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 HO HUM- Massacre
"We found a strange Japanese girl band who sings songs about cookies, sheep and sushi and another band called ho-hum. I heard ho-hum a lot. I heard it a lot and I liked it. [5 stars.]"
-Mary Desjean, Boston University Inside Guide, 10/99
"[D]amn good power pop [that] come[s] on like The Jam on All Mod Cons.... 'Good to Get to Know' [is] infectious ... and sublime.... 'Come See Me' [is] superbly arranged ... with beautiful bass guitar.... 'He Married a Girl From Mississippi' ... features a killer mid-1960's keyboard riff.... [A] fine recording. [B]uy this disc!"
-Chico Harris, Life & Times [Oxford, MS], 3/25/99
"The story isn't supposed to go backward. Little Rock's Ho-Hum struggled in their local scene, landed a major-label record deal, had their first album produced by pop gurus Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley, then were promptly dropped. That should be it -- the whole of their artistic tale. But that's the most irrelevant part of this band's story. Ho-Hum is now a better band than they were under major-label tutelage -- possibly even because of the freedom from it -- and the band's third album, "Massacre," is a bristling, organic record of Southern-oriented pop. This album lays waste to the borders between pop bands from XTC, Sebadoh, the Pixies or R.E.M. while crafting wholly original songs from the flotsam. Ho-Hum is a Southern band in the sense that the emotions the songs evoke are more crucial and affecting than the actual words, which upon closer listening are mostly shy, cheery love songs. Never remaining in a rut, each of the 16 songs is invented anew, sometimes teetering drunkenly toward Flaming Lips quirkiness and brilliance ("He Married a Girl From Mississippi"), emoting boldly and tunefully ("Pining Away") or dishing the facts in a Lou Reed crack ("You Know How Lonely Goes"). I've played "Massacre" so many times now and gotten so close to it, I'm not sure I can evaluate it objectively. A beautiful, rich record from a band long overdue with a Tulsa booking."
-Thomas Conner, Tulsa World, 3/26/99
"How does a band follow up one of the best albums of 1997? If they're Little Rock group ho-hum, who gave us the incredible "Sanduleak" two years ago, they outdo it with "Massacre" (HTS, 4 stars [on a 1-to-4 scale]), a record of tight, terse compositions that implode like pop haikus for the soul. You know that feeling you got playing for the first time "London Calling" or the Mats' "Let It Be" - the feeling that told you rock and roll was a communion and transfiguration a certainty? That's the promise "Massacre" fulfills, from 26 Hour Blues and He Married a Girl from Mississippi to the bookend versions of the title track."
-Bill Ellis, Commercial Appeal [Memphis], 3/13/99
"Takin' it tae a new level these guys. And a more adventurous wan by the soundsa it. [C]rafty writing by Lenny Bryan, [and] Barry Poynter's production is the best Ah've heard ootay his shed in a long while. New stick man Brad Brown plays wae tender touch when necessary and an almighty thump when called for. This is Ho-Hum grown up and mature. In attitude, writing and execution, this is the disc that a lotta people (including me) wanted them tae make two, three years ago. Well the wait was worth it. Stash big time."
-"Scottish" Brian, Little Rock Free Press, 3/3/99
"[T]ight as a tick.... Massacre has the rock/pop you need.... A- [rating; on an A-to-F scale]."
-Werner Trieschmann, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, 2/12/99
"[H]ighly fun, highly cool."
-Kelley Bass, Arkansas Times, 12/18/98
LISTEN
Sweetie
Good To Get To Know
Let's Kill Bill
Big Ol' Kiss
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