Lovehammers Release Heavy Crown by Ultimate-Guitar.com
Heavy Crown is the powerful new disc from Lovehammers, one of Chicago’s long-standing leading rock bands. The fifth full length from the band - Marty Casey (vocals), Billy Sawilchik (guitar), Dino Kourelis (bass), Bobby Kourelis (drums) - was produced by heavy-hitting producer Marti Frederickson (Aerosmith, Buckcherry, Pink, Faith Hill, Papa Roach) and restores faith that anthemic and heartfelt rock and roll can still thrive. Set for release July 21, the album includes 11 new and reworked studio tracks including thought-provoking, hook-injected airwave contenders and two bonus live versions of classic Lovehammers songs, "Eyes Can't See" and "Velvet.
With a back catalog of four albums and three EPs and friendships that date back to their Hickory Hills Little League days, the band’s chemistry can’t help but be special. It’s that chemistry that brought the guys together to create REEP Records, the label that will release Heavy Crown to the masses, with distribution through Fontana/INgrooves. "Lovehammers has been known to think outside the box and the release of Heavy Crown is no exception," says bassist Dino. He continues, "REEP - which stands for Record Executives Everyday People - will make decisions regarding singles, videos, touring, etc based on feedback from the real music experts - the fans.
Lovehammers’ renewed D.I.Y. attitude comes as the direct result of the band surviving the blessings and curses that came their way when vocalist Marty Casey became a household name, earning the adoration of millions of television viewers as the runner-up on the 2005 reality series "Rockstar INXS." The band was forced to alter their title to put Marty’s name in front for their lone Epic Records release. Now the foursome has come full circle by returning to the Lovehammers moniker. "We have control again and feel comfortable returning to our original name," says the frontman.
The new disc was originally planned as a remix album, with the band re-releasing some of its signature songs on its own terms. While in the studio, the album quickly turned into the band’s first new studio disc in three years. Heavy Crown kicks off with the band’s explosive opening salvo "Guns." The track is an ode to the servicemen and women who have given their lives while protecting our country. The chorus - "Let's pray for all those sweet lives/That die with a gun in their hands/Let's pray for all those sweet lives/That fight for our lives till the end" — reemphasizes the band’s dedication to honoring these men and women. Previously, the band created the "Shoebox Of Love" campaign which encouraged fans to donate care packages to those fighting abroad. To date, over 1000 packages have been sent and the band is working on their "Shoeboxes @ Home" campaign to support veterans.
Heavy Crown is Lovehammers firing on all cylinders," says Dino. Other standout tracks on the album include "Your Time, My Time," "Neverfall," "Oh My Baby," the uplifting title track, the in-your-face "Black Angel (Not Gonna Be The One)" and "Driving Blind," with its soaring chorus and strings performed by the Chicago Junior Symphony Orchestra. Marty hopes that each song finds a home: "I want ‘Your Time, My Time’ blasting a summer barbecue." As for the highly personal "Oh My Baby," Marty says that: "When you write the goodbye letter and watch someone you love walk off into the sunset, you don’t really want to mail it. You’d rather burn it."
Lovehammers - House of Blues, Feb 13, 2010 by Bent Nights
The first time that I saw the Swinging LoveHammers I knew that they were in bed with the devil. Stuck at the bottom of a no name bill on an off night at the Metro eleven years ago, they didn't have the aroma of brimstone about them or the blood of freshly sacrificed gerbils on there hands but something was amiss. What they did have was attention grabbing stage voltage, a ragged corrosive drive, a nuclear cohesion, sonic muscle, and an infectious buoyancy. For a bunch of Hickory Hills rockers that nobody had heard of they were clearly not what they appeared to be. The only rational explanation; Lucifer with his ankles behind his ears.
But I digress. The Swinging LoveHammers, Marty Casey and the Lovehammers, or just the Lovehammers are now a bona fide Chicago institution. Back in the early 80's the pre-adolescent nucleus of the band [lead vocalist Casey, Rob and Dino Kourelis, Ben Kelly] met at little league practice and after snatching up guitarist Billy Sawilchik, apart from developing daytime careers, set about being the little southside Chicago band that could. What set them apart besides a jolly midwestern work ethic and pure, unadulterated, vulgar talent was brains; these guys always had a knack for shrewdness, subtle calculation and FUNN. After cultivating a fan base through a rep for killer shows [without much in the way of press or airplay], there share of "battle of the bands" promotions, shrewd bookings [unlike most Chicago bands the Lovehamers would book no more than one gig a month to avoid over exposure] they settled into a lucrative existence that seemed almost too comfy. Until Casey, on a whim, auditioned for the INXS;Rockstar reality tv show. Was he serious? Hard to say even now. The idea of Casey being the late Micheal Hutchence's replacement isn't too far of a stretch but like the now vocal-less remaining Hammers one had to wonder. While Casey effortlessly became the favorite on the show even whipping up a single that INXS took to heart ["Trees," a hit single that not only gave Casey some heft but gave the INXS show some much needed credibility] it seemed a little obvious that the "Jack Scratch" suspicions that I had weren't too far off.
