Hank Sullivant
Encyclopedia
Hank Sullivant is an American rock musician and producer who is known for his early work with Athens-based pop rock band The Whigs
, his stint as touring guitarist for MGMT
, and currently as leader of the rock band Kuroma.
Since 2009 Sullivant has produced albums for bands including Gift Horse, Wages, and Colour Revolt
.
. He is listed as ‘notable alumni’ of MUS alongside Big Star
’s Chris Bell
and FedEx CEO Fred Smith
. Sullivant played in a band called Accidental Mersh with Andrew VanWyngarden
, Nick Robbins, and Charlie Gerber. The band wrote funky pop songs that were inspired by elder Memphis rock band Big Ass Truck. The group packed Memphis clubs like the New Daisy Theater on Beale Street
. The group dispersed to different colleges in 2001.
and Julian Dorio
with whom he formed The Whigs. Sullivant, a guitarist, picked up bass to round out the band. Sullivant and Gispert co-wrote the songs with additional creative input from Dorio. During their time at UGA, the band rose to popularity in Athens and Atlanta.
After delays and a “demoralizing development deal with RCA,” The Whigs self-recorded their debut album Give ‘Em All a Big Fat Lip in an abandoned fraternity house with engineer Billy Bennett in the summer of 2005. In addition to bass, Sullivant played organ, piano, slide guitar, and acoustic guitar on the album. “Half The World Away” features a guitar solo by Sullivant. This solo was a noted climactic point in the Whigs’ live set.
Energized by the production of G’EAaBFL, Sullivant experienced a period of creativity before the album’s release that resulted in most of the songs found on Kuroma’s 2007 debut, Paris. The Whigs self-released their album in November of 2005. Rolling Stone Magazine named them one of the ‘Ten Bands To Watch In 2006.’ The Whigs signed to ATO Records
in July of 2006 & toured through November. Sullivant then left the band to work solely on his own music.
when they contacted Sullivant. Sullivant moved to New York for rehearsals in May 2007 but planned to return to Kuroma. Sullivant stayed through the official release of Oracular Spectacular and returned to Athens after the South by Southwest festival in March 2008. Sullivant performed on Late Night With David Letterman
and the BBC’s Later With Jools Holland with MGMT. He played on tours with Of Montreal
, Fiery Furnaces, and Yeasayer
, and played MGMT’s first overseas dates in the UK and Europe.
and Spin Magazine. In 2008/2009, the band opened for Jarvis Cocker
, Primal Scream
, MGMT
, and The Walkmen
, and performed at the 2009 Bonnaroo festival.
’s Simulacra and Simulation
. Crawford, a poet and visual artist, identifies “Transmutilation” as the technique behind his long-form poem Morpheau. In a video interview in 2009 Sullivant describes Kuroma’s music as “transmutilation.”
In November 2008 Kuroma put on a two-part performance at The Georgia Theatre. Part One featured a 15+ minute cover of Spacemen 3
’s “Big City;” the intermission was a screening of the late 1960s psychedelic art film The Invasion of the Thunderbolt Pagoda; and Part Two was a set of Kuroma songs. Formal playbills were passed at the door.
Sullivant identifies Kuroma’s following video/single, “Get The Gunz,” as a companion to “In New York Everything Is Tropical.” Directed collaboratively with Ash Sechler, the video features Sullivant dancing in rollerblades, stabbing water, suggestively being “curbed,” and killing his bandmates and himself with cartoon-like liquid after-affects as blood.
The Whigs
The Whigs are an American garage rock band from Athens, Georgia, consisting of lead singer and guitarist Parker Gispert, drummer Julian Dorio and bassist Timothy Deaux.-Biography:...
, his stint as touring guitarist for MGMT
MGMT
MGMT is an American alternative rock band founded by Benjamin Goldwasser and Andrew VanWyngarden. After the release of their first album, the members of their live band, Matthew Asti, James Richardson and Will Berman, joined the core band in the studio...
, and currently as leader of the rock band Kuroma.
Since 2009 Sullivant has produced albums for bands including Gift Horse, Wages, and Colour Revolt
Colour Revolt
-History:Colour Revolt's members first played together while they were high school students at Jackson Academy in Jackson, MS under the name Foxxe, then changing to Fletcher and releasing a full length album entitled "Friends Don't Speak". They then moved on to become college students at the...
