Eli Wegner a.k.a. Samezvous is the one man genius behind Los Halos. Singing and playing all instruments, Samezvous has recorded hundreds of songs since the early 90s. Finding Loveless Records through reading a review about Voyager One, he saw the name Loveless Records and thought, " They know how I feel." Sending his CD to over 50 labels including Loveless, it ended up in the hands of label owner John Richards. Taking the CD on a long road trip, John said he was "blown away by the emotional intensity that Los Halos showed." The rest is, as they say, history. For Ramona (2002), Los Halos (2003) and Leaving VA (2003) have all been put out on the Loveless label.
The legend surrounding the beginning of Los Halos musical career and subsequent signing to Seattles Loveless Records goes something like this. 1) Four Philadelphia musicians lock themselves in a basement long enough to kick a nasty junk habit. While there, they figure they might as well channel some of the situations intensity into an album. 2) The result is a torrid, catastrophic collection of epic rock n roll songs, some spanning up to 10 minutes to deliver their point. 2) Los Halos mails what would become their self-titled debut to John Richards, influential indie rock DJ and Loveless head honcho, unsolicited. 3) A few mornings later Richards finds the package on his doorstep. 4) Unknown forces of fate compel Richards, who must get more albums sent his way than just about any other living human being, to open said package and listen to the music contained therein. 5) Richards mind is resolutely blown. 6) Richards dials the number included on the demo as he rescues his jaw from the kitchen floor. 7) Worried he might not be the only recipient of this particular package, Richards signs the band that day. Unfortunately for Los Halos, reception to their first two Loveless Records came mostly from other music nerds like Richards, and despite an overwhelmingly positive reaction from critics and music press, they remain relatively anonymous. Fast forward to 2003s Leaving VA, the bands third and best album - an 8-song masterpiece that brings together the huge, emotional guitar noise of their debut and the subtle acoustic balladry of its follow up, Ramona. Detailed without crossing into self-indulgence, beautiful and varied while wearing some very traditional classic rock influences proudly on its sleeves, and continuously assaulting its listener with heart-wrenching, bitter-sweet tales of love and loss, Leaving VA is one of my favorite albums ever. That it hasnt catapulted Los Halos to national recognition is a felony. Do the world a favor and come on out to the Crocodile next time the band honors us with their presence the 75 of us hip enough to be there last time could use the company.
- Nada Mucho’s Top 50 Albums of 2003
Getriggerd door een zeer positief artikel op Kindamuzik en zeer benieuwd geraakt door het nummer Lioness (MP3) ben ik maar eens op zoek gegaan naar albums van de Amerikaanse indieband Los Halos. Met succes, want ik ben afgelopen week verrast door alledrie de albums die verschenen zijn op Loveless Records. De verwijzingen naar Sparklehorse, Grandaddy en Neutral Milk Hotel zijn niet onterecht gebleken. Erg goed.
- Stop the Noise
The expectations (or at least the ones I set) were high for “leaving va” but the band have taken those expectations, crushed them under a bulldozer and sent the dust to the moon. Simply, this is another breathtaking album that firmly cements Los Halos as one of the best bands currently going.
- DJ Peanuts
Atypical of most popular music, Leaving VA is an easy listen but not ‘easy listening’ and a great third outing for the very unique Los Halos.
- Tony Engelhart, Losing Today
Well-crafted pop tunes, droning epic songs and emotional folk-sounding numbers. This new Los Halos has it all with emotional lyrics ripped right out of my head and heart.
- Cheryl Waters, KEXP 90.3, Seattle
In the liner notes to their third release, Los Halos issue “long overdue thank yous” to an extensive list of cultural luminaries, from T.S. Elliot and Vincent Van Gogh to Leonard Cohen and the Velvet Underground. If the ensuing musical offering was any less majestic, the token thank yous might smack of self-aggrandizement, but Los Halos deliver such a moving album that the liner notes seem oddly appropriate. Indeed, the band rises above its list of influences to craft a unique palette embedded with a hypnotic feeling of motion, much the same way Van Gogh succeeded in achieving qualities of movement with his pioneering circular brushwork. And rather than trampling on the spacious sonics underneath, the band uses a sparse lyrical attack to convey messages of personal redemption. Not that T.S. Elliot was waiting for the nod of approval, but in this modern era of dislocation from the past, it doesn’t hurt to pay homage to the real masters, does it?
