Hollis Brown
band
In their formative years, rock n’ roll band Hollis Brown pored over records by David Bowie, The Velvet Underground, Bob Dylan, and The Rolling Stones in their Queens abodes as singer-guitarist Mike Montali and lead guitarist Jonathan Bonilla homed on their songwriting and sharpened their instrumental prowess. There is a certain artistic romance in imagining the Hollis guys woodshedding that recalls Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, and Brian Jones’s own formative time at 102 Edith Grove in London, devouring vinyl platters by Muddy Waters, Chuck Berry, and Bo Diddley. Rock n’ roll teems with all sorts of rituals.
Another custom is holing up live in a vibey studio with a few handles of whiskey and bashing out songs until the room is spinning. The Stones did it at Chess Studios in Chicago, making a grand pilgrimage, and the Queens rock n’ roll quintet escaped to Pennsylvania to track and produced the album with Don DiLego who mixed and mastered at buzzed-about Velvet Elk Studios in the Poconos, Pennsylvania. Second in a loose homage series (previously Hollis Brown issued Gets Loaded, saluting Velvet Underground’s Loaded) is Hollis Brown’s In The Aftermath (Mascot Label Group/Cool Green Recordings). In one 24-hour session the quartet ran down the Stone’s seminal first album of all originals, Aftermath. You can hear the rock n’ roll delirium seep in as the songs whizz by and no sleep and free flowing libations grease the wheels of a great rock n’ roll freight train.
“This record brought us back to our foundation of writing songs together. It was a whirlwind session we were on no sleep, and getting liquored up. You can definitely hear the looseness on that final track, ‘Going Home,’” singer-guitarist Mike Montali recalls, laughing. Hollis Brown tracked the album in accordance with the U.S. sequence, all live with minimal overdubs, and nailed the tracks in very few takes. “We weren’t focused on cleanliness, we were after feeling. It was about going back to the essence of American roots music—blues and country—we come from that tradition, and so did the Stones. The experience definitely sent us back to the drawing board.”
The band’s latest studio album follows its most successful release, 2019’s Ozone Park which earned rave reviews from Rolling Stone, Billboard, Paste Magazine, Pop Matters, Relix, and Goldmine. The band formed in 2009 by best buds, singer-guitarist Mike Montali and lead guitarist Jonathan Bonilla, and these days it also features Andrew Zehnal (drums), Adam Bock (keys), and Chris Urriola (bass). The quintet’s moniker is pinched from the Bob Dylan song, "Ballad of Hollis Brown.”
Since releasing music in 2013, Hollis Brown has emerged as one of the last great American rock n’ roll bands, known for melding a signature Americana blend with fine songcraft. Along the way, they have released an EP, three original albums, and the aforementioned Record Store Day tribute to the Velvet Underground's Loaded album. Hollis Brown has toured tirelessly, amassing an engaged fanbase through making its way through the U.S. and Europe, both on their own and supporting the likes of Citizen Cope, Counting Crows, Jackie Greene, Jesse Malin, the Zombies, and among others. The band’s music has been featured in film and TV, with such noted placements as the film Bad Country, starring Matt Damon and Willem Dafoe; the worldwide trailer for The Founder, starring Michael Keaton; and on TV series such as Showtime's Shameless, DirecTV's Kingdom, and MTV's Real World. In addition, their tunes have been showcased in John Varvatos’s Winter 2018 runway show and online campaign.
The idea to record for Hollis Brown to record a Stones album happened organically. The five-piece band had enjoyed doing the Velvet Underground album which was a Record Store Day special release. The guys began to joke about doing a “Hollis Brown presents…” series, covering formative records in their artistic continuum. Aftermath as the next logical choice in a freewheeling program of releases came to the guys organically. They were asked to play a COVID-protocol obeying backyard party during the pandemic, and the request included them performing an album of their choice.
Aftermath became the Stones album to dive into for a myriad of reasons. For one, it’s become something of a lost classic being the first album to bear all originals, including the Stones standard “Paint It Black.” Also, many of the songs are concise ultra-catchy rock n’ roll rave-ups that mine similar blues and country roots a Hollis Brown’s own bedrock influences. Another intriguing aspect is that is an album made before Keith Richards switched to his signature open G tuning that defined the riffs and sounds of all the 1970s until present Stones hits. So, the songs weren’t tied to that very specific approach—they come fair game to anyone bold enough try and cut the muster with the Stones.
Hollis Brown doesn’t try to out Stones the Stones, though, instead they find clever ways to approach the songs. For the first album single, “Under My Thumb,” November 19th they distilled down the track to a pared-down garage-rock snarl inspired by Some Girls. Hollis Brown conjure the mojo of the original “Dontcha Bother Me,” their second single out January 13th, with Muddy Waters-approved slide guitar, seething vocals, lonesome harmonica, and the lost art of hitting that space between rocking and swinging. Hollis Brown bravely tackle “Paint It Black for their third single, out February 4th. Here, they are harness the ominous power of the track through trading the world-music approach for a muscular guitar-rock approach. The beat is also essentialized with a more direct and propulsive approach aligned with the burly guitar riffage. Other highlights are “Going Home” which boasts a long jam at the end where the guitars practice Keith’s often talked about “weaving guitar” chemistry, and “High & Dry.” The latter is a forgotten gem, and here the band flexes its finesse for pastoral country jaunts, begging the question “what if the exiled Stones revisited their back catalog in the basement makeshift recording studio of their of Keith’s rented French villa.
The album sequence follows the US version of the Stones album, but this isn’t a tribute band record. Hollis Brown siphons essence of the 1966 classic, and pours it into its own heady musical cocktail, tastefully reimagining a program of classics from the often overlooked and wildly imaginative Brian Jones-era.
Hollis Brown is concocting various experiences to share In The Aftermath on its upcoming February and March Hollis Brown tours. The band is also feeling the raw and unbridled creativity from the whiskey-fueled live-in-the-studio sessions which has inspired the group’s next album which is mostly written, and will boast a more raw and honest production aesthetic, recalling the grit and passion of Neil Young’s powerful work with Crazy Horse.