Jana Hunter + Weird Weeds December 7, 2006

Jana Hunter

http://www.myspace.com/janahunter

“In 1994, Jana Hunter was a 16 and a violinist in the Greater Youth Orchestra of Fort Worth. This quickly and naturally led to smoking cigarettes, hanging out in a VW Van and joining local hippie band McGillicutty. When this group soon disbanded, Hunter began in earnest the pursuit of solo writing, performing at local open mics and house parties.

Arlington, TX (Jana's hometown) is a depressing place, and Hunter took that sentiment to New York (1996) and eventually Houston (1998), writing dark, severe and beautiful songs that more and more reflected a paranoiac view of the world. These were shared for the most part with a few friends, occasionally in the guise of rock songs in her now-defunct band, Matty & Mossy, and eventually, at a few shows in Houston, opening up for touring bands.

A show in 2003 with Devendra Banhart, led a year later to Hunter's inclusion on his Golden Apples of the Sun compilation (Bastet). In 2005, Devendra and Jana released a split vinyl album on Troubleman Records, followed quickly by the release of Hunter's debut solo album, Blank Unstaring Heirs of Doom, in October of that year on Gnomonsong.

Since her initial release, Hunter has repeatedly toured North America and Europe, joined forces with Castanets as their sometimes touring bass player and vocalist, guested on albums by CocoRosie and Metallic Falcons, played at the Banhart-curated All Tomorrow's Parties, recorded a soon-to-be-released album with a new band, Jracula, and prepared a split release with former fellow Houstonians, Indian Jewelry.

Hunter has also appeared on the following compilations: The Enlightened Family (Voodoo-Eros), The Black and White Skins (Les Disque Du Crespuscule), Furniture Record's Sheets of Easter Everywhere singles series, and the online lullaby collection from Blogupmusique.com. ...Heirs of Doom was re-issued in a very limited run as a double cassette on Fuck-It Tapes in June, 2006.

Most recently, Hunter toured by sea. Along with Castanets and Peter & the Wolf, Jana charted a late summer tour for 2006 along the Intracoastal Waterway from New York City to Norfolk, VA., in a sailboat. Good friend and former WFMU staple OCDJ skippered his own vessel. Hunter will release her second solo album on Gnomonsong in the spring of 2007. ”

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Weird Weeds

http://www.weirdweeds.com/

Record review from allmusic.com:

“Short and, in its own unique way, sweet, the Weird Weeds' second album is well-worthy of a band with members who have performed with fellow Texans like Jandek and Tom Carter of Charalambides. There's much of the same sense of haunting distance right from the start of Weird Feelings, as "Bad Dreams" begins with trebly chimes, softly sung chant-like vocals from Sandy Ewen and the barest of guitar parts. But in their own way the trio are far more pop-minded than their contemporaries, in a skeletal and deliberative fashion; most of the songs are fairly short, a number are under two minutes long, and the fractured, extended guitar workouts familiar from pieces like Ewen's work with Carter in Spiderwebs here serve as background to the minimal hooks. Call it what happens when Wire or the Minutemen's aesthetic approach is applied to 21st century psychedelia -- and certainly guitarist Aaron Russell's work with members of Deerhoof elsewhere has an echo in the stop-start song structures as well, as "Nose to the Wind" readily shows -- but the end result is a series of surprising and swiftly captivating performances. Hearing moments like an eight-person chorus appear only at the conclusion of the title song for barely one line, or the gently swelling and then ebbing guitar part that concludes "For You to See Me" shows how well the band works with placing the seemingly simplest of parts. Ewen and Nick Hennies' vocals aren't simply another instrument, but by eschewing the typical prominence given to the singer in much rock & roll they place their brief character sketches and snatches of strange relationships in a slightly removed and all the more unnerving context. (Perhaps their best line in that vein comes from "Tupper" -- "We'll scratch our faces against the floor. I'll fill your home with love.")”

Official Website: http://www.21grand.org