HAZEL press notices

contents:

1. LIVE

       raves

       fred

       jody

       metaphors

2. EARLY RECORDINGS

3. TOREADOR OF LOVE

        one-liners

        raves

        metaphors

4. ARE YOU GOING TO EAT THAT

        one-liners

        raves

        metaphors

5. AIRIANA

6. COMPARED TO WHAT

7. PETE & JODY

8. BRADY

9. SONGS

10. DIS

        faint praise

        raves

        flattering comparisons

        tasty bits

        ambiguous

        tell it to Sub Pop

        fred

1. LIVE

raves:

Should be huge stars.

~ Barry Pritchett

Music Hand

I felt as if I'd arrived in Paradise.

~ Richard Martin

Willamette Week

Frenetic energy and daredevil dancing.

~ Richard Martin

Tonic

A stage presence unlike any other band in alternative rock.

~ Peter Blackstock

Seattle Times

Completely blew me away with its punkish power and precision.

~ Metro

Hazel will be a big deal soon, based on their not-to-be-missed live shows.

~ John Chandler

Puncture

The energy they exude onstage translates into audience appreciation of the giant grinning mosh-pit variety, and their disarming demeanor is a large factor.

~ Sara Manaugh

Puncture

A steamroller sonic attack that blows away audiences indoors and out, most notably at AIM Fest where the previously passive audience went haywire.

~ Tim Casebeer

Willamette Week

Hazel, a drum, bass and guitar ensemble fronted by a crazed dancer, are emerging as the newest wunderkind of the Portland underground. Their ringing three-piece sound is remarkably full, achieved without extra guitars or augmentation.

~ William Abernathy

The Rocket

The combination of abandon and cohesion, buyant melody and rhythmic thrust, and the contrast/interplay of Krebs' and Bleyle's voices - plus, of course, the visual impact of Nemo's spasmodic forays into harm's way - make Hazel's show high-wire good times.

~ Marty Hughley

The Oregonian

Hazel's songs are fierce, succinct, hard-riffing rockers about love going awry, with overlapping vocals by the deadpan Peter Krebs on guitar and the impassioned Jody Bleyle on drums.

~ Jon Pareles

New York Times

During the recent Gavin Convention, there was a Sub Pop showcase at the Bridge. The opening band, Hazel, was the star of the show. They were the opening band in a cavernous venue, and they managed to bring the audience to a tight cluster in front of the stage. They accomplished this with their energy and their obvious enjoyment. When I asked them later how they liked playing the showcase, they commented that they felt it was not their best show! They really prefer a more intimate setting.

On their return to San Francisco a week later, they played to a full house at the Chameleon. Hazel was bringing the house down. The tiny stage had barely enough room for the three musicians, much less for the antics and wild chair-swinging of Fred Nemo.

Fred is the first thing you notice at a Hazel show, kind of like a third eye on your blind date.

Hazel were partying in their room in the wee hours when Shonen Knife came by the window on the way to their room after the DNA show, and Jody got so overcome with emotion that she lifted her shirt in a tribute to this band. Shonen Knife responded as any good Japanese would - they bowed politely in thanks and giggled, hands demurely over mouths.

It's hard to believe she never played drums before joining this band. I guess she's just a natural. Her aggressive drum technique contrasted by her belltone voice on background vocals sets the tone for Hazel.

This is a really great band. See them now, before they get huge.

~ Priscilla Thorner

American Music Press

fred:

Passion, unpredictability, and truly expressive dancing.

~ The Oregonian

Nemo adds a surreal edge to their gripping live shows.

~ Music Monitor

He makes them all the more an experience to see.

~ Christine Sievanen

The Stranger

Much of Hazel's appeal centers on Nemo. He plays a vital role not only in their live shows, but as an integral part of all that is Hazel.

~ Sara Manaugh

Puncture

A unique contribution to the world of alternative rock. Sometimes frolicking about in a little-girl style dress, sometimes looking like the trenchcoat angels in Wings of Desire (except scarier). There's always some macho asshole who wants to drag him offstage and kick the shit out of him.

~ Christine J. Feldman

Cake

Nemo does not play an instrument. He is an instrument. Bleyle says he's the central figure in the band.

~ Mark Taylor

Soundings (Norfolk)

A band truly capable of magic. Great songs, charm to spare, and showcasing a dancer as likely to drop a cinder block on you as wear a tutu. Exhilarating rattiness.

~ Stephen Strausbaugh

The Mercury

If you can't beat them, join them. Tour the east coast with them. Become friends with them. Then scare the hell out of all their fans. Hazel's full-time improvisational dancer should do the trick nicely. An inspired frenzy of interpretive genius. Seether says whoa! Very little connected with Hazel is normal, anyway. They fly through their tasty batch of whiplash love songs as if Fred's tutu was on fire. Go, Fred, go.

~ Jennifer Buckley

Michigan Daily

Fred dances as if it's entirely the norm. Sometimes there is a tutu involved: one can hear it whispering on the CD...Long live Fred.

~ Anna Woolverton

Alternative Press

He looks out of place here with his long, black knotted hair, bell-bottoms and red night-club jacket; more like a hitchhiker they picked up on the way to Cleveland. At the same time, he also looks strangely comfortable as he quietly moves through the crowd outside like a ghost.

~ Rick Welo

Moo

The metaphor of a self-demolishing machine is an apt description of Fred's technique. He careens around, above, and off the stage, playing with, on, or in any object which comes to hand, from audio tape to ladders to shag rugs to pitchers of water. His costumes, ranging from rags to drag, suggest the tattered garb of the seer and the hermaphroditism of the shaman, as his dance moves him seamlessly from rage to possession. Through kaleidoscopic costume changes, he moves from slow, stately poses to dangerous, dynamic madness. The band feeds off his spontaneity.

...As they performed beneath huge paintings of bishops and deacons in the Great Hall of the redundantly named Christ and the Holy Trinity Episcopal Church, a painting of a sword-wielding avenging angel became the conspicuously dear object of Fred's profaning rhumba.

~ William Abernathy

The Rocket

Whatever sound the band achieves, it gains fury from its dancer. Nemo's dancing defies description, flashing without warning from Tai Chi poses to terrifying fits. He dances with cinder blocks, long whip-like vines, brooms, pipe, and whatever else is at hand. At his most active, he resembles an epileptic plugged into a power-source.

