From the state that gave us presidential
primaries, summer camps, the US’s largest arcade and ice fishing, now can lay
claim to delivering the amazingly funkadelic band, Harsh Armadillo. Harsh
Armadillo is a seven-piece blue Gatorade fueled band, that has no affiliation
with the state of Texas and has never encountered a wild armadillo. They
digitally drop their third release and first EP, BITE, on June 15.
Harsh Armadillo was founded in a moldy basement in 2013, and
so far have released two full length albums, ‘Thayer It Is’ (2014), and ‘Blame
Bad Habits’ (2017). The DIY band has learned a lot from their past releases and
were excited to come back again to record BITE. Harsh Armadillo consists of six
guys and a girl: Daniel Tauriello on drums, Thomas Forbes on bass guitar and
vocals, Aiden Earley on guitar, Dimitry Harris on keyboard, Maxim Harris on
saxophone and vocals, Camden Riley on guitar and vocals, and Andrea Belaidi on
lead lady vocals.
For the band, BITE is exciting and prolific. They challenged
each other and pushed themselves sonically into new spaces and sounds. Full of
creativity and a drive to push forward, the band has set out to create a
several-part EP series, with BITE as the first edition in the series. The EP
title has taken on many meanings as Andrea Belaidi, vocalist, explains, “At
first, we thought of the word itself; quick, punchy and powerful. We feel a lot
of momentum and passion from these new tunes,” says Andrea, “This body of music
is ‘bite sized’ with only 4 songs”. Dan Tauriello, drummer, further explains,
“It’s the aural version of one of those wood handled Q-tips you can’t help but
stuff way too far into your ear. It’s complicated yet digestible. It fits
poorly into our catalog of work, pays no heedance to our future, and little
respect to the past.”
Harsh Armadillo is a collaborative band, and after five
years of playing together they understand their sonic direction and have poured
it into the new release. BITEwas recorded at IronWax Studio in Massachusetts
with Alan Evans, of Soulive, as the engineer and producer, and mastered by Brad
Smalling at Evergroove Studio in Denver. Harsh Armadillo connected with Alan on
the first note. Max comments, “Working in Alan’s studio was like getting
catapulted through a black hole and emerging with no pants or conception of
time…we would disappear into the tracking process early in the morning and
emerge, confused and disoriented, into the darkness each night to try and find
a hotel and our sanity. I think it is
important to note that all of the band members were present in the same room
for nearly the entirety of the sessions – even during vocal tracking and
solos. Having the whole group’s input
and body odor present lent a tangible stank to the tunes.”
The stanky and extremely funky tracks on BITE include,
“Animal,” “Live Action,” “Two Wishes and a Truth” and first single “Gravy.” All
the songs are signature Harsh Armadillo, pulling in funk with 70s era horns,
grooving bass, rhythmic guitar, and jazzy keyboards. The trade-off between
female and male vocals sets the high bar even higher, with Andrea’s soulful
voice carrying the tracks to another place. AXS reviewed the lead single,
“Gravy”, and said “The song grabs the attention immediately with a groove that
is sure to get you moving. It’s not just the melody and the rhythm that will
get you moving, you also can’t help but bounce when you hear just how upbeat
the song is.”
The members of Harsh Armadillo are pretty thrilled with what
they’ve created with BITE. The tracks come together nicely to create just a
bite of what’s to come next. For now, they will be gracing the summer stages
through the Northeast bringing what fans love the most about their music —
excitement and the love of funk. Check out here for their full touring
schedule.
Tour Dates:
28 June ~~ Hampton,NH
6 July ~~ Dover,NH
7 July ~~ The Forks,ME
14 July ~~ Pleasantville Festival
27 July ~~ Pawtucket,RI
28 July ~~ Band
Camp Festival
2 August ~~ Newport,RI
11 August ~~ Wild
Woods Festival
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