Local trio Deadhand – Brendan Scholz (guitar/vocals), Jarred Cooper (bass) and Aaron Weislogel (drums) – has released a new EP. The follow up to their excellent self-titled debut gets you three brand new Deadhand songs and a bonus fourth track that will be on the upcoming SquidHat Records Desert Rats with Baseball Bats compilation. You can grab the whole thing as a pay-what-you-can download at the group’s bandcamp page, and it comes highly recommended.
In other, decidedly more depressing Deadhand news, the band confirmed at their show with Direct Hit! And Lipstick Homicide last Friday what they had been cryptically hinting at for the past few weeks – that they’re going on hiatus, giving this EP “final release” status. There’s no dramatic “Behind the Music” reason for the hiatus. Weislogel is relocating to California, which obviously makes playing shows infinitely more difficult. According to Weislogel:
“I plan on being in Vegas a lot to see friends and shows and while we haven’t ruled out playing more shows in the future, we know that a ‘long-distance’ band relationship probably won’t be enough for us. When I moved to Vegas from Pittsburgh 8 years ago, Brendan and Jarred were two of the first people I met and we have been playing together without any issues or drama for almost 7 years. I love those guys and am certain we will remain close friends. Gonna miss a lot about Vegas but it was time to try somewhere new.”
Deadhand, featuring ¾ of the members of Lydia Vance, formed in 2011. They hit hard with their self-titled debut, which is one of my favorite debuts from any band, period. They hit that perfect balance between hard rock (“Prehistoric”), pop punk (“Places”) and ballads (“Back Up”), and they’ve been known for impressive guitar solos. Deadhand formed almost at the exact time as this website and I was fortunate that they were willing to be “guinea pigs” in the Stripped Down Sessions process, being the second band to participate and only session not to be filmed on a DSLR.
During their time together they’ve had a number of accomplishments, including Scholz winning Vegas Seven Magazine’s “Best Guitarist” award, releasing an awesome music video for “Places,” having a month-long residency at the short-lived Hypnotic Lounge, playing countless shows with the likes of Dead to Me, Murder by Death and Screaming Females as well as playing the House of Blues with fellow locals Holding Onto Sound and TheCore.
We’re keeping our fingers crossed that this isn’t the last we hear of the band, and in the meantime, Scholz continues to perform with his Mercy Music solo project, with an appearance coming up at the Vegas Music Summit August 1st at Commonwealth.
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