~ William Abernathy

The Rocket

A big ugly balding man with the appearance of that guy at the bus-station at 4 a.m. and the moves of a drag queen, he instantly connected with the crowd, who screamed for him every time he left the stage.

~ Randy Silver

The Source (Albany)

What exactly does Fred do? Anything he wants. An animate metaphor for the band's music.

~ Tim Casebeer

Willamette Week

Hazel augments its live show with the unchoreographed mischief of the tremendously tall Fred Nemo.

~ Michael Yockel

City Paper (Baltimore)

His feet go crazy.

~ Jen Fleissner

SF Reader

He's a pretty good dancer. All bands should have dancers. Portland must be quite a place.

~ (some midwest zine)

A commentary on the show simultaneous to the show. Like a dramatization of what is going on on stage and rock shows generally. Funny and brilliant and athletic and wild. Like two radically different movies going on simultaneously side by side. Undoing each other and also creating each other. The jewel of Hazel or its pulsing heart.

~ Alicia Cohen

He gyrates with a manic energy that reflects the music's own teetering between whimsy and chaos.

~Marty Hughley

The Oregonian

jody:

A lethal weapon.

~ Barry Pritchett

Music Hand

Jody is an absolutely innovative drummer. Her stage-presence is Dy-No-Mite.

~ Christine J. Feldman

Cake

Bleyle attacked her kit with reckless duty, giving a rigid backbone and a raging heartbeat at the same time. Pulled the crowd out of the doldrums.

~ Joe Warminsky

The Morning Call (Philadelphia)

They won the crowd over handily. Driven by Bleyle's frenetic drumming, the band had punk down cold.

~ Randy Silver

The Source (Albany)

Noisy and jubilant. I fell in love with them, especially the drummer, a gal with a tuft of green hair and the smokin'est drumsticks this critic ever saw. Of course, the crowd loved them too.

~ Molly McCommons

Flagpole

Though Fred adds an odd sort of danger and unpredictability to the show, I'd pay my five dollars to see Jody pound the drums in any band. Jesus, what energy, the best drumer I've seen since Peter Prescott's glory days in Mission of Burma. And when she took the lead vocals, it was among the best moments of any show I saw this year (or any other), nevermind the fact that it was a great song, too.

~ The Joy of Rex

The high point of Hazel has got to be their drummer. She has this intense enthusiasm that has her grinning as she plays that's unbelievable. You don't know whether to pinch her cheeks or shake your head and tell her she kicks ass. It had more than one person in the crowd yelling, "Your drummer's cute!" Well, she is. All in all it was a musical treat.

~ Crispin Heidel

Snipehunt

Instead of reveling in noise, these four Oregonians live for speed. But this isn't hard core's pained assault; it's too eager, too bright in its gusto, a barrelling forth as much anxious as crazed. Even the band's more moderate tempos come off breakneck, whipped into frenzy by the frantically blurted asides of amazing drummer Jody Bleyle. Song after song, she's hollering up a storm, a-whoa-oh, yeah yeah yeah, ba ba ba ba... Heck, the guitarists have to careen just to keep up.

~ Jen Fleissner

metaphors:

This music is strong and interesting. Like a well-constructed film plot, it twists and turns and takes you to new heights of imagined possibilities. Intelligence and integrity.

~ Christine J. Feldman

Cake

Slow music played fast - simple, three-part rock with parallel lyrics from the deep.

~ Anna Woolverton

Alternative Press

Krebs leaned into a verse and squeezed out just the right juice of squawk, things clicked and fell apart, a beautiful collapse of meaning, a sudden dust devil, a spark in the darkness, charming and goony.

~ J. W. Renaud

Paperback Jukebox

I feel like I have known their songs for years after the very first listen. There is a natural flow to the songs, a relaxed ease. They remind me of good conversation: sometimes animated, sometimes subdued, but always ebbing and flowing in a way that keeps you interested. Sometimes the tempo changes are so quick it's like airplane turbulence. Hazel strikes a perfect balance between the low-fi pop ballad and the clean well-rounded indie rock classic. Brilliant chemistry - live and on record.

They are a fun live band, interacting with the crowd, telling self-deprecating stories - and then there is Fred. Oh, the glory of Fred.

They harmonize so well it's as though they're Siamese twins connected at the vocal chords. You're surprised at how fluid and mobile the two voices are together. Totally pleasing to the ear and actually makes my skin tingle, because it's just exactly right. Hazel's vocals are more like an instrument than most bands', and are mixed plainly and clearly. Rampaging, streamlined, clean, and liquid.

~ Christine Sievanen

The Stranger

A band that must be a godsend to the good people at Miracle-Ear: P-town's latest sensation, Hazel. This show was way fucking LOUD. I didn't bring my earplugs and when I walked outside after the show it was like silent movie dialog. Fortunately, they were as good as they were loud and epitomized the gut essence of rock and roll - music that shakes your butt as well as your eardrums. Hazel delivered an earnest sonic bludgeoning made all the more interesting by the jerky, spinning wanderings of dancer Fred Nemo.

~ Tim Demmon

Snipehunt

The space where Hazel practices is in a particularly surreal part of town. The majority of the surrounding area is a wasteland of trainyards and barren, weed-infested parking lots. The warehouses sprawl like some oversized strip mall from hell. the streets curve and branch according to the exclusive rules of this vicinity of Southeast. Nestled into this carcass of industry are the remnants of the original neighborhood; lone houses scattered between the monolith buildings, a few houses clustered across the street from a company whose sole operation seems to be to smash glass twenty-four hours a day. The basement door of one of these houses is open and looks out on a trashed trailer home that sits tightly between two of the cluster. There is no garage here. Loud music belts from the open door.

~ Andy Boyd

This was their show. I watched the crowd get sucked in immediately and had a great deal of fun getting my head and ears ribboned. Fred, you rule. When Pond and Trailer Queen's giant ersatz wedding cake went swirling above everyone's heads, I knew we had all arrived. Everyone had smiles on their faces.

~ Gabriel Ferreira

Snipehunt

Oregon-based Hazel know all about timing: it's Valentine's Day, the morning after a San Francisco Sub Pop live spectacular where the foursome impressively introduced themselves to the Slack Generation. More pertinently, today is also Hazel's first anniversary. A cause for celebration or a bloody miracle?

