21 November 2016

21 November 2016 - Mazzy Star - Halah

Some songs and sounds stick with you forever, and you never get sick of them.  This, for me, is one of those songs.

Mazzy Star were (still are, in fact) a duo - Hope Sandoval and David Roback (ex-Rain Parade) - who started off together in a band called Opal, with Kendra Smith (ex-Dream Syndicate) as lead vocalist.  When Smith left, abruptly - like, slammed her guitar on the ground during a gig and left - Sandoval took over lead vocals to finish the tour. 

After that tour ended, the two of them formed Mazzy Star. Mazzy Star had a minor hit song in 1993 - "Fade Into You".  This is not that song.  This song is from their influential and tone-setting 1990 debut album, She Hangs Brightly.  Kurt Cobain called the album one of his favorites of all time. 

Hope Sandoval is notoriously shy during live shows - she performs only under dim lighting and interacts little with the crowd.  You can kind of hear it in this song.  That's the best description I can give for this haunting song, one I list among my favorite songs of all time. 


The band is actually still together.  They released their fourth album in 2013, and had reformed for a couple of tours before that.  Here's a performance from 2012, where you can see the dim lighting. 


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