HiFi Handgrenades.com

Hi everybody!
I’m writing this in beautiful, sunny Los Angeles. It’s a nice change of pace to see/feel sun and warm weather. Detroit is freezing, miserable cold and snowy. If you’ve ever seen the movie ‘True Romance’, the opening montage of the city is a pretty accurate portrayal of the shitty winter weather we deal with each year. As Gus, our manager/brosef says, “No wonder all anyone does in Detroit is drink!”

Lots of cool stuff going on. We’ve been really busy and I apologize for not getting some info out there sooner.

We just finished a short midwest tour with The Loved Ones, Gaslight Anthem, and the Arrivals. What a blast! We were all really taken aback at how great all the bands got on; usually it’s fun, but this was like a Brodeo from the get-go. So, Thanks to all the wonderful folks who made it possible, and THANKS to all the great people at the shows who caught our set, your messages are inspiring! It’s pretty awesome to meet total strangers who really like the music you’re playing.

You also might have noticed we’re getting lots of airplay on the Sirius punk channel. That’s been a total surprise to us, we don’t know how they got the music, but we’re grateful and stoked!

We’re doing some gigs with Bad Religion here in Southern California, and then through the midwest on our own, headed north to start the tour in Canada with the Foos and Against Me! We met the AM! guys the other night in Detroit at the Foos gig. We heard mention of a Foosball table the AM! dudes bring with them. Seeing as Tony and I are Foosball nerds, we thought we would represent Detroit with a little friendly competition while on tour. We had an ‘ice-breaker’ match with them after the gig, and we lost with a respectable 10-6. We’ll have our game faces on come Canada!

The full length is being released on Canadian label New Romance for Kids on March 11th! Entitled ‘Carry On’, it is a short, sweet blast of 10 tunes in under 25 minutes. We recorded the basics in September in LA with John Lousteau at Studio 606, finished it back home in January, and it’ll be here asap! We’ll probably have some to sell when we get back from Canada.
Tracks are:
1- Cut Strings
2- Stupid
3- Carry On
4- Smiling Judas
5- Hold Fast
6- Facing the Firing Squad
7- Heart of Steel
8- Around Again
9- Sunset to Sunrise
10- Detroit Has a Skyline

I know, you’re saying, “I already have 5 of these songs on the first EP!” Well, these are brand-new recordings. The first EP was really a demo we cut a month after we first formed the band, so these versions are a little different in some cases, maybe a little tighter and more settled-in, definitely a more fully-realized recording. And a cool cover of Superchunk’s ‘Detroit Has a Skyline’, which was one of the first songs we ever played at practice when we were messing around.

Go here to see the artwork! Chopper, you are amazing!

We will likely press up a thousand on our own for sale through mail and at US shows, etc… More details asap. The full-length will also be coming out soon this year in Japan and Australia.

Speaking of Japan, we are releasing an exclusive 5-song EP on FAEC (Rough Trade Japan) around March 26th. It will feature 5 brand-new, unreleased tunes. We recorded them in February in Detroit. Some old stuff, some brand new stuff, and a cool cover song. We’ll also have some of these to sell soon!
Tracks are:
1- Something Old
2- Holding Out
3- Another Face
4- Right Back
5- Sometime to Return

AND (drumroll, please) WE ARE GOING TO JAPAN IN APRIL!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We’re gonna play three shows with the Foos. I can’t tell you how stoked we are. Rich and Ryan have been with the Suicide Machines before, but Tony and I have never been there, so we are preparing for sensory overload! Ramen the way it was intended to taste! Strange things in cans! Beautiful scenery and culture, amazing music fans, and stuff we can’t imagine! WOO HOO!!!!

Can you tell we’re excited?

So, there’s a quick update! I’ll write some more as soon as I get some time. Gotta go change strings and get ready for the gig tonight.

Hope everyone is doing great. We’ll see you soon!

John Speck
HFHG

Source: myspace.com/hifihandgrenades