.
Memphis & Accidental Mersh
Sullivant was raised in Memphis and attended high school at Memphis University SchoolMemphis University School
Memphis University School is an all-male private school for grades 7–12, located in Memphis, Tennessee.-History:MUS was founded in 1893 by Edwin Sidney Werts and James White Sheffey Rhea. MUS is a college-preparatory school. The school's colors, red and blue, were chosen by the founders to...
. He is listed as ‘notable alumni’ of MUS alongside Big Star
Big Star
Big Star was an American rock band formed in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1971 by Alex Chilton, Chris Bell, Jody Stephens and Andy Hummel. The group broke up in 1974, but reorganized with a new line-up nearly 20 years later...
’s Chris Bell
Chris Bell
Chris Bell may refer to:*Chris Bell , singer-songwriter and guitarist of the band Big Star*Chris Bell , former Congressman and 2006 candidate for Governor of Texas...
and FedEx CEO Fred Smith
Fred Smith
-In literature:*Frederick Smith, 3rd Earl of Birkenhead , British peer and author*Frederick E. Smith , British author*Frederick M. Smith , American religious leader and author-In medicine:*Frederick W...
. Sullivant played in a band called Accidental Mersh with Andrew VanWyngarden
Andrew VanWyngarden
Andrew VanWyngarden is the lead vocalist, guitar player and songwriter for the band MGMT, praised for "an uncanny knack for producing pop music that sounds as if it were filtered through a kaleidoscope"...
, Nick Robbins, and Charlie Gerber. The band wrote funky pop songs that were inspired by elder Memphis rock band Big Ass Truck. The group packed Memphis clubs like the New Daisy Theater on Beale Street
Beale Street
Beale Street is a street in Downtown Memphis, Tennessee, which runs from the Mississippi River to East Street, a distance of approximately . It is a significant location in the city's history, as well as in the history of the blues. Today, the blues clubs and restaurants that line Beale Street are...
. The group dispersed to different colleges in 2001.
Athens & The Whigs
During his first year at The University of Georgia, Sullivant met Atlantans Parker GispertParker Gispert
Parker Gispert is the lead singer of The Whigs. He is a native of Atlanta, Georgia, a 2001 graduate of The Westminster Schools, and a 2006 graduate of the University of Georgia with a degree in Philosophy... After graduating college and self producing and releasing "Give 'Em All A Big Fat Lip,"...
and Julian Dorio
Julian Dorio
-Biography:Julian started drumming at the age of 6, as an original member of the Flying Dorios. The band included his father and his older brother, Michael Dorio of Trances Arc. A high school graduate of The Westminster Schools in Atlanta and a college graduate of the University of Georgia, Dorio...
with whom he formed The Whigs. Sullivant, a guitarist, picked up bass to round out the band. Sullivant and Gispert co-wrote the songs with additional creative input from Dorio. During their time at UGA, the band rose to popularity in Athens and Atlanta.
After delays and a “demoralizing development deal with RCA,” The Whigs self-recorded their debut album Give ‘Em All a Big Fat Lip in an abandoned fraternity house with engineer Billy Bennett in the summer of 2005. In addition to bass, Sullivant played organ, piano, slide guitar, and acoustic guitar on the album. “Half The World Away” features a guitar solo by Sullivant. This solo was a noted climactic point in the Whigs’ live set.
Energized by the production of G’EAaBFL, Sullivant experienced a period of creativity before the album’s release that resulted in most of the songs found on Kuroma’s 2007 debut, Paris. The Whigs self-released their album in November of 2005. Rolling Stone Magazine named them one of the ‘Ten Bands To Watch In 2006.’ The Whigs signed to ATO Records
ATO Records
According to Our Records was founded in early 2000 by Dave Matthews , Coran Capshaw, Chris Tetzeli, and Michael McDonald as a division of RCA Records...
in July of 2006 & toured through November. Sullivant then left the band to work solely on his own music.
