Hella (band)
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Hella is an
American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...
math rock Math rock is a style of progressive and indie rock with roots in bands such as King Crimson and Rush as well as 20th-century minimal music composers such as Steve Reich. It is characterized by complex, atypical rhythmic structures (includi ...
band from
Sacramento, California ) , image_map = Sacramento County California Incorporated and Unincorporated areas Sacramento Highlighted.svg , mapsize = 250x200px , map_caption = Location within Sacramento ...
. The primary members of the band are
Spencer Seim Spencer may refer to: People *Spencer (surname) **Spencer family, British aristocratic family ** List of people with surname Spencer * Spencer (given name), a given name (including a list of people with the name) Places Australia *Spencer, New ...
on
electric guitar An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar (however combinations of the two - a semi-acoustic guitar and an electric acoustic gu ...
and
Zach Hill Zachary Charles Hill (born December 28, 1979) is an American multi-instrumentalist and visual artist. He is best known as the drummer and co-producer of the groups Death Grips and the I.L.Y's, and as the drummer of math rock band Hella. Art In ...
on drums. The band expanded their live band by adding
Dan Elkan Dan Elkan (born September 7, 1978) is an American singer-songwriter and producer, who is best known as the singer and guitarist for the rock band Them Hills. Elkan has performed live with Broken Bells, Hella, and Kim Deal, and has appeared on ...
on vocals, rhythm guitar, sampler and synthesizer and Jonathan Hischke on synth bass guitar for their 2005 tour. In 2006 they reformed as a five-piece line-up including Seim, Hill, Carson McWhirter (of
The Advantage The Advantage is an American rock band from Sacramento, California that formed in 1998 and specialises in doing covers of music from old NES games, also known as Nintendocore. The band is named after the NES joystick controller of the same nam ...
), Aaron Ross & Josh Hill. In 2009, the band was reduced back to core members Hill and Seim.


History


Formation and early years

As teenagers
Spencer Seim Spencer may refer to: People *Spencer (surname) **Spencer family, British aristocratic family ** List of people with surname Spencer * Spencer (given name), a given name (including a list of people with the name) Places Australia *Spencer, New ...
and
Zach Hill Zachary Charles Hill (born December 28, 1979) is an American multi-instrumentalist and visual artist. He is best known as the drummer and co-producer of the groups Death Grips and the I.L.Y's, and as the drummer of math rock band Hella. Art In ...
were both members of the Northern California band Legs on Earth along with Josh Hill on guitar and Julian Imsdahl on bass and vocals. The band achieved some moderate local success, becoming renowned for their wild live shows, young age, and Primus-esque sound. Zach Hill described Legs on Earth in an interview as pop music but in the way Devo and
Talking Heads Talking Heads were an American rock band formed in 1975 in New York City and active until 1991.Talki ...
were considered pop. They released one album in 1999 called ''Lasers & Saviors'' on local record label Para-Sight Records, now out of print. In April 2000 they went on hiatus and later broke up. Imsdahl later joined the band Grandstream (formerly known as Little California), and was previously in the band Eraserhead. Hill and Seim decided they wanted to continue playing together and pursue a less mainstream sound. According to Hill, they didn't always intend to remain a duo, though: " ehad intentions to start a band that was like… kinda like what we were doing with just the two of us, but with more people. But, we couldn't find the other people so we decided to do it just with the two of us." Their name is simply a reference to the
slang Slang is vocabulary (words, phrases, and linguistic usages) of an informal register, common in spoken conversation but avoided in formal writing. It also sometimes refers to the language generally exclusive to the members of particular in-g ...
word "
hella ''Hella'' is an American slang term that originated in the San Francisco Bay Area. It is used as an intensifying adverb such as in "hella bad" or "hella good" and was eventually added to the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' in 2002. It is possibl ...
" that was common throughout Northern California. Hella's earliest recording was the self-released ''Leather Diamond'' EP, hand-assembled in a nondescript cardboard sleeve and sold at some of their first shows. On March 19, 2002, they debuted proper with the full-length '' Hold Your Horse Is'' LP on 5 Rue Christine (a subsidiary of
Olympia, Washington Olympia is the capital of the U.S. state of Washington and the county seat and largest city of Thurston County. It is southwest of the state's most populous city, Seattle, and is a cultural center of the southern Puget Sound region. Europea ...
-based
Kill Rock Stars Kill Rock Stars is an independent record label founded in 1991 by Slim Moon and Tinuviel Sampson, and based in both Olympia, Washington, and Portland, Oregon. The label has released a variety of work in different genres, but was originally know ...
). The ''Falam Dynasty'' 7-inch was also released that year.


