Two-Tone Belair

(press release from Times Beach Records)


LONGTIME ROAD WARRIORS THE HENTCHMEN SIGN TO TIMES BEACH RECORDS


As of April 23, 2004, after years of releasing their albums on Norton Records (with the exception of several singles and one mini-LP), the Hentchmen join the Times Beach Records family. The band has already been in the studio working on their new LP, set to come out this September. Times Beach is a young independent record label based in the Hentchmen’s hometown of Detroit, Michigan.

Dialogue began last fall between the Hentchmen and the Times Beach Records crew: it was a friendly chat on a brisk night over pints of Bell’s at the Lager House, before a particularly energetic Hentchmen set. Details were finalized over the next few months while the Hentchmen prepared their next album at Times Beach’s neighboring studio, Rustbelt, in Royal Oak.

Rustbelt owner and Times Beach president Dave Allison says, “The record is just about complete and I believe it is their best work so far.” On the subject of the Hentchmen joining the label, he adds, “With the amount of touring and ground work they have done already, the Hentchmen are going to be a great asset to the label.”

The band is just as enthusiastic about joining the label; John Szymanski, organist, says they like Times Beach because it is a “young, exciting label [that] can’t be pigeon-holed,” and they “welcome the change” of having an in-house promotions team.

A video has been shot for the Hentchmen’s first single, “Love,” off the new album, which is tentatively being called Form Follows Function. The band will most likely be heading out on the road to support the fall release.

I was born in the city - grew up in the hills, I decided to turn my back...