"Both," decides singing guitarist Pete. "We're all going to buy each other chocolate hearts."

"With cyanide in them," beams drummer Jody. "I'm just glad we're here instead of Portland because if we were at home would have undoubtedly booked some completely moronic anniversary show. Luckily, no-one here knows us and nobody cares!"

Chances are, this is one situation that will change before you can say, "Bloody hell, what's that hairy geezer doing dancing on the speakers with a jug on his head? And why is he taking his trousers off?" And chances are that this is Fred, a man who turned up at Hazel's first gig and refused to go home. Ever. He now grooves for the band. Along with lunging bassist Brady, Fred adds that extra unsettling dimension which separates Hazel from the noisepack. Put them next to the similarly shorn likes of Pond and Velocity Girl and one can't help but get the sneaking suspicion that Sub Pop are shifting away from their somewhat grungier early years.

"I think they're fine-tuning their pop sensibilities," gurgles Jody in mock agreement, safe in the knowledge that for all their melodic ambitions, new single Jilted proves that Hazel can bang their heads as maniacally as the best of them but without ever falling into any sub-metal trap. Unlike the worst of them. "We think tempo is overrated," dismisses Brady. "And tuning up as well - vastly overrated."

Think of bursts of outright thrashiness rubbing shoulders and sharing a beer with broodier bits with an almost jazz-like tranquility. Yeah, Hazel might not fit the slacker design bill, but neither are they masters of the slick guitar retort.

~ Simon Williams

New Musical Express

2. EARLY SINGLES

Melodious and moody. Exquisitely atonal.

~ Stowe

Spin

Overnite hotstuff. Scraping, squalling guitar and almost-there vocal harmonies. For real.

~ Carl Hanni

Paperback Jukebox

Low-key, beguiling. The whisper-to-a-scream transformation. Melodic Ferocity.

~ Michael Yockel

City Paper (Baltimore)

Hazel has surpassed anyone's predictions.

~ Ken Hunt

Seattle Times

The hottest thing in Portland. Krebs' solo is a masterpiece. Simultaneously wondrous and blasé, he sings, "Yeah it's my thing, oh wow, my very own thing."

~ Tim Casebeer

Willamette Week

Hazel is again impressive on this record, cranking out another great song, Shiva. This band is Portland's fastest rising star right now.

~ Tim Brooks

PDXS

This three-song affair shows glimpses of the stuff indie-rock dreams are made of. A ragged but potent garage-band head of steam.

~ John Chandler

Puncture

Guts and passion.

~ Melody Maker

Absolutely beautiful simplicity - radically different - basic, yet extremely melodic, laden with unforgettable hooks.

~ Thom Rechak

Flipside

Tension-maxed vaguely noisy guitar pop with amazing drummer Jody's backing vocals perfectly matched and balanced with the lead melody, with already very good songwriting to boot, this band could almost singlehandedly justify this Portland Scene everybody seems to think is happening. you need this.

~ The Joy of Rex

Hazel is way bigger than grunge, bigger than Seattle. Unfortunately, my dinky speakers blew out on this one, unable to handle the intense throbbing pressure necessary to give her a good run. Hazel needs about 140-150 dbs to carry the potent message. Show devotion. This is the one.

~ J.W. Renaud

Paperback Jukebox

3. TOREADOR OF LOVE

one-liners:

Riveting.

~ Johnny Renton

The Rocket

Honesty.

~ D. Gibson

U Turn

Terrific. Scorching.

~ Pioneer Press (St. Paul)

More hooks than a tackle-box.

~ Barry Pritchett

Music Hand

Hazel is the answer to grunge.

~ Rebecca Zimmerman

New York Times

There is still hope for indie rock.

~ Timothy Appnel

Oculus

Aggressive guitars - indelible lyrical toots.

~ Dawn Sutter

CMJ

Spirited. Heartaches never felt this good.

~ Mia Quagliarello

No Info

Great guitar band, great songs, a happily-skewed humor.

~ Matt Murphy

Cake

Forceful and confident and succinct. My car stereo is smiling.

~ Al

Brutarian

I love the low-end bass and involved harmonization. Great stuff.

~ Dave Sheldon

Pandemonium

When records are this good it makes reviewing them almost too easy.

~ Rebel

Incredible - fresh - insightful. A refill of hope for the future of music.

~ Daniel Blank

Our Friend Alfred

Whizbang, kinetic, intense, brash, with rousing energy and enthusiasm.

~ B Side

Blistering, high-octane guitar explosions. Stunning. Immensely inspiring.

~ Robert Lim

Voices (Chicago)

Delicious, surprisingly moving, hushed and impelling. Sparkling moments.

~ Second Skin

The sense of melody, coupled to harmony, linked to guitar, is hard to touch.

~ Chris Smith

B Side

raves:

The coolest band out of Portland.

~ Barry M. Prickett

Music Hound Rock

Exhuberent, hooky punk, with grinding guitar work that'll slam you up against the wall.

~ Natalie Nichols

L.A. Reader

Recording of the year. The living embodiment of what power pop is supposed to mean. Urgency and impact. There isn't a single bad song.

~ DPM

Orbit

This is by far the best release I've heard in months, and I am priveleged enough to hear the very best of the new stuff. Pure bliss.

~ Richard Thurston

Ink Nineteen

Power, tenderness, punk energy at their fingertips, wicked melodies, guaranteed to make you move.

~ The Hate Paper Doll

Buzz Factory

Simplicity and beauty. Some of the most awkward changes that somehow WORK in brilliant fashion. An absolute must experience.

~ Thom Rechak

Flipside

Hopelessly romantic punk-pop indie rock will not die - bands like Hazel make the whole thing worthwhile. Lyrics are catchy, arrangements interesting, solos great.

~ Paul Wagenseil

S.F. Weekly

They rock much harder than most bands bother to or are capable of. The energy they save saying no to rock star pretension they apply to discovering new places for hooks. Spread the word.

~ Sara Manaugh

Puncture

A joyful frenzy, pensive subtleties, smooth agility. Uplifting, inspired, energized - beautifully brilliant.

~ Tom Wright

Staten Island

Their songs rarely break the three-minute mark, but they pack more hooks and classic guitar energy than many bands can muster in a whole album.

