A new video by I See Hawks in LA “Rock N Roll Cymbal from the 70’s” from Anastasia Simone on Vimeo.
The Hawks are: Rob Waller, Paul Lacques, Marc Doten, Victoria Jacobs, Shawn Nourse and Paul Marshall, featuring Phoebe Bridgers in the red dress and Izzy Schloss and Austin Nimnicht as the girl and boy. Director of Photography: Kev Robertson, Editor: Brett Noborikawa. Director: Anastasia Simone
Friday April 18th with Red Meat at the Chapel in SF
Two sets in Winters, CA on April 19th
Dembowski, Waller and Lacques present a free download of “Drysdale, Sutton & Koufax” today in celebration of the 2014 Dodger Hope Opener. It’s time for Dodger baseball! Go Blue!
I SEE HAWKS IN L.A.: MYSTERY DRUG
November 12th, 2013 ·
Viola Tada
I See Hawks in L.A.
Mystery Drug
Western Seeds
For all the references to Gram Parsons these guys get—and for all the references to Guy Clark and Townes Van Zandt they should get—I gotta put I See Hawks on this seventh album somewhere closer to Terry Allen or Warren Zevon. Hawks are literary, even though they use small words—actually cuz they use small words—and they’re at their best when they put pedal steel to short stories or sometimes just a few irreducible lines. For one example: “Rock ‘N’ Roll Cymbal From The Seventies” is about what it means to love things that are gently used, and of course they truly spell it “symbol.” But my favorites are some of the slow and sad ones on an album that’s one power-pop song (Nick Lowe-y “Local Merchants”) and about half slow and sad ones. Like the title track with lyrics that make me think of plenty of parts from Vonnegut’s Breakfast of Champions, or “If You Remind Me,” which reminds me of Roky Erickson’s damaged “Clear Night For Love” country rock era, in which he retreated to simpler softer music probably cuz he wanted a simpler softer life. And my very favorite is “We Could All Be In Laughlin Tonight,” with the funny-but-not-funny lines about how much the Skynyrd tribute gig pays and the closer “pay the money and turn off the light / jump off the cliff and turn right.” The Hawks song that will get me forever is “Turn That Airplane Around,” and “Laughlin” isn’t that—who could handle two of those? But in “Laughlin” there’s that same sense of life and its limits, and how it feels when you feel those limits getting closer. That’s what I hear from Zevon and Allen, that’s what I read in Charles Portis, and what I think I See Hawks sees, too.
—Chris Ziegler
I See Hawks in L.A. are California Country Rock gentlemen. They have a literary sense to their songs that equals American writers from the South (Faulkner), the West (Twain, O. Henry) and the East (Poe). Their music reflects the moods and emotions of the songs characters as much as the men behind the curtain that pulling the strings and writing the words. Mystery Drugs has an uplifting mood stitched into the album fabric as it describes the life of an aging pirate in the title track, a chance meeting with a major musical score (Rock’n’Roll Cymbal from the 70’s) and flows majestically (“The River Knows”).
I See Hawks in L.A. follow psychedelic tradition by not following sound rules and regulations. The Hawks are a rock band with a Roots accent. Their songs are vignettes again using psychedelic rock as stage settings. A cowpunk essay on commerce as love (“My Local Merhcants”), a classic country take on a classic rock event (“We Could All Be in Laughlin Tonight”) and a heavenly choir back-up for a diatribe on driving the 405 at 6 o’clock (“Stop Driving Like An Asshole”) all share Mystery Drugs. I See Hawks in L.A. remind us of the romance of the American West. “Sky Island” follows a San Joaquin daughter as she heads down the 99 for freedom and “Oklahoma’s Going Dry” looks through the dust and Commanche ghosts to try and locate the river that run blue, then red. Memories follow a young San Franciscan couple through The Mission and watch as the snow falls outside through the windows of a Tahoe casino in “If You Remind”. The track opens Mystery Drugs and will immediately remind you that it is way too long between I See Hawks in L.A. releases.
Listen and buy the music of I See Hawks in L.A. from AMAZON or iTunes