- Piers Henwood, FIlter
With a sound that has come into its own, Los Halos have a winner on their hands with Leaving VA. It’s an emotive, masterful journey through music that at both times soothes and disturbs.
- Brian Dukes, Up and Coming Weekly
Los Halos has been quietly putting out stunning records on Seattle-based Loveless Records. This, their 3rd, is a call to recognize. Both the warm, understated elegance of For Ramona and the cathartic climaxes of Los Halos are present... and are pushed further by Samezvous ever-developing talent for composition, arrangement, and delivery.
- Planetary
Los Halos has adeptly mixed shoegazer rock, gut-wrenching balladry, Velvet Underground inspired jams and foot-stomping rockers to create a fantastic album. Los Halos swerves through musical styles like an ambulance through busy traffic, all without so much as a fender bender .
- Joe Vallejos, Nada Mucho
It’s been said that music is life, but when a band really tries to capture the true complexities and bittersweet nature of existence, most of the time it simply ends up spouting melodramatic drivel. Every once in a blue moon, however, a group comes along that actually manages to encapsulate all of life’s ups and downs in a direct and sincere way.With its third album, Leaving Va., Los Halos has become one of those bands. Knowing when to rock out and when to keep it quiet and acoustic, the quartet demonstrates the kind of sophistication that gives “The Back Home” the timeless quality of a lost Gram Parsons B-side. More poignantly, when vocalist Samezvous sings, “I am still dreaming of you” on “Frenesi,” his voice conveys that this isn’t the kind of dream he’s willingly allowed himself to be trapped in; but at the same time, it also sounds as if he is simply dreaming, after all, rather than having the nightmare one might imagine — and therein lies the strange, subtle balance that Los Halos achieves.
- Brad Filicky: CMJ New Music Report Issue: 831 - Sep 15, 2003
Pure in its sorrow, simple its hope, Leaving Va. is a beautiful summoning of the prayers we stuff under our pillows at night in the hopes that somehow, somewhere, the answers will come, life will get better, and love will grow stronger. In a word: sublime.
- Craig Young, Earpollution
Who? Pennsylvania indie rockers back with their third full-length. Sounds Like? It’s not coincidence this disc was released on a label named after a My Bloody Valentine album, but Los Halos add a pop element and a keen sense of melody to the obligatory wall of guitars. How is it? Sometimes upbeat, sometimes melancholy, but always memorable. Rocks like: Yo La Tengo, The Kickovers, Heatmeiser.
- Alternative Press
Such a wholesale change in sound seems like it would be difficult to pull off, but Los Halos have not had much trouble doing it. If anything, they’ve gotten a lot better, and I can’t wait to see where they go next.
- Joe Tangari, Pitchfork
While many people tend to write off all Pennsylvanians west of Philadelphia, the latest CD from the Penn pair Los Halos proves that they can play music. “For Ramona” is emotionally strong, filled with easy-flowing guitars and a yearning to discover life’s meaning. They don’t find it here, but they try - with tracks such as “Gold as the Color,” “My Heart As An Arrow” and “Will You Go to Heaven?” Rich, yet simple, guitar picking defines this album, that at times is a cross between an off-kilter prayer service and a folk concert. Mostly it challenges the listener to ask questions about life, love and destiny. Songs that stick out here include “Easy as You’re Waiting,” which just made me want to get up and dance, and “Morning of the Sun,” where I was hypnotized by the soft beat of the brush-drum.
