Why are they compared to PJ Harvey?

[velvetgirl]

I've read almost a million times about their comparison with PJ Harvey. I had no idea who that was, I became curious and I looked at few videos and I'm a bit shocked.

This singer is so different to the Howling Bells. OK maybe Juanita has "stolen" some stylings of her but that's all - the music is totally different, the voice is totally different (awful by the way). There are no men on stage . I don't understand it.

[blade]

Juanita once described it as "lazy journalism" or words to that effect. I don't get it myself either. Maybe it's that they are both dark-haired females and whoever first wrote it thought that was a suitable-enough comparison and disregarded the music. After that, everyone else just copied the description because it was easier than coming up with their own ideas.

[velvetgirl]

You're right, that's generally a mess with the cycles of copying articles in journalism...very annoying.

Another comparison I did not like because of the way it was written: "The Howling Bells are Mazzy Star on uppers instead of downers". I knew Mazzy Star before the Bells and I especially liked their song "Fade into you" but it never came to my mind that these two bands have something in common, except for the "howling" guitars and a frontwoman. Then you could also compare them to Trespassers William and so on (I love their song "Lie in the sound" by the way). Even in HBs slower songs you can hear that they are no shoegazers.

I expect from serious music journalists that respect that the HBs are a band which cannot be compared to anyone or anything else.

[blade]

Here are some other artists to whom Howling Bells have been likened:

Yeah Yeah Yeahs (female singer)
The Duke Spirit (female singer)
Blondie (!) (female singer)
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds (Australian)
Garbage (female singer)

Apart from the obvious comparisons I have put in brackets I can't really see any of those. See this thread:

howlingbells.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=howlingbellsgeneral&action=display&thread=150

started last November where we asked this question and I think we eventually came up with the answer that nobody else sounds like Howling Bells, 1st or 2nd albums.

I only found Mazzy Star after I discovered Howling Bells were influenced by them (and I now have two of their albums) but apart from the female singer thing, they aren't really alike.

Trespassers William? Never heard of them. Must have a listen.

[25 minutes later edit] Listening to Trespassers William now. They're very good, but similar to Howling Bells? Not really. They're more like Ether Aura (see the above thread), and I can see some Mazzy Star in there.

And, by the way, that thread introduced me to Halogen, who are now in my top five artists ever. And Trespassers William played in Duisburg on October 15th - that can't be too far from you. The main similarity to Howling Bells is that they're signed to Nettwerk.

[velvetgirl]

Oct 16, 2009 22:43:56 GMT blade said:

Here are some other artists to whom Howling Bells have been likened:

Yeah Yeah Yeahs (female singer)
The Duke Spirit (female singer)
Blondie (!) (female singer)
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds (Australian)
Garbage (female singer)

Apart from the obvious comparisons I have put in brackets I can't really see any of those. See this thread:

howlingbells.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=howlingbellsgeneral&action=display&thread=150

started last November where we asked this question and I think we eventually came up with the answer that nobody else sounds like Howling Bells, 1st or 2nd albums.

I only found Mazzy Star after I discovered Howling Bells were influenced by them (and I now have two of their albums) but apart from the female singer thing, they aren't really alike.

Trespassers William? Never heard of them. Must have a listen.

[25 minutes later edit] Listening to Trespassers William now. They're very good, but similar to Howling Bells? Not really. They're more like Ether Aura (see the above thread), and I can see some Mazzy Star in there.

And, by the way, that thread introduced me to Halogen, who are now in my top five artists ever. And Trespassers William played in Duisburg on October 15th - that can't be too far from you. The main similarity to Howling Bells is that they're signed to Nettwerk.

Halogen must be very unknown, I found nothing on YouTube...I Ihave to check their myspace side.

Edit: They sound a bit like them, not a bad band at all.

Oh I didn't know Trespassers William were in Duisburg, that's indeed not very far away from me . They have a new EP out but I did not listen to it yet. Their music is a bit too slow for me, but some songs are really worth a listen, such as "Lie in the sound", "Different stars".

I just wanted to say that if you are comparing them with Mazzy Star you could also compare them to Trespassers William. In conclusion it's really like you are not able to compare the Bells with anyone else because they put all styles together and make a good mixture of it.