Of course if Casey had won it would have been the worst thing that could have happened to him. Never mind his talent, charm, and ass shaking brio or the once in a lifetime quality of his own band, Casey would have forever been Micheal Hutchence's replacement and nothing else. Ironically[or is it Mephistopheles again?] Casey had to "settle" for second place...a recording contract with Epic Records and the opening slot on INXS' world tour. Bedevilment or not Casey and the Hammers got what they deserved; worldwide exposure, a hit single all over the airwaves, and the heft of the biggest recording label in the universe at there backs. Only the devil could come up with such a neat, tidy, happy ending right?
Wrong. Marty Casey and the Lovehammers [Epic] had a corporate canned look and feel to it, although "generic" is a better word. The presence of "Trees" bolstered sales as did the tour but the cd almost worked against them. Here was a band loaded with personality to spare buffed, shrunk, homogenized, and neutered beyond recognition. The tip off was the cover; except for the slight smile crossing Dino's face they look expressionless, unhappy, and zombiefied[think of Invasion of the Body Snatchers]. After the tour the Hammers got the hell out from under the "Sony tree" just as fast as there legs could carry them and set about getting there, for lack of a better word, "soul" back.
The result of there reclaimed independence is last year's Heavy Crown [REEP Records] which the Lovehammers have taken the pains to roll out carefully month after month on a national trajectory. But what it means for the band is hardly "new product." After two years of reconfiguring how to get there music out without a major label or a supportive industry [face it, in the last four years everything about the recording industry and how we get our music has changed] the Hammers quit playing nice.
Heavy Crown, which is the most balanced, eclectic, and confident album that the band has produced is a good place to start. It's got it's share of breezy midtempo songs["Your Time, My Time," "Oh My Baby"], ballistic rockers["Loaded"], and shadowy near goth ["Black Angel(Not Gonna be the One)"], but it's really just a hint as to where they are now. The sold out HOB gig Valentine's weekend answered that in spades; they went apeshit from the jump. Opening with a ferocious "Loaded" by the fourth song Casey was already in the audience singing his heart out---it was THAT kind of show. It got nuttier as the evening went on. "Straight As An Arrow" and "This Town" were particularly aggressive but the corker was "Eyes Can't See" where the band was joined onstage by a delirious twelve year old girl who jammed out with them on air guitar. It got nuttier still. Acknowledging Valentine's Day Casey invited a couple onstage to dance with the band on "Trees." His selection, a guy on an internet date with a young lady from Manchester England who had never been in Chicago before. To say that her fizziness stole the show is an understatement. And still it got nuttier, so much in fact that they kept stopping the show while giddily going off the rails.
What was mesmerizing about this particular show though was that the Lovehammers seem to keep getting better as time goes on [Hades again?]. Casey remains fleet and playful, a highly approachable front man with an affectionate appeal that radiates to the back of the house whether he's leading a conga-line of kids onstage or climbing up into the HOB's balconies from the main floor. Sawilchik, whose always had a slightly slutty humor[he introduced this writer to the joys of Bettie Page] has evolved into a meticulous craftsman with an abundance of heart; his playing is articulate, economical, and blatantly expressive without sacrifice. The Kourelis Brothers, Dino [on bass] and Rob [on skins] have an off putting violence and articulation in there playing; they're at once muscular, driven, nuanced, and merciless without being overbearing. What was great about them a decade ago has gotten grander with time and there's a cohesion that I've rarely seen in bands that have been together this long. I still don't know if the devil is behind all of this but at this point I don't care. The Lovehammers are the BOMB.
Lovehammers Crowning Achievement by Illinois Entertainer - COVER
Each time an INXS song pops up on the radio, a split-second is devoted to re-imagining the tune with Marty Casey’s voice in place of the late Michael Hutchence. For anyone who avidly followed Casey’s television journey on the CBS reality show, “Rock Star: INXS,” where the chart-topping Australian group searched for a new lead singer, the practice doesn’t seem all that odd. Casey did stick it out in the competition to second place. The insufferable J.D. Fortune ended up taking the top prize, but did Casey’s fans really feel slighted by the loss?