2003—present

After the release of ''Hold Your Horse Is'', 2003 saw Hella begin to deviate from the basic framework in the studio, although their live sound remained largely unchanged. Released on June 17 of that year, Hella's ''Bitches Ain't Shit But Good People'' EP (originally a vinyl only release) featured many firsts for the band. An earlier recorded (''Leather Diamond'') version of a song from their first LP, "Republic of Rough And Ready", became their first widely released song to feature vocals (provided by friend of the band Dan Elkan). A version of "1-800-Ghost-Dance" with vocals by Elkan was available as a downloadable mp3 on the band's website in late 2002. The ''Bitches'' EP also found Hella using
bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...
, synthesizer, and drum machine for the first time. ''Total Bugs Bunny on Wild Bass'', also an EP, was released on August 26 and featured the use of synth, sampler, and drum machine and an apparent influence from 8-bit
video game music Video game music (or VGM) is the soundtrack that accompanies video games. Early video game music was once limited to sounds of early sound chips, such as programmable sound generators (PSG) or FM synthesis chips. These limitations have led t ...
, first hinted at on the opening track of ''Hold Your Horse Is'', "The D. Elkan". Hella rounded out the year with a split live double CD with San Francisco, California-based band Dilute. Hella released their second full-length LP in 2004, ''The Devil Isn't Red''. Other releases for the year included a split 7-inch (with
Four Tet Kieran Hebden (born September 1977), known as Four Tet, is an English electronic musician. He came to prominence as a member of the post-rock band Fridge before establishing himself as a solo artist with charting UK albums such as '' Rounds'' ...
) and a
limited edition The terms special edition, limited edition, and variants such as deluxe edition, or collector's edition, are used as a marketing incentive for various kinds of products, originally published products related to the arts, such as books, prints, r ...
, Japan-only release of the three-song ''Acoustics'' EP. For their 2005 release, Hella again experimented with their sound in the studio. ''Church Gone Wild/Chirpin Hard'', released through
Suicide Squeeze Records Suicide Squeeze Records is a Seattle, Washington-based independent record label that releases rock, pop, and metal music. Suicide Squeeze releases content on vinyl, CD, cassette, and digital. The label has also released comedy and performance a ...
, is a double-solo album, with Zach Hill and Seim each recording a whole disc's worth of material independent of each other. Hill's disc, ''Church Gone Wild'', is a 56-minute noise piece which featured Zach doing all the vocals and instruments, save for a few guest appearances; while Seim's disc, ''Chirpin Hard'', again experiments with the fusion of 8-bit Nintendo music with
punk Punk or punks may refer to: Genres, subculture, and related aspects * Punk rock, a music genre originating in the 1970s associated with various subgenres * Punk subculture, a subculture associated with punk rock, or aspects of the subculture s ...
and
math rock Math rock is a style of progressive and indie rock with roots in bands such as King Crimson and Rush as well as 20th-century minimal music composers such as Steve Reich. It is characterized by complex, atypical rhythmic structures (includi ...
. Hella also expanded their live band to a quartet in 2005, adding
Dan Elkan Dan Elkan (born September 7, 1978) is an American singer-songwriter and producer, who is best known as the singer and guitarist for the rock band Them Hills. Elkan has performed live with Broken Bells, Hella, and Kim Deal, and has appeared on ...
on vocals, rhythm guitar, and synthesizer, and Jonathan Hischke on bass guitar in order to play songs from ''Total Bugs Bunny on Wild Bass'' and ''Church Gone Wild/Chirpin Hard'' live, in most cases for the first time. This line-up toured the US in support of
Out Hud Out Hud was an American electronic band formed in 1996 in the Bay Area of California and later based in New York City. The band consisted of guitarist Nic Offer, bassist Tyler Pope, cellist Molly Schnick, vocalist/ drummer Phyllis Forbes and ...
in Spring,
System of a Down System of a Down (also known as SoaD or simply System) is an Armenian-American heavy metal band formed in Glendale, California, in 1994. Since 1997, the band has consisted of Serj Tankian (lead vocals, keyboards); Daron Malakian (guitar, voc ...
,
The Mars Volta The Mars Volta is an American progressive rock band from El Paso, Texas, formed in 2001. The band's only constant members are Omar Rodríguez-López (guitar, producer, direction) and Cedric Bixler-Zavala (vocals, lyrics), whose partnership for ...
,
Les Claypool Leslie Edward Claypool (born September 29, 1963) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, record producer, filmmaker, and author. He is best known as the founder, lead singer, bassist, primary songwriter, and only continuous member of the ro ...
, and Dillinger Escape Plan in the fall as well as numerous headlining dates in the U.S. as well as visits to Japan, Spain and the UK. The show from October 8 at Arco & Oakland Arenas was documented by R.T. Thomas and self-released in July 2007 on DVD. A
DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...
/ CD EP release titled ''Concentration Face/Homeboy'' was released on November 8, 2005, on 5RC Records. The DVD features almost 3 hours of footage from their 2004 Japan tour, mostly consisting of performances from the first two albums. In 2006, Hella consisted of Spencer Seim, Zach Hill, Hill's cousin Josh (who also played in Legs on Earth), Seim's Advantage bandmate Carson McWhirter, and Aaron Ross. The first release from this line-up, entitled ''There's No 666 in Outer Space'', was released on January 30, 2007, on
Ipecac Recordings Ipecac Recordings is an independent record label based in California. It was founded on April 1, 1999 by Greg Werckman (ex-label manager of Alternative Tentacles, ex-lead singer of DUH, ex-employee of Mercury Records) and Mike Patton (Faith No ...
. This album was released in 2008 as a double 180g vinyl on Black Diamond Records with new artwork by Mayka Finkelstein-Amrami. As of August 2008, In an interview with Exclaim Magazine regarding his solo effort, Zach stated that "Hella is a real grey area in general right now". The future of the band seemed to be up in the air. On Thursday, March 12, 2009, a blog post on Hella's MySpace page revealed that Hella once again consisted of only core members Hill and Seim, and that the band was working on writing and recording a new album, due to be finished later that year. It also revealed that an international tour may have been in the works. On September 4, 2010, Hella announced they had eight tracks ready for their new album. As of 2011, Hella is signed to
Sargent House Sargent House is an American management company and record label based in Los Angeles. It was founded in June 2006 by Cathy Pellow, who is a music video commissioner for Atlantic Records and also owns a music video production company called Ref ...
, who released their most recent album, ''Tripper'', on August 30, 2011. On March 19, 2022, in celebration of the 20th anniversary of “Hold Your Horse Is,” the band announced the album's vinyl reissue in 2022 along with the release of never before seen or heard Hella media.


