Many argue for the creative supremacy of Seattle's breakout grunge bands in the early to mid-1990s. For me, the most exciting part about the alt-rock boom was the license it gave bands throughout the country to deepen and darken rock's palette in all sorts of interesting ways. Especially when it meant approximating the density of [...]

The Title track from Open Hand's new album on Anodyne Records California's Open Hand is your modern alt/rock band with stony guitars and a heavy beat. But you can expect to hear playful female vocals, pounding German melodies, and a dollop of rap for good measure in Honey. They produce progressive music with a wide range of talented artists, collaborating with Matt Talbot from the Illinois rock band Hum and Christopher Kid Reid of the hip-hop sensation Kid 'n Play. [ArtOfBroadcast] [...]

Devastating rock music from southern California Open Hand release 'Honey' on Anodyne Records. Open Hand is your modern alt/rock band with stony guitars and a heavy beat. But you can expect to hear playful female vocals, pounding German melodies, and a dollop of rap for good measure in 'Honey'. They produce progressive music with a wide range of talented artists, collaborating with Matt Talbot from the Illinois rock band Hum and Christopher [...]
Yep. Changed the name again. Maybe we'll just change the name each time around. For now, it's Listen Up. So do that. Here's some new stuff we're moving from the inbox to the outbox. "Cool" by Open Hand is from the forthcoming release Honey on Anodyne Records. Listen: Open Hand - Cool "Rat Trap" [...]

You know we like our genre-bleeders here at Insomnia Radio. Here's one that just graced our inbox from Southern California: Open Hand is your typical modern alt/rock band with stony guitars and a heavy beat. But you can expect to hear playful female vocals, pounding German melodies, and a dollop of rap for good measure in "Honey." (Out April 2010, we'll keep you posted.) They produce progressive music with a wide range of talented artists, collaborating with Matt Talbot from the Illinois rock band Hum and Christopher "Kid" Reid of the hip-hop [...]

After a few months of inexplicable inactivity, Open Hand have posted two new tracks to their myspace page . Fans of HUM should rejoice. The title track from their forthcoming album, 'Honey', features Matt Talbott extensively on vocals and, one can only assume, guitar. Sure sounds like HUM, and that's never a bad thing. The other track, 'Cool', hasn't quite grabbed me yet. Sounds like the Glee soundtrack trainwrecked into Black Sabbath (it should be noted - for the sake of my dignity - I've never actually seen an episode of Glee). Promises of new show dates, [...]

Despite the many great recent releases and ever-rising stack of submissions - digitally speaking....no-one sends physical CD's any longer, Grandpa - my listening has been harking back to days of yore for a couple of weeks now. Although partially attributed to the reunions going on, there have also been some random whims taken up from idle iPod browsing. Such are the vagaries of having an entire music collection in one's pocket. The most recent, not to mention regularly repeated, foray into yesteryear has been to [...]
There's something very peculiar about drummers compared to other members of a band. In a sense, they're the most constrained. A basic drum kit consists of only six pieces, and even elaborate kits rarely are larger than thirty pieces. Compared to the 4 octave range (45 notes) of a guitar, 3 octave range (34 notes) of a 4-string bass, or even a very minimum 2 octave range (23 notes) of a singer, typical drum sets clearly have a constraint on their arsenal of notes they may play. It is this very constraint that gives drummers the chance to be the [...]