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Adrian H & The Wounds Promo from Sean Strauss on Vimeo .
Hailing from the Texas music scene of Dallas and Austin, Adrian H moved to the northwest and birthed songs that would make your mother cry. Adrian H has a sound that is sinfully soulful and reminiscent of a night in a velvety dark room full of hallucinations, secrets and song. His voice is dark and icy and evokes impassioned stories of love, faith and loss. His post-goth, dark-glam style stirs up comparisons to Leonard Cohen, Nick Cave and Tom Waits. His lyrics are a reflection of his unorthodox religious upbringing. Adrian H is skilled with the language of violence and sharp wit. He cuts to the core and makes no apologies like a good Charles Bukowski story. If you like your music with a twist of raw emotion, then don’t miss Adrian H and The Wounds.
"Adrian H unfolds haunting storylines, reminescent of Rumplestiltskin taking a cracktown walk on the wild side with Lou Reed, in a deep-throated Leonard Cohen style. Original music and lyrical content reflect raw vocalized emotions, the sort of emotions facilitated by waking up alone, unwillingly divorced, and incapacitated by a lingering drunken stupor amid several dozen empty bottles of the cheapest liquer that panhandling can buy; and an unbrazened devotion to the well-crafted stories at hand within each track on this full-length, self-titled debut. The pacing of some song parts on this album also bring to mind the music of Voltaire, a talented dark folk indie music artist with a penchant for heavy handed piano introductions, dry wit, and morbid lyrical themes. Perhaps moody and misunderstood, Adrian H's vocal range initially impresses of an unwashed, swarthy character; the anonymous sort from whom mothers pull away their children, moving hurriedly in any opposite direction. Mothers also say, "Don't judge a book by its cover!" Digging deeper into the album reveals serial, overlapping layers of complexity as each sordid song spins a new tale. Solace for open wounds earned via life's harsh realities may still reverberate deeply once the music stops. Despite these more dynamic audio features developing slowly behind each line of poetry, much of the lyrical content remains simplistic and to-the-point. Ironically, however, some of the lyrical content becomes so metaphical that the mind of any listener may twist and turn in wonder upon the truth lingering still amid the lines of allegorical poetry. Overall, the music immediately provokes imagined visual context to support the creative lyrical storylines. Labour upon piano keys reflects nuances of an exquisite attention toward mood altering audio impacts. As such, each song might easily be paired with sinister cinematic opportunities. The next mission, for those who choose to accept: discover whether Adrian H and The Wounds so profoundly deliver live and on-stage the same enigmatic and provocative music, or whether this band harbours even more horrific new music yet to furtively unveil?" - Jet Black www.MusicArtery.com
"... like Nick Cave playing the role of Max Schreck in a Broadway musical directed by Tim Burton. It's the ideal soundtrack for reciting Poe and agonizing over which tattoo will piss off Daddy the most. Adrian H and the Wounds celebrate the release of their self-titled CD tonight, and lyrics like, "She likes cookies and cocaine, she likes blowjobs in the rain" indicate the mixture of sweet and skeevy contained therein." NL - The Portland Mercury (2/5/09)
"Adrian H. and The Wounds out of Portland, Oregon positively hypnotized us. Too tall for his keyboards, Adrian H. takes a wide stance and plays that thing like he's riding a Harley, crouching and swaying back and forth as he takes the road playing with a nervous fury that is frightening. Backed by Broken Heart on the drum and Shiggy on bass, we were smitten from the kick-start.""Mr. H as a gravelly deep voice that whispers somewhere between Tom Waits and Lux Interior (R.I.P.) and he looks a lot like the late Goth God too. Magnetic like the North Pole. Songs were wonderful. Chanted simple lines repeated endlessly with a classically influenced cacophonous accompaniment that is part Procol Harum and part Depeche Mode.""We loved “Straight Leg With a Crooked Stick†and “She Won’t Leave Me Alone.†The highly infectious “She Smells Like Smoke†is our new favorite song. Hands down, no contest, jumping up and down on Oprah’s couch crazy. I love this band!" - Sugarbuzz Magazine