~ Music Monitor

Hazel creates music which seems to be on the verge of falling apart, only to explode rather than collapse. You need this.

~ Matt Galloway

Absolutely Free

Immediately likeable, combining full-on guitar attacks with intelligent lyrical swirls and plenty of assertion, rather than aggression.

~ Liz Evans

Kerang

Catchy uptempo punk/pop ditties get back to the gartage and stomp around.

~ Dean Moriarty

Lollipop

Pretty damn good - unafraid - space guitar sounds, good thumpy bass that is not overdriven, clean percussion and not to much ride cymbal.

~ Kostya Lotz

U.S. Rocker

Der Garagen Pop Wahnsinn! Hätte ich ihnen nach ihrer schlappen Jilted Single vom vergangenen Jahr nun wirklich nicht zugetraut, doch aus lascher NIRVANA-Ahkupferei entwickelte sich mit Lucky Dog der beste krachige Pop seit geraumer Zeit. Superb-catchie Melodien, herzenserwärmender Mann-Frau-Gesang, Punk Rock, kurz: Schweiß, Tränen & Blut, abgesegnet durch Jack Endino's (!) wunderbar schepprige Produktion machen Lucky Dog zum wertvollsten Stück Popgeschichte seit Nevermind. Atemberaubend. File under Klassiker!

~ Marcus

metaphors:

Fundamental to their sound are the evocative interplay of the two voices and the dextrous melodic swaps between Krebs and Smith. Hazel's lyrics manage to capture life's joys and desolations with a wit and depth devoid of sentimentality. Their songwriting displays maturity and emotional completeness.

~ William Abernathy

The Rocket

Precise and square-dealing, hummable songs. Yet for all its inner tune control and linear musicality, this album is multiform and upholds its instant likeability on subsequent listenings. Easy-breezy angry/sad finesse and a heady pace - a slowly building, straight-up tuneful cyclone.

~ Gina Bittner

Magnet

Sharp, to-the-point pearls of honest irony - a little vulnerability amidst all the distortion - and knows how to rock. Toreador hits the bull's-eye.

~ John A. Terlesky

The Morning Call (Philadelphia)

Just when you thought you would never again want to hear another Northwest band, Hazel saves the day. They defy musical categories in a single bound. pete's distorted yet melodic guitar work is punctuated by the shock-drive of Jody's hyper-punk drumming. Though Hazel's lyrics frequently meander the dark streets of true love gone to hell, the songs are never trite. They are as moving as any well-written song, but with a hard edge. This is Hazel's strength. In a genre that glorifies the mundane or insane, hazel rock with rare intelligence and grace.

~ Christine Feldman

Cake

Honest and likeable. Smart, simple, sincere rock that's consistently overlooked by trendwatchers. Clings to its faith in cranked guitars, pulsing bass lines, and sly harmonies. These well-assembled tunes have strong hooks and pack an undeniably enjoyable wallop.

~ Chuck Crisafulli

Option

Incredible vocals - slightly off-kilter harmony duets sung together, overlapping, calling, and repeating. This is an insidiously catchy album, crammed with whiplash-tight punky pop tunes. After only seeing the band once, I could hum along to most of the album, thinking, "Oh yeah, I remember this one..." Hazel plays split-second love-songs with terse, hooky lyrics. ~ Naomi Shapiro

The Austin Chronicle

Catchy pop-rock sensibilities - near-blinding blizzards of thoroughly smoking, cranky, three-chord guitar work - sweatingly manic energy - a profound melodic sense - an almost existential unsophistication. Uncanny ability. A fresh rock voice.

~ Flaggert

rayGun

An alternating capacity for tenderness and power. Hazel's music is layered enough to inspire awe and thrashy enough to jump around to. And the lyrics have enough wit and poignance to make them worth remembering.

~ Robin Eisgrau

Net Magazine

Laden with unusual lyrical perspectives backed by some great vocals and sparse, mostly upbeat orchestrations that are simply perfect for each other. Good things come in small packages and there's one called Hazel in Portland.

~ Timothy Appnel

Oculus

I'd trade my Christmas vacation for them. No band has ever put out such an explosive first LP. Charmingly powerful. Stagger-step drumming. It is music that has merit and cause.

~ Greg Euclide

The Advance Titan

In two short years, Hazel has become the best, most popular, and most loved rock band in the city of Portland. There's a certain transcendental appeal - honesty, passion, normality, abnormality, exhuberance, youthfulness, romanticism, wistfulness, and warmth. They are greater than the sum of their parts. They're anti-stars with star quality. And they epitomize what Portland is all about, both musically and attitudinally.

~ Richard Martin and Eric Lee

Paperback Jukebox

It sounds so quintessentially...um, quintessentially Hazel, I guess. Thickly muscled, remarkable grace - while raven-like birds soar over the beast in melodic harmony...

~ Tim Demmon

Snipehunt

Wrongly dismissed as just another grunge band, their sweet and frenzied songs share a subtle catchiness, a simplicity, and a very up-front and honest sound. A soft-spoken beauty and a simply exquisite subtlety and understatement. What is remarkable about Hazel is that they are able to capture a mood and create an aesthetic, both captivating and charming. Besides, it's hard not to like a band that has actually made a dancer a member of the band.

~ Jon Manders

The Independent (Boston)

Portland's finest marry tricky guitar chord progressions, sparring yet laid-back boy-girl vocals and a splash of invidious drumming to create a snarling hybrid of that American guitar thing. The thoughtful, introspective lyrics dominate until they are finally beaten into submission by the jumping guitars. Hazel take the smaller questions that life throws up, and write rambling, punching, philosophical songs with grooving Spanish flourishes that fight to the death against the all-American sound. A band of comparisons and contrasts.

~ The Edinburgh Student

The record works. The few guitar solos are brief, ragged, and to the point. Bleyle has never sung better. These songs burn down the barn with the band's characteristic heat. Good material and inspired performances.

~ Tim Casebeer

Willamette Week

Sometimes they're hard enough to make you floor it, and sometimes they're poignant enough to make you fog up and drift between lanes. They don't skimp on the lyrics either.

~ Geoff Farina

Speed Kills

Portland's maid-of-honor, Hazel. The churning guitar bobs your head, while the punkish bass and drums inch your rotting sneakers closer to the pit. Submit yourself.

