Los Hijos Unicos profile picture

Los Hijos Unicos

About Me

Los Hijos Unicos hails from North Adams, MA originally, but is now located in Northampton and Somerville, MA.

We play country music as if the country-rock pioneered by Gram Parsons and Michael Nesmith had been influenced by punk early on rather than having become stale and boring and overproduced like The Eagles.

We play "Nuggets"-style garage rock with steel guitar. We play folk songs with theremin. We play a lot of waltzes to which you can't waltz.

"The Pioneer Valley Rose" at the Valley Worm Fest, May 22, 2008.

"Purified" at the Valley Worm Fest, May 22, 2008.

My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 06/02/2006
Band Website: loshijosunicos.tripod.com
Band Members: Los Hijos Unicos is: Ryan Quinn - lead tenor vocals, guitar, banjo, pedal steel guitar

Andy Goulet - upright bass, Fender bass, harmonica, theremin, vocals

Brendan Rogers - drums, vocals

Brandee Simone - high harmony vocals, bells, tambourines, cowbell, etc.

Jason Bourgeois - guitar, organ, vocals

Members Emeritus (and those on sabbatical): Betty Widerski - fiddle

Bob New - pedal steel

Chase Billingham - high harmony vocals, mandolin

Isaac Sussman - baritone vocals, piano, organ, accordion, toy piano, glockenspiel

Dan DuBois - tenor vocals, electric guitar

Influences: Los Hijos Unicos is influenced by the classic country sounds of Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, Johnny Horton, Bob Wills, and Buck Owens, but we're not really honky-tonk revivalists, despite our love of fiddle, steel guitar, and sharp, cutting Telecasters.

We love The Kinks, The Byrds, The Sonics, The Beach Boys and The Beatles, but we're not a surf band nor a '60's pop throwback group, although we do try to incorporate Brian Wilson's vocal arrangement ideas and ear for basslines, along with the Beatles' ability to combine disparate influences in a single song. The Kinks' and The Sonics' abandon and distorted sound excite and inspire us, as do The Byrds' harmonies and arrangements.

We are huge fans of Stax and Atlantic soul artists, and we try to keep these records in mind while arranging the songs, writing 3-to-5 part call-and-response harmonies for most songs and taking the supercool organ tones and deep-in-the-pocket basslines from these records.

We like country-rock and alt. country from Gram Parsons and Michael Nesmith to Uncle Tupelo and most places in-between, but we don't see ourselves as too deep into that scene. Oh, we also dig The Magnetic Fields and The White Stripes for more modern music.

Sounds Like: Johnny Cash and Kafka on a road trip get drunk and then have a fist fight.
Record Label: Dead Earth Records Collective
Type of Label: Unsigned

My Blog

Why We Love Buck Owens

Last week, my wife gave me an album called, "Christmas with Buck Owens and his Buckaroos" as an early Christmas present. It's been in heavy rotation here at the farmhouse since then as I write my fin...
Posted by on Tue, 23 Dec 2008 10:15:00 GMT

Past Shows

As part of our ongoing work to make our Myspace page useful and informative, we will be listing all past shows on this blog page, a mirror of the shows page on our underutilized non-myspace website.--...
Posted by on Mon, 08 Dec 2008 02:35:00 GMT

Band in Boston Podcast

Hey there folks,We're busy recording our second album so we've cut back on live shows for a little while. When the album is pressed, we'll be back out in Northampton and Boston with some cd release s...
Posted by on Tue, 18 Nov 2008 23:30:00 GMT

Valley Advocate: "Behind the Beat: Aliens Descend on the Valley"

This was in the Valley Advocate on June 19, 2008. Read the original here.Behind the Beat: Aliens Descend on the ValleyLos Hijos Unicos takes aim at country music and country politics.Thursday, June 1...
Posted by on Wed, 18 Jun 2008 21:00:00 GMT