Sunday, May 5, 2013

Song Of The Week: 5/5/13







Song: "Straight Up"

Artist: Halifax

Album: "Punk Goes 80's"

Year: 2005



"Straight Up" is a cover song. It was originally a pop/r&b hit for 1980's singer Paula Abdul and released on her 1988 album "Forever Your Girl". The "Punk Goes 80's" album features not only Halifax's cover of this song, but several songs made popular in the 80's covered by several different punk bands. The song itself appears to be about wanting some kind of truth and honesty in the particular relationship. She wants to know if the relationship is true and if it's going to last or is it just short term fun and then it's over. Halifax formed as a band back in 2003, hailing from California. Starting off as little more than a hobby amongst friends, it gradually drifted into something they took more serious. The creative core of the band, vocalist Mike Hunau and guitarist Chris Brandt would eventually dump the rest of the band in search of more focused musicians. In 2003, the band self produced and self funded their first album, "Start Back At Start". Their sound was reminiscent of bands such as Taking Back Sunday at this time. In 2004, they once again self produced the EP "A Writer's Reference" which featured the song "Sydney". This EP caught the ear of label Drive-Thru Records who promptly signed the band. In 2005, Drive-Thru re-released "A Writer's Reference" with an added bonus track. Drive-Thru helped better distribute the band's material. 2005 also saw the band appear on MTV's Real World: Austin. While the band was not happy how the show depicted them, they were happy at the free exposure they received due to their appearance on the show. In 2006, the band released "The Inevitability Of A Strange World", their first release to feature a producer other than themselves. The album featured a more "metal" feel on some of the tracks, especially on the single "Our Revolution". The album would also debut at number one on the Billboard Top Heatseekers chart. Halifax would also win MTV's Dew Circuit Breakout which basically was a battle of the bands that was sponsored by Mountain Dew and broadcast on MTV. By 2008, vocalist Mike Hunau decided to part ways with Halifax. Guitarist Chris Brandt decided to perform vocals from here on out for the band. It was also around this time that Halifax left Drive-Thru Records. After shopping some new material around to different labels, the band finally signed with Rocket Science Records and in 2010, released a six track EP entitled "Align", which featured the single "Breathe". Currently, there doesn't seem to be much going on in the Halifax camp since the release of the "Align" EP, but there hasn't been any word of a break-up either. They have had a difficult time of keeping a steady line-up intact for long periods of time so it remains to be seen if they continue on as a band or not.

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