~ Todd Inoue

Metro

4. ARE YOU GOING TO EAT THAT

one-liners:

Brilliant - intense - beautiful. ~ Vince Martini

The Heckler

Wittily snide grunge balladry.

~ The Bergen County (N.J.) Record

Loaded with spontaneity and rawness.

~ Mark Taylor

Soundings (Hampton, Va.)

Nuance and mastery. Simply exquisite.

~ Timothy Appnel

Oculus

Totally different. My pick of the month.

~ J.C. Michalek

Thunder Word

Arrow-to-the-apple sound. Metaphysical.

~ Gina Bittner

City Paper (Philadelphia)

Flush harmonies - you'll melt in the guitar clamor.

~ (unattributed)

Compositional prowess: bewitching, warm, psychedelic.

~ John Chandler

Puncture

Hazel's melodic sense and austere energy shine through.

~ Chris Pugmire

The Mirror (Seattle)

The guitars sound real and unproduced. ***** (out of five)

~ John D. Lowe

The Daily Texan

Understated, scrappy, velocity-infused and melodically textured.

~ (unattributed)

Fortifies Hazel's position among the throng of power pop bands.

~ Rick Welo

Moo

Tight girl/boy harmonies, hanging 10 on the crest of a wall of guitars.

~ Magnet

Riffy, disarming, will have you dancing unashamedly in your apartment.

~ Joe Garden

The Onion

Instrumental verve - competence and confidence - polyphonies and descants.

~ William Abernathy

The Rocket

raves:

Several of the songs have adopted my head as a permanent residence. Confident, relaxed, oddly compelling.

~ Mike Wolfson

Pandemonium

Hazel's lyrics are so personal, you feel like you're in a relationship with the band, and they're frequently hilarious as well.

~ Gwen Ihnat

Illinois Entertainer

Hazel continue to display reckless disregard for the indie-rock rules, balancing raw aggression with urgent co-ed harmonies.

~ Pulse

Anthemic - thoughful, but buzzing with energy. The vocals complement each other in a nice, sad slide. Easy and honest.

~ Steve Mockus

The Daily Californian

Brims with tight hyper-pop songs based on hummable melodies and slightly off-key vocal harmonies. Most accessable and inviting.

~ Jennifer Buckley

Michigan Daily

Hazel's songs, rife with simple, captvating melodies and emotionally resonant lyrics, possess the kind of off-kilter charm and candor that elude most bands.

~ Kirsten Ferguson

The Source (Albany)

Catchy, lo-fi, very cool - straightforward and real. Sometimes they harmonize and sometimes they don't, and nobody cares because it sounds good either way.

~ Andrea Drugay

The Santa Clara

Likeable, angry/sad, tuneful, hard/melodic, rock as only they can deliver it - angst-ridden and deeply personal, yet delivered with a zingy punch that's always quite captivating, attractive, and even sometimes intoxicating in its total rightness.

~ Subliminal Tattoos

metaphors:

The shifting vocal interplay sings to your heart through elusive but simple lyrics. The infusion of power chords and tight thundering rhythms creates a thoroughly satisfying meld of punky pop that has its own special flavor.

~ Rayolux (Chicago)

There's sweetness in the harmonies, there's grit in the guitars, and then there's something else - that quality that makes people want to stay. Hazel is more than guitar rock with pretty vocals. They are moody and memorable. Tasteful drumming and luscious vocals.

~ M.A. Melragon

Moo

Hazel are enamored of simply-chorded punk-pop, but the fundamentals of the genre are only the basis for a more evolved form. power chords, razor leads, and galloping bass lines figure prominently, but so do imaginative shifts in melody and distinctively erratic vocals. The off-center co-ed harmonies run confounding rings around each other, intersecting at curious times. deceptively smart lyrics follow suit, appearing on the surface as the standard fallout from relationships gone sour, but revealed to be wider, thoughtful takes on the gender wars.

~ Jason Roth

Chicago Tribune

13 songs with enough warmth and energy to last for months. Catchy guitars and comely vocals. What gives Hazel their edge is a thirst for energetic process. The songs are built firmly on guitar hooks, where the vocal teamup works beautifully. Tasteful, tasty dishes.

~ Kevin McDonough

There aren't many bands that can write mid-tempo songs that aren't dirgey or mopey or whiney. It's reflective, wistful, and even, dare I say, tender. This is a band that dares to wear its heart on its sleeve. These songs could be your best friends.

~ Elizabeth Vincentelli

CMJ

Wonderfully catchy and at times achingly painful as the heart-lump of first love. Simultaneously reckless, rough, exhilarating, and depressing, like the eternal Northwest winter. Wide-eyed manic explosiveness, raw pop crunch, haphazard ingeniousness.

~ Adam Tepedelen

rayGun

Hazel methodically make all that's weird seem right. It's an internal sensation, slightly space-age and completely beyond your control. Nothing is as nice as Hazel. Bleyle's voice is the sound of summer and buttered toast and the less greeting-card moments of childhood. All-totalled, Hazel are a cure-all capsule.

~ Anna Woolverton

Alternative Press

Hazel have that all-too-rare gift for seamlessly blending feral energy and potent melody. Packed with three-minute joyrides, almost every tune features solid hooks, interesting instrumental breaks, and giddily reckless playing.

~ Rick Reger

Chicago Reader

They reify themselves as a punk band hopelessly addicted to power pop. Songs which refuse to let go - energy, surprisingly poignant lyrics, and more hooks than a tackle-box on opening day.

~ Phil West

Krebs slashes out crisp, biting guitar work that rumbles and buzzes in all the right places. Bleyle kicks out a wicked backbone-beat, while Smith's fluid bass runs anchor the bottom and fuel the fire. When the band kicks into high gear, there is a reckless, on-the-verge collision quality adding edge-of-your-seat intrigue to the mix. So, when the band asks, "Are you going to eat that?" You will, if you know what's good for you.

~ Tom Wright

Staten Island

5. AIRIANA

The most underrated band in America.

~ Elizabeth Vincentelli

Puncture

An important record by an underappreciated, fantastic band.

~ Barry M. Prickett

Music Hound Rock

6. COMPARED TO WHAT

This is kind of what Eleventh Dream Day always wanted to be but never quite perfected (Baird Figi can't dance like Fred).