- Thomas Ritchie, Siouxland Network
If you experienced the previous mind bending sonic attack that screamed between absolute noise and purest beauty on Los Halos’ self-titled debut, you’re going to find something completely different here. Different, but just as beautiful. Acoustically touched and melodically wonderful, “For Ramona” is the quiet Love & Rockets, the soft Jesus & Mary Chain, the other side of Twin Peaks and moving like a velvet curtain that makes everyone just whisper, “Everybody wants to go to heaven...”. Underneath all the enchantment and ethereal beauty, still, there are solid songs written with great hooks that are still catching even though they are drawn out and twisted into shapes that make you feel like floating. Spiritual.
- Marcel Feldmar, The Big Takeover
Altogether, For Ramona is an enjoyable, endearing album that has the potential to put smiles on many faces. From start to finish (a warm, gentle hidden track ends the album), this should provide you with enough catchiness to warrant it a permanent lodging in your stereo. Like Sparklehorse’s It’s A Wonderful Life last year, For Ramona provides a nice breath of fresh pop to keep all us indie kids happy.
- Matt Shimmer, Indieville
This follow-up to Los Halos’ eponymous debut is nothing like the original. While the latter will be remembered as a guitar waltz into sonic cacophony, this sophomore album will reel that energy in and reveal a much more reserved, subdued effort that is notably constrained, but ever-ready to burst at the seams. The immediate energy that defined their first album is still there, lurking between the chords and strums of the acoustic guitars, pushing the happy “you’re not about to be sad” up-tempos to the point that they are about to break. “Morning of the Sun” comes closest to that breaking point, as front man Samezvous keenly whispers over a droning synthesizer, “I got the morning of a mountain moving in me.” The record rounds out by returning to its constrained self, but those moments add up to a curiosity that begs the question, what will Los Halos do next?
- Shawn Telford, Tablet
Los Halos exhibits the dichotomy between dreaming and being completely awake. They make music you could easily dream to, twinkling keyboards, cymbals, acoustic guitars, and low sung, unstressed vocals; music that is so pretty and concise. But once you’re lost in your land of thinking about deep shit, they build the electric guitars and distortion into something explosive and rock and bring you back to an amazingly more positive reality.
- KS, Portland Mercury
Although Los Halos’ last release seemed aimed at Sensitive Dudes Who Like Spacerock (the songs had less guitar-solo masturbating than your average Mogwai track, but there was a lot more of the lowered-gaze repetition the skinny indie boys seem partial to) the Pennsylvania duo’s new release ‘For Ramona’ is far more rootsy and folk influenced. Seems this Samezvous fellow has gotten miles more prolific with his lyrics and is done with all the building/breaking catharsis stuff. Fans of Bright Eyes, Red Stars Theory, Yo La Tengo and The Mountain Goats would have to be sort of stupid not to like this.
- Laura Cassidy, Seattle Weekly
Los Halos played loudly, astonishingly loud, LOUD. It’s difficult for me to draw a comparison; their music reverberated, it howled, it wailed, and devastated. Los Halos were truly beyond comparison.
- hearSay, Three Imaginary Girls
...it reaches its fist down your throat and tears your lungs clean out, leaving you panting on the floor but somehow begging for more. Rating: A
- Cow Sound
I haven’t been able to take it out of my discman for the last 2 weeks!
- Alex Machurov, Unpop
This submission came with a letter from it’s label (Seattle’s own Loveless Records!) hoping that other music fans out there would “drool over this as much as we did.” Rightly said. I’m still wiping my mouth.
- Laura Corcoran, Tablet
The opener, “You Should Have Known By Now,” exists solely on those six words repeated ad nauseam over some similarly repetitive high-hat chitchat and rumbling guitar lines. The song builds slowly for two minutes before surrendering to a violent change of heart. By the three-minute mark, Samezvous is screaming like only a man who’s got an awful lot of confidence in his ear, nose, and throat specialist can scream. Tracks like “Infinity Bitch” evoke a kinder, gentler, less masturbatory Mogwai; layers of Guitar elbow each other out of the way for minutes at a time until something cannonball crazed and chaotic finally takes center stage. Although the epic-length songs usually return to their initial states of quiet brooding, occasionally passing through a surefooted, straightforward singer/songwriter stage on the way, it’s the mood of those echoing outbursts that lingers the longest.
- Laura Learmonth, Seattle Weekly
