The Frost Heaves & HaLeS. A complete sentence. A tangle of puns.
A warning. An invitation. A violent invocation. A sibilant caress.
A band name disguised as a New England road sign.
The Frost Heaves & HaLeS have been crafting confections you eat with your ears ever since erupting from the wilds of Western Massachusetts in 2008.
More than just a gig, every Heaves show is an occasion. The band’s performances have incorporated poetry readings, video projection, theater, breakdancing action figures and more. The band's songbook includes some 100 original tunes and more than three dozen covers — many of them written or selected for special occasions like movie screenings and tribute nights.
The Heaves have opened for national acts like Cotton Jones, The High Dials, and Mean Creek. Notable events and venues where the group has performed include the Green River, Upper Valley, and Hilltown music festivals, the Franklin County Fair, Iron Horse Music Hall, and One Longfellow Square in Portland, Maine. They've also served as the house band for Amherst Live.
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Frost Heaves songs have struck a chord with wider and wider audiences. "Vacationland" was voted one of the top 93 songs (#37) of 2009 by listeners of WRSI/93.9 The River. Two other Heaves tunes have been featured on NPR’s Car Talk.
Band leader Daniel Hales is an inventive poet, songwriter, singer, and strummer equally at home performing solo.
Daniel's lyrics have frequently been singled out for praise. Northeast Performer wrote, “Hales artfully plays with the duality of words in the English language, creating lyrics that are both smart and memorable.” Impact Press called Daniel’s lyrics “nothing short of brilliant.”
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Bassist James Lowe masterminds many of the song arrangements, layering string, horn, keyboard and drum machine textures.
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Drummer Brian Canning holds it down and kicks it with a tasty groove.
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Frost Heaves albums offer lush arrangements with no end of sonic mysteries to explore. They’ve released five full-length albums and 3 EPs so far, with myriads more in progress. Best keep your ear to the ground.
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The band's most recent EP is their hardest rocking release yet. Music critic Eric Danton calls Ghost of a Chance to the Shadow of a Doubt, "a propulsive five-song EP featuring pointed lyrics that frequently have a bite." He goes on say: "“Losing My Mind” starts with James Lowe playing a roving bassline that circles around Hales’ restrained guitar over the snick of a hi-hat before the track erupts into a full-on drum beat and roaring guitars. Another track, “Lion in Wait,” has been hanging around for more than 20 years. With lyrics featuring a compendium of cliches that Hales turns on their heads — “Wait until the cows come home to roost,” he sings — it’s an upbeat tune with a jaunty beat and trebly guitars. It’s clear that other songs have more recent origins: “If Mosquitos Had Souls” makes scathing reference to current events, boosted by overdriven guitars and layers of vocals that are just out-of-sync enough to convey a sense of impassioned anger. Though the Frost Heaves & Hales often demonstrate a pointed streak on Ghost of a Chance to the Shadow of a Doubt, there’s no mistaking their playful side: the band sounds loose and limber, and there’s an evident joy in what they’re doing." Sheryl Hunter wrote in The Greenfield Recorder: "While their music has often defied easy pigeonholing, with Ghost of a Chance to a Shadow of the Doubt The Frost Heaves and Hales have released their most rocking release to date, lacing these songs about frustrations, fears and life’s challenges with plenty of propulsive drums and memorable guitar riffs. Read her full review here: Sounds Local: Decades in the making: Free shows, costume party mark release of Frost Heaves and Hales' latest EP - Greenfield Recorder
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in 2024, Selah haleS was back with another tear-jerker of an EP entitled Welcome To My Haunted Heart. Welcome To My Haunted Heart | Selah haleS | The frost heaves and hales.
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Fans of Orson Welles rejoiced at the arrival of You Double-Crossed My Mind in 2023, an EP where every song directly or obliquely references the visionary director and actor. You Double-Crossed My Mind | The frost heaves and hales.
2021 saw the release of Unstable Oscillators, which compiled the first 3 Selah haleS EPs. Selah haleS began as Daniel's solo heartbreak side project, but James quickly got involved and Selah haleS became more of a Frost Heaves in their sad bastard disguise kinda thing.
Unstable Oscillators | Selah haleS | The frost heaves and hales.
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Their fourth full-length album, Repointing The Steeple, was comprised of their EP Uncluttering The Gutterspouts as side A, and 7 new songs as side B. ​Repointing The Steeple | The Frost Heaves and Hales | The frost heaves and hales.
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In 2014, the Heaves fell way, way down the rabbit hole — or were they pushed through the looking-glass? In a feverish sprint, the band wrote a soundtrack of lobster quadrilles and crocodile lullabies and performed them atop a high catwalk during of a two-week theater run of "Alice In Wonderland." After recording the songs in the studio, the band celebrated the release of “Contrariwise” with a multimedia concert in front of a packed house at the Shea Theater. Calloo! Callay!
When you were blocking the TV and your dad told you “You Make A Better Door Than A Window,” he was also prophesying one of the best albums to come out in 2012. With it the Frosties offered to open portals of perception way past your third ear, if only you'd let them. They released the disc with a two-part extravaganza: first playing the album from end to end as a seven-piece band at the Green River Festival, then hosting an art-opening/after-party at The Rendezvous. Poems by 10 different writers inspired by the album were collected into an accompanying chapbook.
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The Frost Heaves' 2009 debut album, “Frost Heaves,” is a musically promiscuous mix of lost shopping carts, questions for carjackers, wrong meters, secret weapons, vacations to the North Pole in July, and psychedelic trips down discontinued roads.
Auxiliary live/studio Frost Heaves, 2005-2019: Erik Amlee, Abbie Barrett, Matt Beers, Joe Boyle,
Emily Breines, Emily Brewster, Sue Burkhart, Lewis Carroll, Scot Coar, Charlie Conant, Norm Demoura,
Emily Dickinson, Brian DiPippo, Kurt Fedora, Carrie Ferguson, Abdallah Hage-Sleiman, Ian Heisey, Leo Hwang, Steve Koziol, Roland Lapierre, Mike Levesque, Rick Lowe, Heather Maloney, Brian Marchese, Dan Mickus, Maggie Nowinsky, Mike Pattavina, Anne Pinkerton, Kate Stephens, Ivan Ussach, Tony Vacca, Hilary Weiner, Anna Wetherby, Christopher Wilkey.
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The Looking Glass Creatures: Jed Berry, Shira Hillel, Emily Houk, Daniel Kasnitz, Kara McColgan, Jillian Morgan, and Jeff Steblea.