Honeydogs

Brothers Noah and Adam Levy were already veterans of the Minneapolis rock scene when they formed The Honeydogs in 1994. Elder brother Adam spun his favorite country, soul and rock influences into a vintage sounding batch of songs on the band's eponymous 1995 debut, which featured bassist Trent Norton. Noah took time off to record and tour with Golden Smog featuring members of The Jayhawks, Wilco, Their second outing, featuring added guitarist Tommy Borscheid, Everything I Bet You (1996) further honed the band's merging of country and rock, sounding like a Flying Burrito Brothers/Beatles/Clash hybrid. The band toured extensively and secured a major label deal with Mercury Records--leading to their first commercial release, Seen A Ghost (1997). It featured a a few re-recorded versions of songs and demonstrated a band uncomfortable in the confines of the "Alt-Country" genre. The band toured and Adam's writing expanded. Guitarist Tommy Borscheid left the band in summer of 1998. The follow-up on Rykodisc/Palm Here's Luck (2001) pushed the band away from Americana and into Pet Sounds-era pop and Beatles/Tropicalia-inspired psychedelia. While critically acclaimed and further endeared to fans, the band continued to tour but struggled for any kind of commercial success. Guitarist Brian Halvorson and keyboardist Jeff Victor joined the band. They released their first independent release Island of Misfits (2001) which featured outtakes from Here's Luck and odds and ends recorded in that period. The band began reducing touring at this time and found themselves spending more in the studio. A group of instrumentals were recorded for the publishing company for film and TV that wouldn't be formally released until 2010 in digital format as Can't Feel the Beating. Adam finished writing the songs for 10,000 Years by August 2001. And the band started recording the dystopian sci-fi concept album immediately following 9/11. The material was stylistically expansive and the story influenced by Levy's long time social work with refugees and youth offenders was eerily prescient. Songwriter Aimee Mann and husband Michael Penn released 10,000 Years on United Musicians, their artistic collective label. There were a number of goings and comings after 10,000 Years came out—Jeff Victor and Noah Levy left, and Peter Anderson (drums) and Peter J Sands (keyboards) joined the band. . In 2007 the band followed up with perhaps their most stylistically ambitious, musically dense record Amygdala. While 10,000 Years garnered great critical attention, Amygdala has remained a fan favorite, careening from art guitar rock to electronica to early 20th century jazz, Brazilian music, electronica and folk. Levy and the band continued touring intermittently and started a variety of side and solo projects. Sunshine Committee (2009) was a darkly ironic paean to the band’s favorite 1960’s soul psychedelia. Matt Darling (trombone) and Stephen Kung (trumpet) began joining the band regularly on stage and touring. In 2012 Adam Levy lost his son Daniel to suicide after the 21 year old had been struggling for a few years with mental health issues. The band released the aptly titled What Comes After, recorded before Daniel’s death, in 2012. With shades of Nick Drake and swampy soul, the band tapped into their horn section and a string quartet for this moody batch of songs. In 2015 the band released the upbeat, guitar driven Love and Cannibalism. The band released two singles in 2017 "Your Own Shadow" and "Gaslight Face."