THE HEAD SET
Jordan – vocals, guitar, flattering trousers
Michael – drums, vocals, He Looked Right at Me!
Brett - bass, misdemeanors
Eliot– guitar, vocals, irritability

March 2008
New York, NY

The Head Set came together like so many bands do. One guy screws around with a four track and puts together a bunch of songs. He shows his brother, who plays drums and happens to know a couple of other guys who mostly play Stevie Wonder songs but are up for a lark. Next thing you know, proper rehearsals are underway and everyone’s looking around thinking, yeah, I like this, this’ll work.

It turns out that starting a band in New York is a puzzling experience. On the one hand, there are lots of places to perform, and people take their rock & roll pretty seriously. On the other hand, rehearsal space is hard to find, incredibly expensive, and you wind up spending a lot of time with these “man with a van” types who drive with a deathwish while blasting obscure 80s metal out of a cassette player boombox perched on the dashboard.

Anyway, The Head Set played around town a bunch, recorded an EP that Steve Lamacq and others toyed around with, played a hilariously inept showcase at the Viper Room, all that stuff. They recorded their first full length album Way Past Used with their friend and producer Nic Hard out in Connecticut at a studio the Pixies used to use. And along the way they performed with a lot of great bands, like Ted Leo and Editors – they even played on a bill with Sonic Youth one time.

The Head Set admires David Bowie, U2, and The Police, among many others. They try to keep things simple, relying mostly on Jordan’s melodic instincts and a pretty killing rhythm section. They’ve been listening to a ton of Motown lately and are trying to get some vocal harmonies happening. This spring they were back in the studio working on a batch of new songs, and they will be getting out on the road as much as possible during the rest of the year.