9/5/99
Areas on
this site:
More information: As you can see, I haven't updated this site in a while, keeping it merely as an archive. I will be updating my music blog, notes, with news stories and commentary about this tragedy, so please visit that site for more information. Also be sure to explore the archives of this site under Ask Bryan and Discography for comments from Bryan on music, life, and the making of the House of Freaks' albums.
This page is dedicated to the Virginia based band House of Freaks and their spin-off band, Gutterball. House of Freaks was a two-man band composed of singer/guitarist Bryan Harvey and percussionist Johnny Hott, who had a penchant for banging on anything he could drag into the studio that made the noise he wanted. They were signed to Rhino records for their first three albums, but had trouble finding a permanent home towards the end of the band's existence, bouncing around from indie to indie. They have played with other groups on occasion, most notably on a couple of tracks with the Richmond/Chapel Hill band Waxing Poetics (whose first album was produced by REM's Mike Mills) and with the indie supergroup/side project Gutterball. Their indebtedness to the blues has been evident from their first album, but they later moved more and more towards the stripped down style of rockabilly bands like the Chickasaw Mudpuppies and the Flat Duo Jets. However, they were closer in spirit to artists like Tom Waits or Lyle Lovett, exploring in particular the blessing/curse of family and community and their effects on the individual. They are the closest thing I've heard to a musical version of Faulkner's southern communities.
Unfortunately, they called it quits in 1995. Both members were involved with the making of the most recent Gutterball outing, but the rumors say that Hott has left that group as well and been replaced by the drummer for the dB's. Bryan Harvey completed a solo album in early 1997, but has yet to release it. Gutterball is still considered to be an open project by the people involved; however, no firm plans have been made about recording new material. Steve Wynn, the singer and co-songwriter for Gutterball (and ex-frontman for Dream Syndicate), has released a solo album since the last Gutterball effort.
For information about ordering Invisible Jewel or either of the two Gutterball albums, visit the enemy records website.
Brought to you by Blue Cricket Media
Copyright © 1996-2000
Send comments to webmaster@bluecricket.com
LE FastCounter
This site designed on a Macintosh
