HeadShy
HeadShy is an American alternative rock band that was formed in Austin, Texas in 2012 featuring former members of the psychedelic, space rock band Seven Percent Solution: Reese Beeman, James Adkisson, Mike Sherrill with the addition of singer/songwriter Lisa Lipkin, drummer Wayne Duncan and guitarist Bill Baldwin. Their debut album La Belle Epoque - The Head Chord, The Heart Chord, The Base Chord released in 2014 is composed of three EPs. The EPs highlight their diverse songwriting abilities which cross over into multiple MusicAL genres including: psychedelic, trip hop, darkwave, dream pop and americana.
La Belle Epoque has been widely praised by the press. Their first single, Coma, was debuted by My Old Kentucky Blog and premiered on My Old Kentucky Blog Radio on SIRIUS XMU before the release of the album. Their second single, Light That Guides The Blind, debuted on PopMatters. Their video for Coma was premiered in Mexico by Sound & Vision. The band also appeared in The Big Takeover Magazine (issue #74) with songs from each EP featured on DJ Jack Rabid's BreakThru Radio Show, Magnet, and The Aquarian Weekly.
La Belle Epoque charted on radio stations all over the U.S. According to the CMJ Radio 200 charts, some of the stations include WVFS Tallahassee FL (P1) #5 (charted for 5 weeks), KVMR Nevada City, CA (P1) (A) #8 (charted for 4 weeks), KVCU Boulder CO (P1) #17 (charted for 3 weeks), WXAV Chicago, IL #18 (charted for 3 weeks), and WUSB Stonybrook, NY #12 (charted for 4 weeks). Light that Guides the Blind was featured on NPR station WUGA Just Off The Radar in Atlanta, GA and they received regular airplay on The Avant Garage on CJSW Radio Calgary, Canada.
History
Formation
HeadShy was formed in 2012. They currently reside in Austin, TX. The original members were Reese Beeman, Lisa Lipkin and James Adkisson. After Seven Percent Solution dissolved, Reese Beeman and James Adkisson joined forces with singer/songwriter Lisa Lipkin who had recorded for Imago Records and worked with bassist Simon Edwards of Talk Talk, Robbie Blunt guitarist for Robert Plant and drummer Manny Elias of Tears For Fears. Reese Beeman and Lisa Lipkin focused on writing strong songs layered with the psychedelic and atmospheric playing of James Adkisson. Drummer, Wayne Duncan, joined the band on drums in 2013 to complete the recordings. Mike Sherrill (bass) and Bill Baldwin (guitar & backing vocals) were added in 2014 when the band started performing live.
La Belle Epoque (Triple EP) - The Head Chord, The Heart Chord, The Base Chord
La Belle Epoque was released in 2014 on the band's Medicina Records label. The release was produced, recorded and engineered by Reese Bemman and Lisa Lipkin in their home in Austin, TX. In addition to guitars and vocals, Reese Beeman played bass on all of the tracks and drums on Shame and M. Verre. They later added Wayne Duncan on drums to complete the album. When the writing was complete the band ended up with three distinct songwriting styles that still worked as single body of work with the signature sounds of Reese Beeman's and James Adkisson's guitar playing. This lead them to release La Belle Epoque as a triple EP that could be listened to as a long play album or as individual EPs. According to the bands bio, the concept for the release was inspired by the film Perfume: The Story of a [...] based on Patrick Süskind's acclaimed 1985 novel Das Parfum. In the film the fictional character, Giuseppe Baldini, illuminates how perfume, like music, is composed of chords and notes when he says: "Just like a musical chord, a perfume chord contains four essences, or notes, carefully selected for their harmonic affinity. Each perfume contains three chords: the head, the heart and the base, necessitating 12 notes in all. The head chord contains the first impression, lasting a few minutes before giving way to the heart chord, the theme of the perfume, lasting several hours. Finally, the base chord, the trail of the perfume lasting several days. Mind you the Egyptians believed that one can only create a truly original perfume by adding an extra note, one final essence that will ring out and dominate the others…” To drive the conceptual point of La Belle Epoque home, in addition to its proper CD release, the group also made the collection available as a limited edition box set handmade by Beeman that contain three perfume bottles containing USB flash drives containing the songs featured within the parameters of each separate EP. They also made the individual tracks of all 13 songs available in a 13 bottle perfume bottle USB box set. Guest musicians included Ikey Owens (The Mars Volta & Jack White) who played organ on Coma.
Members
- James Adkisson - guitar, backing vocals (2012–present)
- Bill Baldwin - guitar, backing vocals (2014–present)
- Reese Beeman - lead vocals, guitar, bass guitar, drums (2012–present)
- Wayne Duncan - Drums, Doumbek (2013–present)
- Lisa Lipkin - lead vocals, keyboards, piano (2012–present)
- Mike Sherrill - bass guitar (2014–present)
Former Members and Guests
- Julian Capps - Guitar, backing vocals
- David Malerba - Guitar
- Ikey Owens - Organ