~ The Joy of Rex

With their collection of specs, off-colour rags, cropped locks and poppy instincts, Hazel make Tad look like the Dwarves.

~ Simon Williams

New Musical Express

Kick antique Mudhoney off the Portland Meadows stage and give Hazel the amplification they need.

~ J. W. Renaud

Paperback Jukebox

Pete Krebs is a monster axeman. Jody Bleyle makes Keith Moon look laid back.

~ Jonathan Nicholas

Oregonian

Gimmick-free - the finest purveyors of small-town fuzz-pedal angst anthems to arrive since Buffalo Tom. Destined for hugeness.

~ Select

John Doe and Exene would be proud to call these their own. The comparison is not a specious one; Hazel are going a long way toward filling that X-shaped void, with a flair for dark, minor-key splendor. (AYGTET)

~ John Chandler

Puncture

Beautiful harmonies: you can't help but feel the ghosts of John and Exene come through the speakers and brush by you on occasion. (T of L)

~ Bruce Folkerth

Flagpole

Hazel's vocal interplay, reckless performances, and catchy punk-pop tunes make them worthy residents of the Nirvana/Pixies/X axis, though they don't get appreciated as such.

~ Richard Martin

Seattle Weekly

High-energy, non-pretentious, well-written. Like Tsunami forcing their way into a Nirvana recording session. (T of L)

~ Chairs Missing

I don't want to hype this record to the point of ridiculousness, they're not the second coming, but I will say this: Do you remember hearing Nirvana for the first time? (T of L)

~ Sean Schroeder

The Heckler

Easily the best album to come from the Northwest since Nevermind. 13 stunning tracks. The arrangements all work, leading to something big, slowly and surely and not straying. (T of L)

~ Joshua Fischer

Channels

Some of the year's best rock. Hazel resuscitates the original grit of the Northwest Scene. The three-man, one-woman band takes over where the Pixies left off: rock in a blender with feeling. (T of L)

~ ? Magazine

They're like late-period Hüsker Dü, when they dropped the hardcore and embraced the melody. (AYGTET)

~ Elizabeth Vincentelli

CMJ

7. PETE & JODY

The songs are well-written, catchy, aggressively tense, and also very pretty. Shared vocals are particularly compelling: Jody's alternately soft and urgent voice is balanced by Pete's more constant, steady one. Both fragile and powerful. (T of L)

~ Susan Stanley

Splatter Effect (Seattle)

Pete Krebs and Jody Bleyle alternate and combine their vocals in a dizzy flourish that infuses their songs with an introspective urgency.

~ Barry M. Prickett

Music Hound Rock

They play their instruments not as entertainment, but as a way of life. Several songs catch in your mind before you can figure out how they got there. They grab hold of an effect that shifts the tone of 90's guitar bands - fast pretty chords punctuated by Brady Smith hold a steady upbeat drive-through-town, but what holds you are drummer Jody Bleyle's vocals picking up the edges of kreb's raspy delivery. She'll echo Krebs, or harmonize on the chorus, otherwise letting her throaty voice rise, soar, and glide around the melody, softening noisy parts, ripping holes in tracks like Comet and She's Supersonic big enough to crawl through. She saves them. (T of L)

~ Mark Frohman

Public News

Her voice has grown in confidence and intensity, chasing Pete around like an unshakeable little sister, nudging him out of complacency and at the same time establishing her own identity: feisty, soulful, and back again. (AYGTET)

~ John Chandler

Puncture

Like all great rock bands, Hazel knows about chemistry. Temperate melodic strains clash with thrashy punk textures for some highly charged, crunchy songs that, bottom line, rock. Powerhouse drummer Jody Bleyle sings in a beautiful, moody, sometimes scratchy voice that complements the dark tones of Pete Krebs. Royal Treats. Go ahead, take a bite. (AYGTET)

~ Out Magazine

Hazel has got that vocal chemistry just right. Jody has a voice that is strong and throaty and usually dominant. All the songs are quick and clean, getting right to the point. They go into a song wholeheartedly and play with all their might and then get out. Every purist's dream. They kick ass.

~ Melissa Lunden

Ink Nineteen

Bleyle is the star here. When she sings solo, I'm in heaven. She's also a no-frills drummer with smart fills. She and Krebs have worked out some nice harmonies complemented by the precision bass stylings of Smith. At times the harmonies work hand-in-hand, at others they are foes poised for a mid-air battle. Hazel delivers their punch. They have a story to tell.

~ Sockboy

Trash

When Bleyle and Krebs launch into one of their trademark vocal exchanges, Hazel are unstoppable. When a man and a woman sing together, there's usually - almost always - the promise or the memory of a seduction of some kind. Bleyle and Krebs' musical relationship is about something else altogether. What makes it gloriously exhilarating is what it implies about the possibilities of friendship between men and women. The voices reinforce and support each other: their relationship is neither voluptuous nor competitive - it is based on friendship and mutual respect, with the pair still managing to mix a trace amount of antagonistic tension with a certain sexy playfulness. They may not feel the need to spell everything out for the listener, but Hazel do more, in their own way, to revolutionize sexual roles in rock than all their peers put together.

~ Elizabeth Vincentelli

Puncture

8. BRADY

Smith's lines fluctuate and flower more than merely provide support. This music whips you around until you're too disoriented to do anything but enjoy.

~ Ken Hunt

Seattle Times

They've gotten very tight and were really putting their hearts into it. You can't help but get caught up with it. Pete sang loud and fine, played his new guitar hard and fast, and generally rocked my audio world. Brady plays bass like he knows how to give birth, he's got it slung so low you know his center of gravity must be in his uterus, not to mention, he looked like he might bear down and pop one out any second: it made the women wild.

~ Crispin Heidel

Snipehunt

Instead of laying down easy bass fills, Brady Smith adds intelligent, creative playing.

~ Kevin McDonough

Smith's nimble basslines keep the often barely controlled (albeit beautiful) chaos grounded.

~ Barry M. Prickett

Music Hound Rock

I really like the rubbery bass here, especially on Push to Close and Day Glo. Baseball fans take note of Boog, a careening, jaunty instrumental that follows a bit of baseball lore and convinces me that baseball and indie rock are inseparable - maybe even synonymous.

