THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Across their debut album, Hushmoney paint the ridiculousness of existence so very right.
Mixed and mastered by Grammy-nominated producer Will Yip (Turnstile, Mannequin Pussy, Title Fight) Hushmoney is a deft concept album about the faulty choices that bitter men nearing middle age can make, backed with the chances they have to redeem themselves if they know where to look. We’re all trying to figure out how to survive and make meaning — and to have a little fun in the process, too. If the band itself has been an escape hatch from mid-30s anxieties and disappointments for its members, its work here shows how much fun you can have and how good you can do when you start to turn that stuff on its head, to turn it all into a shout-out-loud rock song.
The debut full-length follows the EP Success Pool, which introduced their hardcore, ’90s rock, and alt-country-influenced sonics, paired with cheeky and lyric-driven storytelling. The quintet pairs Chris Gaylor of All-American Rejects and Phil Matarese, the creator and voice of HBO’s Animals, with three longtime friends. Matarese, guitarist Michael Iannatto, and bassist Brian Barbaruolo began playing together in assorted outfits as young teenagers in rural New Jersey, forced to find social cachet outside of sports since their hometown football team won almost zero games during their entire adolescence. After they all found themselves in Los Angeles, they started another band, recruiting Gaylor and guitarist Matt Martin.
Hushmoney became a way to blow off steam and hang out with old pals in a low-rent practice space. They could vent about worst-case scenarios, play, and sing until it all felt a little more tolerable. The rock ’n’ roll sound of the band pairs with an unabashed and unironic embrace of the alternative rock that these five dudes in their 30s totally loved as circa-millennia teens.”
