Behold The Brave, Howling Tongues

Behold the Brave is a band whose sound is hard to ignore. Beyond the heavy, fuzzed-out guitars, there???s the beauty in the beast: Southern rock, blues, and psychedelic melodies at its finest. As vocalist and guitarist Clayton Davis explains, ???We want every song to create a different vibe and feeling that adds the right ambiance for every occasion.???

And with that goal in mind, the Nashville band, consisting of Davis along with Zack Randolph (guitar), Jeremiah Thompson (drums) and Joel Parks (bass), incorporates a slew of genres and influences: Soulful Southern vocals, horns, and keys ala Stax, West Coast psych haziness, James Brown bravado, Mudhoney bass fuzz, and the best of 60s and 70s pop and RnB, from the Beatles to Motown.

That???s a lot for a young band to be referencing but when one digs deeper, it only makes sense. ???Many forms of art can be influential; films, commercials, paintings, theories, science, nature, religion,??? Davis points out. ???Life experiences influence us to feel differently about songs or certain types of music. One day you wake up loving Mariah Carey, the next day you???re listening to The Chariot.??? In other words, Top 40 to hardcore.

Behold the Brave started in Chattanooga, Tennessee, a city that embodies ???picturesque,??? as it???s surrounded by mountains and ridges, complete with the Tennessee River running through it. ???It affected our writing,??? Davis recalls. ???We wanted to write heavy, fun shit that you would jam out to if you saw a band play your favorite bar.???

In early 2015 came a move to Nashville, the ???Music City,??? a city that has had its own unique influence as well. Surrounded by a more robust music industry and having put in more studio time, they are maturing as a band. Having developed a relationship with local studio, Gold Cassette, the band is developing and refining its take on Southern rock. ???Our thoughts go beyond just the songwriting itself and a lot more into production,??? Davis says, recalling one of their influences, The Beatles, who used the studio as another instrument rather than just a tool.

You???ll hear more of their musical growth on their debut release slated for release early spring via WITHYN Records.


Heavily influenced by classic garage rock bands like The Stooges, Big Star, Led Zeppelin, The Who, and The Kinks, The Howling Tongues, featuring Davey Rockett (Vocals), Nick Magliochetti (Guitars), Thomas Wainwright (Keys), Brandon Witcher (Bass), and drummer Tylor James, demoed 30 songs at their home studio before holing up at The Quarry in Kennesaw, GA, for nine days, to live-track and record the album.

The resulting decimation is soaked with reverberation amplification, kick drum detonations, fuzzy tone overload, over-driven organ, and raspy vocal incantations, making BOO HISS a can???t miss pi??ce de r??sistance. Within the first 8 bars of lead track ???Raw Power in a Red Dress,??? a brazen bastard stepchild of The Stooges ???Raw Power??? and The Hollies "Long Cool Woman (In A Black Dress),??? one realizes that The Howling Tongues are a performance enhancing drug ready to sweep your worries under the rug. Bottoms up.

Co-produced with T.J. Elias (Blackberry Smoke, Walk The Moon, Third Day), and Michael Bragg, the 9-song album was mastered by Greg Calbi (Ramones, Alabama Shakes, Bon Iver) at Sterling Sound in NYC. Ryan Smith (AC/DC, Allman Bros, Aerosmith), also at Sterling, mastered the tracks for lacquer.

Whether on 150-gram vinyl, silver-spinning plastic orbs or via the ether of the internet, Hiss is sonic bliss. The Tongues inject a bluesy Southern flair on lead single ???Vivian,??? channel melodic mid-tempo Foo Fighters on ???Alone,??? effectuate the funky hip-swivel soul of Prince on ???Greatest Lover Around,??? mash up the boogie-woogie bombast of The Who and Kings of Leon on ???Crooked Eyes??? and imbue the psychedelic elegy of Led Zeppelin ???No Quarter??? on the epic 7-minute ???Belladonna.??? As its last eerie notes ring into the ecosphere, it becomes crystal clear, The Howling is near...rock???n???roll???s Holy Ghost has re-appeared.