Adrian H and the Wounds

Hailing from the Texas music scene of Dallas and Austin, Adrian H moved to the northwest and birthed songs that would make your mother cry. Adrian H has a sound that is sinfully soulful and reminiscent of a night in a velvety dark room full of hallucinations, secrets and song. His voice is dark and icy and evokes impassioned stories of love, faith and loss. His post-goth, dark-glam style stirs up comparisons to Leonard Cohen, Nick Cave and Tom Waits. His lyrics are a reflection of his unorthodox religious upbringing. Adrian H is skilled with the language of violence and sharp wit. He cuts to the core and makes no apologies like a good Charles Bukowski story. If you like your music with a twist of raw emotion, then don't miss Adrian H and The Wounds. As soon as Portland's Adrian H. strikes the first piano key on Adrian H and the Wounds' self-titled debut, you know what you're getting yourself into. Haunting pianos played in 3/4 time create a waltzlike sound that could very well be mistaken for the soundtrack of an old-school horror flick. Adrian's voice sounds like Tom Waits with a Transylvanian accent and his lyrics read like horror stories. As I listened, I couldn't help but think of Jason Segel's Dracula rock opera in Forgetting Sarah Marshall. The album is piano-driven, with the faint sounds of bass and drums humming morosely in the background. And it's a concept album-the concept being an overwhelming sense of loneliness, confusion and eeriness that would make Bram Stoker (or Jason Segel) proud. KATRINA NATTRESS. - The Willamette Week Led by a crisp digital piano and a growl that splits the difference between Tom Waits and Cookie Monster, Adrian H and the Wounds' hand-wringing music is claustrophobically melodramatic. There's something cartoonishly gothic about Adrian's songs, like Nick Cave playing the role of Max Schreck in a Broadway musical directed by Tim Burton. It's the ideal soundtrack for reciting Poe and agonizing over which tattoo will piss off Daddy the most. Adrian H and the Wounds celebrate the release of their self-titled CD tonight, and lyrics like, 'She likes cookies and cocaine, she likes blowjobs in the rain' indicate the mixture of sweet and skeevy contained therein. NL - The Portland Mercury.