Despite the “Marty Parties” that sprung up around Chicago’s South Side so friends, family, and peripheral supporters could gather and cheer the towheaded singer, one could sense that returning home with runner-up status was more coveted than going out on tour to fill a dead man’s shoes. The exposure being on a weekly TV show for Casey and his longtime band, Lovehammers, alone was worth the trouble.
“Simply being on television for three months – 30 million people around the world see what you do. That’s a really amazing experience to get to kind of live through,” Casey says. “I could play for 1,000 people a night every single night for the next 25 years . . . to get in front of that many faces.”
Not that the rest of the Lovehammers (bassist Dino Kourelis, drummer Bobby Kourelis, and guitarist Billy Sawilchik) were thrilled when Casey announced his Los Angeles-bound plans.
“Initially, when I said, ‘Hey guys, I’m gonna be on this show,’ they were really against it. But, I really never felt better doing something that everybody else felt was so wrong. I just knew this was an opportunity and I just took advantage of it even though a lot of people didn’t really stand behind me to do it,” Casey recalls. “But, I just knowingly understood that it would be a good thing, not only for me, but for the Lovehammers.”
Casey’s next venture – serving as the lead singer for ’80s glam-metal band L.A. Guns on a world-wide tour – flummoxed his bandmates and Hammerheads (the endearing term given to fans of the band) alike. After 20 years together, what did this mean for the band? Was this a break or an indefinite hiatus? L.A. Guns – really?
“I wrote a record for them. I was hired to do that and [at] the end of writing it their singer quit and they’re like, ‘Why don’t you sing?’ It’s not something I really set out to do, it’s just an opportunity that crossed my path and [I] knew contractually exactly how long it would last,” Casey explains. “I said, ‘I really want to go around the world playing music. I want to do that. I want to go to different continents,’ and the vehicle to do that at that point in time was L.A. Guns.”
“The band’s never really excited about me taking any adventure outside of [Lovehammers] and I completely understand that. A lot of times people aren’t happy with decisions that take you outside of a comfort zone,” Casey says.
Fans can breathe easy now that Casey’s cross-continental jaunt is over and he’s back with the band and a new album – although in his mind the fears were never warranted. “I never felt like I left in the first place and I always knew that there was a record to come,” Casey insists.
The trajectory of Lovehammers’ fifth full-length album, Heavy Crown (REEP), took an unexpected turn. Originally promoted as a collection of b-sides and alternate versions of previously released material, Casey initiated the notion that the record should consist of new, original songs. Through the band’s Web site, Kourelis already promised a rapidly approaching release date and set up a presale for the initial idea of an album consisting of rare fan collectables.
When the band agreed to scrap that plan in favor of fresh material, they were still boxed in by the predetermined deadline. Instead of leisurely writing songs and spacing out the recording process as had been the band’s style on previous efforts, Heavy Crown forced the four childhood friends to get crackin’. The entire endeavor took four months from song conception to laying down the tracks.
“Every other record it changed from beginning to end because we wrote it over a year or two and you’re a different player from 2007 to 2009. You’ve played hundreds of shows, you’ve learned, you’ve listened to new music – so the record [covers] a really long time spectrum and this one was just like exactly a point in time.”
The band relished the new process. “I really like the total approach. As opposed to like going through a photo journal of the last year and kind of reminiscing over memories, this one is just one really bold snapshot of a period in time,” Casey explains.
Bold can adequately describe Heavy Crown from the artillery attack of the album’s opening track and first single, “Guns,” to the piano-laden “Your Time, My Time.” And a Lovehammers recording wouldn’t be complete without the band’s unique take on the traditional ballad. Slow dancing to “Driving Blind” and the title track might prove difficult, but the compositions’ emotions run deeper than the average three-minute rock song usually allows.
After Casey’s travels, he found it easy to step back in sync with the band. “We’ve been playing for so long and it was nice to step in where there’s a focus, a goal. The only way I know how to be friends with the band and the only way they know to be friends with me at this point in our lives is through the band, so really it was just an opportunity for all of us to get to hang out for two months,” Casey reveals. “It was probably the most exciting part of this band that I’ve seen in a long time – just us getting together, hanging out, writing songs – and it kind of reestablished what this band’s all about and it’s like we needed it.”
Forget the old saying – you can go home again.
– Janine Schaults