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TWINSMITH
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JOSH HOYER & SOUL COLOSSAL
Night after night at their live shows, Josh Hoyer & Soul Colossal leave it all on the table, bringing crowds palpably authentic music. This is a real working band; music for the people, by the people. You hear the veracity in Hoyer’s voice. You hear the strife of a guitar amp being pushed to its limits. You hear keyboards hammering notes home while emboldened horns soar over the top of a rhythm section akin to a freight train. The raucous funk and smooth soul emanating from the stage dutifully pays homage to the past soul giants while simultaneously charging forward, piloting themselves into the modern era. This is soul music.
Hoyer formed Josh Hoyer & Soul Colossal in 2012 in famed blues town Lincoln, Nebraska. The award-winning five-piece band includes some of the area's most revered and accomplished musicians. Joining Hoyer (keyboards/vocals) is Blake DeForest (trumpet), Mike Keeling (bass), Benjamin Kushner (guitar), and Harrison ElDorado (drums). Inspired by the sounds of Stax, Motown, Muscle Shoals, New Orleans, Philly and San Francisco, the band continuously crosses musical boundaries both in style and era, and joins forces each show with a common goal - to have the crowd dancing so much they forget even their smallest troubles.
On January 18th, 2019, Josh Hoyer & Soul Colossal released Do It Now, their fourth full length studio album. The album was recorded at Silver Street in Ashland, NE and at Make Believe Studios in Omaha, NE. Upon its initial European release in August 2018, the album drew rave reviews from European publications with Blues Magazine stating, “Josh Hoyer & Soul Colossal still prove to be at the top of the contemporary soul movement.” The band promoted the album on their second European tour; a 37-city outing spanning 6 different countries. Do It Now is available on vinyl, CD and all streaming platforms.
Josh Hoyer & Soul Colossal hit the road again in 2018 as they traveled to over 25 states and played numerous festivals across the United States. On January 26th, 2018, Hoyer released The End of the Night, a 3-song EP and solo side project with veteran Nashville songwriters Jay Knowles (Harry Connick Jr, Blake Shelton), and Jon Coleman (Trace Adkins).
In 2017, Josh was featured as a contestant on NBC's The Voice, and the band completed their first European tour; a 27-city stint capped with a live album release from their show in Brussels, Belgium.The hard working band completed several national tours from 2015-2017, playing more than 150 shows in 32 states each year, including opening for George Clinton, Charles Bradley, Booker T Jones, and Muscle Shoals Revue.
In 2016, the magic of their live show caught the attention of producer Ken Coomer (Wilco, Uncle Tupelo), who joined with the band to record their third full-length album. Running From Love, was recorded at Nashville's historic Sound Emporium, and once again features Hoyer's trademark vocals and the band's signature groove. The album was released on April 8, 2016, on Silver Street Records, and is available on vinyl, CD, and all streaming platforms.
"If James Brown and Otis Redding had a love child, it would be Josh Hoyer. The Lincoln, Nebraska, soul shouter, and his band of merry soulsters, Soul Colossal, deliver a sound so big, so funky, so wring-the-sweat-out-of-you energetic that it reaches through the speakers and shakes you until you start moving to its groove." - No Depression
JOSHHOYER.COM
THE KIEZ
Here’s an origin story that certainly isn’t run of the mill. Having never met or even spoken, Hamburg, Germany-based drummer and producer Lucas Kochbeck and Lincoln, Nebraska-based ex-Eagle Seagull front man Eli Mardock were introduced via email by mutual friends who knew they’d be a musical match-made-in-heaven. After exchanging some songs and listening to each other’s various projects and albums, the two strangers found an instant connection. Eli flew to meet Lucas at his Hamburg studio, and 3 weeks later, from a cloud of smoke, blood, sweat, tears, and booze, the two emerged with 17 songs and a new band: The Kiez.
You might ask yourself: what exactly is The Kiez (pronounced Keetz), and what does it mean? The Kiez is local Hamburg slang for the Reeperbahn, or Red Light District. But in the greater German language, it also means one’s “'hood”, or “barrio”; it’s the place where you belong, your home away from home.
So, it is an apt name for this band, who could be described by their own lyric: “People like you and me / we are the kind, we do wrong right”. Likewise, in their sound nothing is out of bounds: lo-fi electronics, fuzzed out soul, garage-rock infused dance beats and shoe-gaze guitars. And the result is a surprisingly focused and fully realized collection of songs full of coy swagger, teen malaise, and garage psychedelia. Taken together as a whole, it is one of the best pop albums you’ll likely hear all year.
Aided by their combined production experience, Lucas and Eli have crafted sonic textures ranging from overdriven bass to quirky synths and organs, dreamy background vocals, and the rolling pidder-padder of garage rock drums. The songs themselves are just as notable for the lyrics, which capture a wide range of moods and emotions: the boredom of youth, the deep gratitude of real love, the electric up and down moments of a one night stand, and a general us-versus-the-world sort of attitude. Mardock’s lyrics are full bravado (“you think that you know me, but you don’t / you think that you could, but you won’t”) and caustic one-liners (“You can dance, but you don’t get the music / you move to the noise but it don’t move you”).
In the end, there is a manic nature to songs that comes across as oddly loveable. Because, at its core, The Kiez is pop band. But, like the best party-inducing pop, there is always a hint of insight towards the ineffable.