Artist Spotlight: Sleepy Hahas

Influences.  Revival.  The two terms get thrown haphazardly around the realms of creating and critiquing music to the point that their significance and implications are rarely even considered.  Yet, I find it impossible not to assert that influence and revival are EVERYTHING.  Any modern music is derivative of past and current efforts, that much is obvious, hence the importance in whose wake a band will tread, hence the unquestionable gravity in which sounds they choose to revive and incorporate into their own product.  And if Buffalo, NY's Sleepy Hahas have done one thing right thus far, it's that they've chosen wisely.  Not their bandmates, not their name, not the design of their first tee shirt, but their influences.

Citing such influences ranging from Queens of the Stone Age to staple indie rock duo The Black Keys to the (sadly) now-defunct White Stripes, Sleepy Hahas have obviously aimed to emulate mastery with their music.  But they don't just leave it at admiration and name-dropping, they deliver big with debut EP Cranberry Juice and Battery Acid, demonstrating their own proficiency in the craft of hard-hitting, bluesy rock and roll.  From the ambient riffs of opener 'Blackest Sunshine' to the grungy undertones atop which 'Little Girl' triumphs and finally to an epic 8-minute finisher in 'Hazeltine Hymn', Cranberry Juice and Battery Acid stands resolute as a product of four kids with a knack for well-founded jams.

Hear Cranberry Juice and Battery Acid in its entirety on their Bandcamp, or check them out over on Facebook.