Spill! Impossible Hair

The hallways of rock n' roll are hallowed....

Impossible Hair are a quartet (Joe Ryan, Jim Glass, Sammy Ponzar, Roman Kuebler) with members hailing separately from both Washington DC, and Baltimore MD.  A mixture of crunchy guitar (for vocals, think: Guided by Voices), bouncy bass, and reverberating surfy guitar, the band features members of The Slow Jets, and The Oranges Band (Roman Kuebler) and calls the neutral ground of Silver Spring their practice space between homes. Impossible Hair's forthcoming album was recorded in Roman Kuebler's studio with Sound Engineer Adam Cooke (Water School).  And, if you get the Beatles references below, you should be right at home with Joseph Ryan's quirky answers detailing their outlook on their sound and the ideas behind the band.  Impossible Hair will open the Girl About Town Back to School show at the M Room, make sure to catch the band during their first Philadelphia appearance at 8:30 p.m. tonight!

My Little Brother - Impossible Hair

Girl About Town: Who came up with the name "Impossible Hair" and does it involve the actual hair of a specific band-member, was conditioning involved?

Joe Ryan: It's a song by Greg Preston from the Slow Jets.  It's a great song.  We try to keep our hair mostly in reach, but Sammy does have the mushroom.

What is the Impossible Hair live experience all about--who is the John Entwistle, who is the Keith Moon, who is the Pete Townshend and who is Daltrey?

Dick came round. He was a bit of a musician, played jazz piano, so he was even more interesting. He got hold of Alun Owen, a Welsh playwright who'd written Last Tram to Lime Street. He picked up little quotes like "He's very clean, isn't he?" He picked up the jokes and sarcasm, the Hair humour, Jim's wit and each one of us, Sammy's laconic humour. He picked up our characters, which was good.

Tell us about the songwriting: who does the writing, what is it all about, and would you say that "outer space" is in fact, the final frontier?

I bring in the stubs and then we work 'em out. Woah! Space! I don't know.

What has the experience been like coming from such an intimate and often very-involved music and arts scene in Baltimore?

Jim and Roman live in Baltimore, and Sammy and I live in DC.  We practice in Silver Spring.  The scene in Silver Spring is more of a 'straunt scene with a few good bands.  Great things are happening in Balti and DC though.  It's incredibly pleasing.

What signifies a great live show experience for the members of Impossible Hair? Audience appreciation, high kicks? Fancy guitar work?

It's good when everything howls.

Is there work being done on recording and releasing a debut album?

The album is finished.  We recorded it with Roman and Adam Cooke in Baltimore.  We are just waiting for the right time to thwack people with it.

What's your favorite thing about Philadelphia?

I love Philly: the roads, the railway lines, very few natural disasters, Dr. J, The Lilys, yeah!

Impossible Hair - band site / myspace

Comments

[Joe (impossible Hair)]

For the record: Impossible Hair did not record at Lord Baltimore. We did most of the stuff at Roman's studio in Baltimore.

Thanks so much for last night. You all really know how to put together a great show and get people excited. We had a great time and really appreciate your efforts. yessss!!!
--Joe

[Carly]

Hi Joe! Last night was great, loved the freeform dancing too, I hope to see that again some time soon:) Does Roman's studio have a name?

[Joe]

I think he might be calling it HPS (Hotcake Pinching Studios).

[headbands]

The "Have you got the dog" video was cute. =)