Side projects

In addition to their work in Hella, Seim and Zach Hill have also recorded with a number of
side project In popular music, a side project is a project undertaken by one or more people already known for their involvement in another band. It can also be an artist or a band temporarily switching to a different style. Usually these projects emphasize ...
s. Seim plays drums in
NES The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) is an 8-bit third-generation home video game console produced by Nintendo. It was first released in Japan in 1983 as the commonly known as the The NES, a redesigned version, was released in American ...
theme music Theme music is a musical composition that is often written specifically for radio programming, television shows, video games, or films and is usually played during the title sequence, opening credits, closing credits, and in some instances at so ...
cover band A cover band (or covers band) is a band that plays songs recorded by someone else, sometimes mimicking the original as accurately as possible, and sometimes re-interpreting or changing the original. These remade songs are known as cover songs. ...
The Advantage The Advantage is an American rock band from Sacramento, California that formed in 1998 and specialises in doing covers of music from old NES games, also known as Nintendocore. The band is named after the NES joystick controller of the same nam ...
(a reference to the
NES Advantage The NES Advantage is an arcade style controller manufactured by Asciiware and released by Nintendo for the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1987.Nintendo Power: "Also from Asciiware, who actually made the NES Advantage that Nintendo of America t ...
controller), notable for using only guitar, bass guitar, and drums to replicate the 8-bit programmed music of the games. The genre has been called
Nintendocore Nintendocore is a broadly defined style of music that most commonly fuses chiptune and video game music with hardcore punk and/or heavy metal. The genre is sometimes considered a direct subgenre of post-hardcore and a fusion genre between metal ...
and The Advantage are credited with pioneering it. Seim has also released a solo album under the moniker sBACH. Recently Seim, playing drums, has formed Solos with guitarist and vocalist Aaron Ross (formerly of Hella). Their debut album "Beast of Both Worlds" was released on Sept 11 2012 on Joyful Noise records. Hill has recorded albums with
Marnie Stern Marnie Stern (born March 18, 1976) is an American musician, singer-songwriter, and guitarist. She has garnered acclaim for her technical skill and tapping style of guitar play. Stern is also a current member of The 8G Band from the show ''Late Ni ...
, Tough Guy Fantasy/Arctic Boys, Flössin,
Crime in Choir San Francisco quintet Crime In Choir was an instrumental progressive rock band. Founded in 2000, Crime In Choir released their previous full-length releases on Frenetic Records (2004's ''The Hoop'') and Omnibus Records, Omnibus (2002's self-title ...
, Nervous Cop (with drummer
Greg Saunier Greg Saunier (born 18 May 1969) is a musician, producer, and composer best known as the drummer and founding member of Deerhoof. ''Rolling Stone'' included Saunier alongside Brian Chippendale (of Lightning Bolt) and Zach Hill (of Hella, lat ...
of
Deerhoof Deerhoof are an American musical group formed in San Francisco in 1994. They currently consist of founding drummer Greg Saunier, bassist and singer Satomi Matsuzaki, and guitarists John Dieterich and Ed Rodriguez. Beginning as an improvised no ...
and harpist Joanna Newsom), Damsel (with guitarist Nels Cline), Friend/Enemy (with Tim Kinsella, Sam Zurick, Todd Mattei, Jim Becker, Graeme Gibson, Caryn Culp, Emma Grace Lansangan, Nick Marci, Chris Powell, Azita Youssefi), Zach Hill and the Holy Smokes (whose first release was accompanied by a 138-page book written and illustrated by Hill), as well as playing drums for