~ Seana Baruth

Gavin

9. SONGS

Anyone who heard Hazel's awesome Truly on Sunday night would understand the buzz surrounding the Portland band. Fewer than 100 rock fans comfortably filled Jiffy Squid, the all-ages café, as Pete Krebs let loose with the dynamite guitar riff. It was the next-to-last song in a brief 45-minute set, and until then the crowd had ranged from attentive to enthusiastic.

But suddenly everybody was transported, swept away to that alternative universe of rock 'n' roll nirvana - where nothing exists but the here and now, and everyone feels a sense of unity with everybody else lucky enough to be there.

~ Phil Smith

The Oregonian

Slick, hard-edged rhythms. This album is a trip - put across with so much invention it works perfectly. Words and phrases half-drowning under waves of psychotic psychedelics. The centrepiece of the album is Push to Close, an ebbing and flowing masterpiece built on layered harmonies and moments of virtual silence. It's extravagant and ornate.

~ Davy Magazine

The confusion, dissipation, and devolution of Big Fatty is reflected not only in the lyrics, but also in the destructive anti-counterpoint of the choruses, which grow increasingly dissonant and arrhythmic as the song progresses. By the end, the already loose structure of the song comes apart like the relationship it portrays, rattling like a harmonically imbalanced machine from a shaky functionality to a loose heap of pieces collapsing under its own weight.

~ William Abernathy

The Rocket

Punchy, melodic indie rock that stays nearly a block away from any of the trappings the aforementioned genre tag carries. Hazel dishes out real, enjoyable, noisy guitar pop wrapped around some very sharp song structures - just try not humming Comet, She's Supersonic, and about five others.

~ Mike Trouchon

My two favorites are A Perfect Pot - a thunderclap lesson in Zen and the Art of Punk Rock - and Cround, with its lonely acoustic guitar, minimal percussion, and wearily majestic harmonies.

~ John Chandler

Puncture

The garage-pop moves of Ohio Player leap into flames on Bleyle's crisp chorus, with her voice mixed way up, towering above the clamor. But it is on Magazine Man - as Bleyle's ambiguous, defiant rant counters and inflames Krebs' icy-cool declamation - that Hazel's schizoid character (exacerbated by dancer Fred Nemo's live antics, and corralled by bassist Brady Smith's solid bottom) cracks open to reveal its faceted wonder. As the two barrel through divergent lyrics and melody lines that circle and collide into a sexed-up tangled wreck at the close of every verse, the yawning gap and ineluctable wedding of gender differences, experience, even musical taste congeal into an almost cubist sonic aesthetic - all the parts inferring dimensions well beyond the confines of the song.

~Ed Hewitt

Puncture

Hazel write great rock songs, but what sets them apart is more than good material: it's the way they deliver it. Team Dresch's tales of lesbian self-discovery may be closer to her heart, but Bleyle strikes me as even more impassioned in Hazel. Repeated listening cannot begin to blunt the ardent resolution with which she wails, "I know I will not do it, even though you push me to it" on Ohio Player.

~ Elizabeth Vincentelli

Puncture

The best line comes from my favorite song on the album, King Twist, because, in 19 words, it reviews the album more accurately than my 33 lines of babble ever could do: "Do you know, it makes me feel so - I don't know - so groovy, like a Sunday or a hummingbird..."

~ Andrea Drugay

The Santa Clara

10. DIS

faint praise:

The sound produced by Hazel is pleasing in a non-unique way.

~Jessica Kourkounis

The Prodigal Sun

The rhythm section is somewhat lacking as it doesn't really seem to drive the band at all.

~Mason Jar

Krebs is decent enough as a vocalist and some of these grunge-pop tunes have a little bit of venom.

~Jason Slatton

Flagpole

Vocals could use some work, just a bit thin, and go easy on the whine.

~Kostya Lotz

U.S. Rocker

Fairly derivative.

~Chyme Flys

Seemingly honest.

~DeKalb Collegian

Although somewhat lacking in the originality department, Lucky Dog isn't entirely a loss. Although none of the songs will ever become hits, the album has consistancy. If you are one of those people who doesn't like a band because it is unoriginal, then you will not like Hazel. However, if you have a knack for the SubPop grunge sound then Lucky Dog may be for you.

~Joel Pash

Vox

raves:

Their new album has a resigned, sit and stare quality to it.

~Steve Mockus

Hackneyed power melodies - indistinguishable - maudlin.

~Mike

Scrape

A rolling ball of confusion - nothing really new - does more than their fair share of borrowing from their label mates. Middle of the pack.

~The Wrap Up

Pretty much what you'd expect. Fairly predictable, the songs sound too much alike.

~G.W. Erwin

Alternative Press

Good when they could be great. Wimpy and very "alternative". Neutered and inert.

~(unattributed)

Lowest-common-denominator grunge - commercially viable, though.

~Karen Sheets

Art & Performance

Suffocating pretentiousness. Way overrated.

~(unattributed)

Desperately short of anything inspired or different - blueprints rather than songs, token gestures in an overcrowded field.

~Paul Rees

Raw

Seems like an excuse to play real loud without a trace of subtlety or irony. I just don't get it. Hazel doesn't sound that interested, and if they aren't, why should we be?

~Jason Slatton

Flagpole

Most Overrated Band (poll winner)

~Paperback Jukebox

Reaches for that happy medium between grunge and pop and falls short. Instead of intelligently mixing the two genres, the band merely strips grunge of its potential energy while neglecting to add any catchy riffs or memorable choruses. Peter Krebs' singing is far from special and the occasional vocal contribution from drummer Jody Bleyle only underscores the weakness of the album. "Toreadors of Love" is thoroughly forgettable.

~Dick Schulze

The Michigan Daily

Little imagination and less originality - mediocre. "Feels all wrong somehow" is all too appropriate. "Portland's where it's at" declares the press release. Well, let's hope not.

~Pulp

I just don't get the attraction. My quick, one-word description of this band is "numb" - as in mind-numbing, passive, inactive, generic indie-based rock, like VU sans smack. Bleyle's voice kind of hangs in the air like ozone, while Krebs' is closer to the ground and is appealing, but typical. Interesting moments are few and far between; you can play "Guess the Q101 Soundalike" with most of these tracks.

