Everyone I Know is Gray."

As a gay man, I recognize one of the limitations of our community is a near religious attachment to the power of popular culture. Particularly cinema and music. A retro radio throwaway like, "Where the Boys Are," becomes for us a landmark when sung publicly as prior generations might have sung it themselves in their bedrooms trying to imagine a masculinity that would permit its playfulness.

The Hmmm's suspenseful arrangement of this song, delivered that moment with an ease that guided the crowd past the sexuality of the entertainers and onward toward emotion.

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here is the write up we have on http://www.musicmedley.com

Supplied with mustaches for nutrients and power, please welcome this new Los Angeles duo called The Hmmm. Grabbing components from their electronic background and mixing them with synthesized steel drums and cute tales of ocean and travel make for a vacation to a quirky tropical paradise.

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Here is the write up we have on http://sockformation.blogspot.com

The Hmmm

You lucky, lucky people. I have a real treat for you here. I love hearing new music, and listen to an awful lot of it, so when something really stands out it makes it very special. Hayden & Jacob, otherwise known as The Hmmm, are making music that sounds like nothing else. If I had to compare them with somebody I suppose it would be an even more inventive version of Hot Chip.

They have kindly let me share one of their tracks with you, but check out their myspace for more. My personal favorite is probably 'Jacques Cousteau', which is just crazy in an excellent way.

Press

THE HMMM

Here is the write up we have on http://sockformation.blogspot.com

The Hmmm