by request
Artist Biography
by Joslyn Layne
Vocalist, pianist, and guitarist
Liam Hayes (known for his work with
Will Oldham's
Palace) has been songwriting for his group,
Plush,
since the dawn of the '90s, but didn't record with the band until 1994
when the single "Three Quarters Blind Eyes"/"Found a Little Baby" came
out on Chicago's Drag City label. This first effort for the
seldom-gigging band garnered some surprisingly big attention from the
music press; notably, the B-side was named Single of the Week by one
British magazine and received critical praise from several others. It
was another three years, however, before the band created a follow-up.
1997's "No Education" came out on Flydaddy, and it was a much shorter
wait between releases this time, with their full-length debut coming out
the following year. 1998's
More You Becomes You actually finds
Hayes at the piano singing sparse, vulnerable, and romantic songs along the heartfelt lines of
Carole King and
Burt Bacharach ballads. Following the album's release, the band continued together with
Hayes on guitar and toured with the Japanese band
Ghost and with
Yo La Tengo. One can also catch
Hayes
performing in the background of a bar scene in the film High Fidelity
(2000), a movie about an obsessive music fan living in Chicago. In 2002,
the Japanese After Hours label released
Hayes' next achievement,
Fed -- an album as lush and ambitious as the previous one was sparse.
Hayes returned in 2009 with Bright Penny, a lovingly constructed "ode to pop music" that was released under the moniker
Liam Hayes & Plush.
Hayes appeared in and composed the soundtrack for director
Roman Coppola's 2012 independent comedy A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swan III.
Tracklist
1 |
Virginia |
|
2 |
More You Becomes You |
|
3 |
(I Didn't Know) I Was Asleep |
|
4 |
The Party I |
|
5 |
The Party II |
|
6 |
Soaring And Boring |
|
7 |
(See It In The) Early Morning |
|
8 |
Instrumental |
|
9 |
Save The People |
|
10 |
The Sailor |