~Gwen Ihnat

Illinois Entertainer

A let down. A rather bland and lifeless record that fell flat and completely failed to galvanize me. Hazel's poppy punk-lite songs just don't have the catchiness or the energy to build up any momentum, and therefore they're easily forgettable. We are unable to hear dance through our stereos. Until that is possible, consider me uninterested.

~Tededfred

flattering comparisons:

A very passable piece of grunge pop - the Monkees rewriting Husker Du.

~Terry Staunton

New Musical Express

Some of this stuff has an annoyingly infantile, Jonathan Richmanish quality.

~Jim T.

Jersey Beat

Hazel definitely is part of the well-worn "Seattle Sound". It isn't anything

breathtakingly innovative. Nirvana fans will be into it, I'm sure.

~(unattributed)

Put Hazel in a police lineup with any run of the mill Geffen, Restless, or Bar/None band and I'd be stumped as to identify who wasted my listening time.

~Tim

Popwatch

They just don't learn, do they?

College rock bands. Millions of 'em. On the fringes, with their fringes flapping mournfully in their faces, just pleading with you to give 'em a chance. They could be your mates for life. They all want to sing like Jake Burns or Bob Mould. They've all listened to Kingmaker, they're up with Nirvana, some of 'em have even heard The Replacements. There's no humour, no imagination, not an original chord between the whole bloody lot of 'em. Do they think they can make it on guts and passion alone? Has no one pointed out to them the basic banality of their existance?

Let's not give them the opportunity to find out, eh? Shoot 'em now!

~Melody Maker

tasty bits:

Hazel tear through different sounds like a bad curry through an 'iffy' stomach.

~Monster

Hazel's syrupy sound is thick and heavy, weighed down by too many tried conventions.

~Mark Frohman

Public News

The post-teenage angst comes in easy to swallow gelcaps. Toe-tapping sing-song bubblegum anthems.

~DeKalb Collegian

Bubblegum grunge.

~Dick Schulze

The Michigan Daily

The spunky buzz of Cocoa Puffs chased with Mountain Dew.

~John Chandler

Puncture

Like a mouthful of New York cheesecake on a shit-hot fork.

~Stowe

Spin

Like a pocketful of linty Good & Plentys, Toreadors of Love will keep the adrenaline flowing with winsome, chewy numbers.

~Todd Inoue

Metro

Portland's finest dole out a fresh load of popcore.

~Rick Rotsaert Thrasher

ambiguous:

A definite fuck record for sure. Wear a condom.

(Referring to the Heida 45)

~Thom Rechak

Flipside

Sub Pop's traditional stamp isn't anywhere to be found on Hazel.

~Bruce Folkerth

Flagpole

Simplistic. No friggin' attitude.

~Flaggert

rayGun

Thankfully, Jody and Peter are much better vocalists than John and Exene - not nearly as brittle.

~John F. Butland

Exclaim

We played it (Jilted/Truly) so many fucking times trying to figure out which side was supposed to be at which speed we ended up liking it. [one side is at 45 rpm, the other at 33 rpm. why? no reason.]

~Jeffrires, Kirkland, Salemi

Brutarian

tell it to Sub Pop:

The worst cover art I've seen in years.

~Paul Wagenseil

SF Weekly

Horribly botched art.

~Phil West

fred:

Skid-row jumping-jack.

~ Monk Magazine

Oddly-dressed gray-haired guy flailing around.

~ James Bush

Encyclopedia of NW Music

I'm not talking about some 18 year old Claudia Schiffer look a like.

~Daniel Blank

Our Friend Alfred

Nemo flops all over the stage in rhythmic expression.

~Jamie Kornegay

The Panolian

His antics distracted from Hazel's songs.

~Jon Pareles

The New York Times

A cross-dressing hippie demon convinced that fire ants had gotten up his knickers.

~ Metrognome

Seattle Weekly

A fortyish bozo with a beard who "dances" at all their gigs. Sounds a bit precious to me ... The cynic in me still says that if a major label comes a knockin', they'll put the bozo on the first bus back to Palookaville.

~Jim T.

Jersey Beat

Fred Nemo is so old, he could be the father of the other guys in this band - if they happened to have a father who looks like Robinson Crusoe on a bad hair day and dances like Quasimodo the morning after he ran out of Doan's Pills.

~Jonathan Nicholas

The Oregonian

To further milk the crowd, Hazel had their own self-absorbed stage Gump who performed meaningless rituals like slowly brushing his long gray hair, dancing very very badly, lip-synching, and dazedly stepping through a jump rope on top of a stool. I guess to ask "why" is beside the point.

~Molly McCommons

Flagpole

It would seem they found him on the street. It's more like "spastic physical comment" and includes various spontaneous conniptions, lamps, and a telephone.

~Michael McCrary

I haven't even mentioned the, uh, "sideshow". At the beginning, there was a huge screen set up to the left of the band (right where Mike and I were standing, oh goody). And when TJO began to play, a silhouetted figure behind the screen began twirling a sword, or creating images using jumbled-up wire, or posing or dancing. It was a little distracting, but I shrugged it off.

Then, the figure emerged from behind the screen, walked across the stage and headed to the backstage area. It was a dude. A really old scary looking dude. With his bangs pulled up into a "samurai"-style ponytail, and an oriental-style robe worn over a frilly floral dress. And bright orange socks, with old man black oxfords on. Whoa.

The scary guy returned, taking his place yet again behind the screen. But now that we've seen him, the mystique is gone, and all that remained was a disgusted shudder. Eww. So, the scary guy, in another distracting move, plunged his sword through the screen, ripping open the fabric, through which he emerged as the wooden stakes holding up the screen tumbled down. Did I mention, whoa?

As TJO continued to play, here's what the guy did during their set:

* carried around a concrete block, dancing with it at one point.

* walked around with a bone in his mouth.

* did tippy-toe dance moves in the middle of the stage.

* stepped on a cord, messing up Tara's guitar.

After finishing the song, Tara bent over to fix the cord, saying gently to the dancing old man, "Hey, look, you gotta be careful, alright? See this cord? You can't step on it, okay?" as if talking to a child. And just like a child, what does this guy start to do? He spends the next song purposefully dancing on Tara's guitar cord! Uncool.

slint: Thankfully, the weird old guy left the stage with TKO (I was a little worried he would "dance" during Slint, too)

~Janice

Copacetic-zine.com

    photo by alice wheeler

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