Hella's new album

http://www.hellaband.com/media/disco/mp3/the_ungrateful_dead.mp3

But I can't wait..anxious to hear what Carson does for Hella

how much of "666.." have you heard?

my initial observations are that, er, i don't like it. What I enjoy about early Hella is the binary feel of it all...you know? the disparate elements: drums versus guitar. Each part could breathe.
It is too full now, too much like other bands attempting the same thing. I mean, the preponderance of guitars drown out Zack's work. The subtle flutter notes are gone. The very stark and pronounced timechanges aren't quite as effective. Perhaps it will grow on me, but as of yet, nothing is standing out.

Is anyone else as disappointed as I am?

i liked one or two tracks from the eps, but gave up after that.

OTM. Although I have really enjoyed the sidework of Hella, most prominently The Advantage (i just don't tire of hearing Nintendo coversongs) and The Ladies.

Excusing the album's inherent garishness, 666 expands Hella's core sound to new heights that, although at times hard to stomach, finds the band both at their most playful and regimented.

http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/record_review/40781/Hella_Theres_No_666_in_Outer_Space

"Heights that finds" notwithstanding, it occurs to me that, when it comes to rock music, TERRIBLE things happen when extreme playfulness (read: deliberate, "comical" wackiness) meets extreme regimentation. I mean, the early Hella felt like an extention of things I liked. The distance between Spiderland and Today's Active Lifestyles is comparable to the distance between TAL and Hold Your Horse Is. But the new stuff doesn't have anything to do with that. All I'm hearing is fucking Frizzle Fry.

Now, some folk seem to genuinely enjoy Trout Mask Replica. They worship Primus, Mister Bungle and Frank Zappa. They dig the rich belly laffs, the prize-winning mathematics and, of course, the godlike chopsmanship. Fine for them, I guess, but all that crap bores me to tears (to the extent that it doesn't piss me off).

For me, bands like Lightning Bolt and Hella work when they disguise the "comic genius" and jock-fu under something more viscerally appealing -- skull-crushing noise, simple tunes, and/or hypnotic pattern-making, frinstance. Stuff I can actually relate to.

The more Hella expose their ambitions, the more insufferable the cartoon clown-head becomes.

but it's not for its cartoonish guitar-wanking excessive wackiness - quite the opposite. it's the neither arthur nor martha-ness of it. it's not dirty and visceral enough or proggishly, mathematically outlandish enough. it feels like a flaccid mars volta. which, incidentally, is exactly the same as the current mars volta.

A lot of very smart, very cool people LOVE wacky, zany stuff. I just ... don't so much. That's what I'm hearing here, and it prevents me from loving it.

My loss, I guess.

I had the opposite reaction. It seems all about Zach's drumming now (and the vocals). It's more in a Church Gone Wild direction, guitars providing some background noise.

none of the albums have been good since hold your horse is.

The Devil Isn't Red?? "Top Twenty Notes"?

HELLA RELEASE SONG FROM FIRST NEW ALBUM IN FOUR YEARS, COMING IN AUGUST

http://ih.constantcontact.com/fs078/1103023679580/img/134.jpg

Legendary experimentalist duo, Hella have released the first track from their newly completed fifth album, due out August 2011 on Sargent House. Though neither the songs nor the album have been titled yet, the band has made the track available to fans today via Stereogum. Check it out HERE.

Hella also invites people to create their own videos/visuals for the new song and post them to YouTube -- listed simply as "Hella - Track 1"-- and post the link on the band's Facebook page.

After a four year hiatus, the duo featuring drummer Zach Hill and guitarist Spencer Seim has returned. Further details about the new recording will be released when they're good and ready.

Artist: Hella
Album: TBA
Label: Sargent House
Release Date: August 2011

01. TBA (MP3)
02. TBA
03. TBA
04. TBA
05. TBA
06. TBA
07. TBA
08. TBA
09. TBA
10. TBA

i liked that new album. anybody ever listen to the bygones record? tera melos guitarist + zach hill