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(hed) Planet Earth lands in Boise
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After multiple delays of (hed) Planet Earth’s latest
offering, Blackout, the band is in the midst of their two month
Jägermeister tour with co-headliners Saliva. (Hed)pe will hit
the stage at the Big Easy this Sunday.
The album’s release date was pushed back from July to
October until its final release on March 18, but the additional
time the band spent working on the album proved to be beneficial.
The title track, which is also the album’s first single, and
other key songs wouldn’t have been included on the album if
it was released on time, bassist Mawk (Mark Young) said.
“I love it [Blackout], but I’m in a fish bowl
position where I’ve been too involved and too close to it for
too long, so I don’t know. To me, it sounds great, but at the
same time I know it inside out. I don’t know how it would be
to hear that for the first time again. So I don’t know how
it’s going to go over,” Mawk said from Panama City
Beach, Fla., on the album’s release day.
“And also for some stupid reason we got it in our heads
that the last album, Broke, was going to be really successful and,
in terms of volume of sales, it wasn’t. So, we’re a
little more humble, I for sure am. So I’m trying not to have
any expectations of today onwards,” Mawk said.
Although the band’s guitarist Chad Benekos left the band
soon after Blackout was finished, (hed)pe recruited former Snot
guitarist Sonny Mayo to take his place. How does the new member fit
into the band?
“Like a glove. He brought the band up a notch. He’s
a hardcore player. The music’s better, onstage is better, and
the positive vibration he puts out helps me,” said vocalist
Jahred Shaine in a recent press release.
With the release of Blackout, (hed)pe appears to be a band in
the midst of an evolution.
“I approached my songwriting from a song point-of-view
rather than ‘how good does my bass line sound.’ So we
really made a conscious effort to be better songwriters rather than
being self-indulgent because with musicians it’s really easy
to be self-indulgent,” Mawk said.
But Blackout already appears to have some success in store for
(hed)pe. Rather than releasing one single like their previous
album, the band is planning to release several singles from
Blackout.
“The single that we’ve released is doing really good
so far. It’s getting a lot of airplay and we’re getting
asked to do a lot of radio shows around the country, which we
really didn’t get last time,” Mawk said.
Although (hed)pe has remained largely underground since their
inception in 1994, they have established a devoted fan base along
the way. The band hasn’t yet seen commercial success, but
they have endured a music scene in which many bands have fizzled
out faster than you can say one-hit wonder.
“We’ve never peaked yet. We’re still on the up
and up, which is pretty rare for a band that’s been touring
for six years in the modern world,” Mawk said.
(hed)pe will be performing at the Big Easy this Sunday. Also
performing will be Saliva, Breaking Benjamin, Systematic and
Stereomud. Doors open at 5 p.m. The show starts at 6:30 p.m.
Tickets are available for $22.50 at
“http://www.ticketweb.com”>ticketweb.com
Lauren Consuelo Tussing, The Arbiter
