NASCENT

MySpace (listen to “Republic of Rough and Ready,” “Rich Kid”)
Official site
Hometown: Sacramento/San Francisco
Next local show: 2/28, Bottom of the Hill
Upcoming release: There’s No 666 in Outer Space, 2007

Hella aren’t officially based in San Francisco, but we just had to share the news: they’ve expanded to a five-piece! In addition to founders Spencer Seim and Zach Hill, the band now includes Zach’s cousin Josh Hill (guitar), Advantage/Crime in Choir member Carson McWhirter (bass), and Nevada City butcher-cum-singer Aaron Ross. Does this bode hella well for the band’s new record, due Jan. 30 on Orinda’s Ipecac Recordings (a label co-founded by Mike Patton of Faith No More)? You bet your ass it does!

A Nevada City label called Grass Roots Records recently released a compilation with a new Hella track on it, and let us tell you, it’s pretty sweet. Forsaking the mega-noisescape of previous Hella material, “Friday the 13th” has a clearer structure and a repeated surf/thrash guitar motif — imagine that! It’s still an instrumental, but one you can follow from start to finish. Mind you, Hella hasn’t “sold out;” it’s just got better. Hill’s drumming is still off-the-charts awesome, and Seim’s guitar playing has only improved and tightened. We can pretty safely say this is the best Hella song you’ve ever heard.

…Which is exactly why we’re so darn psyched to hear the new record. With the recent conversion from a duo to a quintet and the infusion of new ideas and skills that entails, there’s really no way of knowing what the new songs are going to sound like until they’re tickling the ears. In Hella’s Ipecac bio, Zach himself attests the new record is “easily the best thing we’ve done under the moniker, for sure.” The new group should destroy in concert too, and Hella promises to spend most of 2007 on tour. These are some talented musicians with some great ideas — and the guts and technical skills to see them through. Hella cool.

EARS AND EYES:
-Zach Hill is a visual artist too. Check out these neato acrylic on cardboard paintings on display at Fools Foundation, an art gallery in Sacto.
-In case you didn’t know, Hella’s new promo pic (above) is a take on an old Beatles album cover.
-Oakland noise-rock group the Weegs took a similar shot for the original cover of their 2004 debut Meat the Weegs. However, subsequent pressings — and the only jpegs we could track down — bore this cover. Perhaps they got into legal trouble…?