Hail Social

Posted by sheffield on October 8, 2008 · Leave a Comment

To change things up a bit I thought I’d write about a band from my hometown of Philadelphia. Very different from the music I usually associated with Philly (The Roots, Jedi Mind Tricks, Hip Hop, and some club). Hail Social are much more laid back. In the same vein as Anoraak (which will be a future post). The group consists of Matt Maraldo and Dayve Hawk who met at a local grocery store where they both worked. They formed in 2001 and opened for such acts as TV On The Radio, Unicorns, Of Montreal, and Ted Leo.

“In the summer of 2004 Hail Social recorded their self-titled debut album at Miner Street Studio in Philadlephia. That fall the group were offered the opening slot on the US leg of Interpol’s “Antics” tour. Upon returning home the group licensed their debut to Chicago area indie Polyvinyl Records. The album was released the following summer of 2005. Hail Social spent the fall of 2005 touring the US with Rainer Maria and the UK with the Ordinary Boys. The “Warning Sign” single was released by Polyvinyl Records in early 2006 and that summer the group set about recording their second full-length “Modern Love & Death”. Frustrated with the slow pace of record label release schedules ( Hail Social’s music tended to reach their audience several years after it was written) the group formed their own label to release “Modern Love & Death” themselves. The album was self-released in March of 2007. Artistically satisfied, the group however found the financial strain of total independence to be a new obstacle and enacted a hiatus from live-performance while several members went back to school and started new careers. In the fall of 2007 Dayve Hawk (the groups only constant active member) began pulling together a number of DJs and Producers from around the world to rework the songs from “Modern Love & Death”. The end result, a double remix album featuring contributions from Nick Catchdubs, Eli Escobar, DJ STA, Designer Drugs, Crimp YR Hair and many more was self-released in January 2008″ (rcrdlbl).

The big single to land from this album was No Paradise. It’s what got me interested in the band. It quite simply amazing. As well the remixes, especially the weird tapes remix (a little more upbeat), make the songs even better. Check out the video (unicorns!).

no paradise – hail social
no paradise – hail social (weird tapes edit)
no paradise – hail social (diamond cut rebuff)
no paradise – hail social (adeyhawke mix)
no paradise – hail social (weird tapes remix ii)
no paradise – hail social (hot pink delorean remix)(way harder, almost too hard?)

‘No Paradise’ is not the only quality song on the album; there are only two songs on the (modern love and death) that are mediocre. I especially like cherry cola funk, one u love, and all night. I guess the best way I could describe hail social is dreamy, in a Better Off Dead sort of way (ahh John Cusack).

cherry cola funk – hail social
all night – hail social
one u love – hail social
heaven – hail social
footsteps – hail social

and the remixes

cherry cola funk – hail social (sta mix)
heaven – hail social (anoraak remix)
heaven – hail social (designer drugs remix)
one u love – hail social (pink skull remix)
Weird Tapes is Dayve Hawk’s solo side project. A mix of late nineties filter house, Avalanches style sampadelica, a little disco, a little 80′s. You know the deal. Additionally there are no plans for any songs to get commericially released, they’re all available for free at the hail social/wierd tapes/memory cassette blog. Even though WT and HS is a fav of many blogs its hard to find much info. here’s a few