Chino Moreno Chino Moreno (born Camillo Wong Moreno, June 20, 1973) is an American musician who is best known as the lead vocalist, primary lyricist and contributing guitarist of the metal band Deftones. He is also a member of the side-project groups Team S ...
's band
Team Sleep Team Sleep is an American experimental alternative rock/post-rock group led by singer/guitarist Chino Moreno. Moreno is better known for fronting the Sacramento-based alternative metal band Deftones. Other current members include guitarist Todd ...
, The Ladies, Kenseth Thibideau and Marty Anderson's band Howard Hello and
Jeordie White Jeordie Osbourne White (born June 20, 1971), better known Twiggy Ramirez or simply Twiggy, is an American musician, mostly known as the former bassist and guitarist of the rock band Marilyn Manson. Previously, he was the bassist for A Perfect ...
and
Chris Goss Christopher Ryan Goss (born August 17, 1958) is an American record producer and musician. Best known for producing records for Kyuss and Queens of the Stone Age, he is regarded as an important figure in the development of stoner rock and deser ...
's band
Goon Moon Goon Moon is an American rock band composed of Jeordie White (also known as Twiggy Ramirez) and Chris Goss. The band released the mini-LP ''I Got a Brand New Egg Layin' Machine'' in 2005 and have since recorded a full-length album, ''Licker's Las ...
. More recently, Hill has teamed up with Mick Barr from Octis and
Orthrelm Orthrelm is an American Avant-garde rock, avant-garde band from Washington, D.C. Biography Orthrelm is a duo composed of Mick Barr on guitar and Josh Blair on Drum kit, drums. Their songwriting style is mostly experimental, and shows the influ ...
and together have released the LPs ''Shred Earthship'' on 5 Rue Christine and ''Volume 2'' on the Austrian label Rock Is Hell. ''Volume 2'' consists of the two longest tracks from the ''Shred Earthship'' sessions. Hill's best known project outside of Hella now is perhaps experimental hip hop outfit
Death Grips Death Grips is an American experimental hip hop group formed in 2010 in Sacramento, California. The group consists of Stefan Burnett, also known as MC Ride (vocals, lyrics), Zach Hill (drums, production, lyrics), and Andy Morin (keyboards, pr ...
, who have gone on to achieve a cult following of their own right and widespread critical acclaim. Both Hill and Hischke are members of El Grupo Nuevo de Omar Rodriguez-Lopez with
Juan Alderete Juan Alderete de la Peña (born September 5, 1963) is an American musician, best known as the longtime bassist of Racer X, the Mars Volta and Marilyn Manson. Biography Alderete was born in Los Angeles, California the fourth of five children. ...
,
Cedric Bixler-Zavala Cedric Bixler-Zavala (born November 4, 1974) is an American singer and songwriter. He is the lead singer and lyricist of the progressive rock band The Mars Volta and the only constant member of the post-hardcore group At the Drive-In, for whic ...
and
Omar Rodríguez-López Omar Alfredo Rodríguez-López (born September 1, 1975) is an American guitarist and songwriter. He has formed or played in several bands, including the Mars Volta, At the Drive-In, Antemasque, and Bosnian Rainbows. He was the bassist for the ...
, the first of three records produced by the group is '' Cryptomnesia'', which was released on May 5, 2009. In 2008, Hischke formed the band
Dot Hacker Dot Hacker is an American experimental rock band from California, formed in 2008. The band consists of Josh Klinghoffer (vocals, guitar, keyboards), Clint Walsh (guitar, keyboards, backing vocals), Jonathan Hischke (bass) and Eric Gardner (drums ...
along with
Josh Klinghoffer Josh Adam Klinghoffer (born October 3, 1979) is an American musician best known for being the guitarist for the rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers from 2009 to 2019, with whom he recorded two studio albums, '' I'm with You'' (2011) and '' The Geta ...
. The song "Biblical Violence" is featured on episode 24 of the Welcome to Night Vale podcast.


Discography


Albums

*''Hold Your Horse Is'' (2002), 5 Rue Christine *''The Devil Isn't Red'' (2004), 5 Rue Christine *''Church Gone Wild/Chirpin' Hard'' (2005),
Suicide Squeeze Suicide Squeeze Records is a Seattle, Washington-based independent record label that releases rock, pop, and metal music. Suicide Squeeze releases content on vinyl, CD, cassette, and digital. The label has also released comedy and performance a ...
*''There's No 666 in Outer Space'' (2007),
Ipecac Recordings Ipecac Recordings is an independent record label based in California. It was founded on April 1, 1999 by Greg Werckman (ex-label manager of Alternative Tentacles, ex-lead singer of DUH, ex-employee of Mercury Records) and Mike Patton (Faith No ...
*''
Tripper Tripper may refer to: Film and television * Jack Tripper, a main character in the American sitcoms ''Three's Company'' and ''Three's a Crowd'' * Tripper Harrison, the character portrayed by Bill Murray in the film ''Meatballs A meatball is g ...
'' (2011),
Sargent House Sargent House is an American management company and record label based in Los Angeles. It was founded in June 2006 by Cathy Pellow, who is a music video commissioner for Atlantic Records and also owns a music video production company called Ref ...


EPs

*''Leather Diamond'' (2001) *''Bitches Ain't Shit but Good People'' (2003), Suicide Squeeze *''Total Bugs Bunny on Wild Bass'' (2003),
Narnack Records Narnack Records is an independent record label founded in 2000. The label developed in New York City's underground music scene and quickly became known for its ability for developing new artists Coachwhips, OCS, Langhorne Slim, Thee Oh sees, A ...
*''Concentration Face/Homeboy'' (2005), 5 Rue Christine *''Acoustics'' (2006), Toad Records/5 Rue Christine *''Santa's Little Hella'' (2013), Joyful Noise


Singles

*"Falam Dynasty" (2002), 5 Rue Christine


Split releases

*live split with Dilute (2003) Sick Room Records, LTD *split with
Four Tet Kieran Hebden (born September 1977), known as Four Tet, is an English electronic musician. He came to prominence as a member of the post-rock band Fridge before establishing himself as a solo artist with charting UK albums such as '' Rounds'' ...
(2004), Ache Records


References


External links


Band's biography / discography

Hella on Ipecac Recordings

5 Rue Christine

Hella live recordings
at the
Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...

Zach Hill tribute site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hella American noise rock music groups Kill Rock Stars Math rock groups Rock music duos Musical groups established in 2001 Musical groups from Sacramento, California American experimental rock groups Suicide Squeeze Records artists Nintendocore musical groups American musical duos