Paris
The recording of Kuroma’s debut album Paris began shortly after Sullivant quit the Whigs. Sullivant asked childhood friend multi-instrumentalist James Richardson to collaborate on most of the sessions. In March 2007 Sullivant and Richardson, with Billy Bennett engineering and co-producing, tracked the bulk of Paris at Chase Park Transduction in Athens. The final product was mastered in April 2007. Sullivant came up with the name Kuroma during this time. Nick Robbins, Kyle Spence, and John Mills also appear on the album.MGMT
Following the recording of Paris, Andrew VanWyngarden asked Sullivant to play guitar in MGMT’s live band. MGMT had signed to Columbia Records, and they were recording Oracular SpectacularOracular Spectacular
Oracular Spectacular is the first major label studio album by American psychedelic rock band MGMT, released digitally October 2, 2007 on Columbia Records, available in CD & LP formats from January 22, 2008 by Red Ink Records. The album, which has sold over 1 million copies worldwide, was nominated...
when they contacted Sullivant. Sullivant moved to New York for rehearsals in May 2007 but planned to return to Kuroma. Sullivant stayed through the official release of Oracular Spectacular and returned to Athens after the South by Southwest festival in March 2008. Sullivant performed on Late Night With David Letterman
Late Night with David Letterman
Late Night with David Letterman is a nightly hour-long comedy talk show on NBC that was created and hosted by David Letterman. It premiered in 1982 as the first incarnation of the Late Night franchise and went off the air in 1993, after Letterman left NBC and moved to Late Show on CBS. Late Night...
and the BBC’s Later With Jools Holland with MGMT. He played on tours with Of Montreal
Of Montreal
Of Montreal is an American rock band from Athens, Georgia. It was founded by frontman Kevin Barnes in 1996, named after a failed romance with a woman "of Montreal." The band is one of the bands of the Elephant 6 collective...
, Fiery Furnaces, and Yeasayer
Yeasayer
-History:The band's three core members, Chris Keating, Ira Wolf Tuton, and Anand Wilder, first came to attention after appearing at the SXSW festival in early 2007. Their first single consisted of a double A-side of the tracks "Sunrise" and "2080"...
, and played MGMT’s first overseas dates in the UK and Europe.
Beginnings/Live
Upon returning to Kuroma in 2008, Sullivant originally opted to have no personalized web presence (MySpace, Facebook, or band website) but managed to get Kuroma reviewed in print and Internet magazines. His initial reticence stemmed from a sense of revulsion at the marketing of music and bands. Sullivant says that Paris’s sound was primarily influenced by the Love, Peace, and Poetry compilation series of obscure international 60s psychedelic music. Paris received good reviews, and the live band was praised early on by NMENME
The New Musical Express is a popular music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles...
and Spin Magazine. In 2008/2009, the band opened for Jarvis Cocker
Jarvis Cocker
Jarvis Branson Cocker is an English musician and frontman for the band Pulp. Through his work with the band, Cocker became a figurehead of the Britpop movement of the mid-1990s. Following Pulp's hiatus Cocker has led a successful solo career...
, Primal Scream
Primal Scream
Primal Scream are a Scottish alternative rock band originally formed in 1982 in Glasgow by Bobby Gillespie and Jim Beattie and now based in London. The current lineup consists of Gillespie, Andrew Innes , Martin Duffy , and Darrin Mooney...
, MGMT
MGMT
MGMT is an American alternative rock band founded by Benjamin Goldwasser and Andrew VanWyngarden. After the release of their first album, the members of their live band, Matthew Asti, James Richardson and Will Berman, joined the core band in the studio...
, and The Walkmen
The Walkmen
The Walkmen are an American indie rock band, with members based in New York City and Philadelphia. The band formed in 2000 with three members from Jonathan Fire*Eater—Paul Maroon , Walter Martin , and Matt Barrick —and two from The Recoys, Peter Bauer and Hamilton Leithauser . All but Bauer...
, and performed at the 2009 Bonnaroo festival.
“Transmutilation” and Performance Art
In February 2009 Sullivant and fellow UGA graduate Alejandro Crawford put on a performance art show at Athens Cine entitled “Homeopathic Grafting: This Awakening Dream of Communication.” The title is a direct quote from Jean BaudrillardJean Baudrillard
Jean Baudrillard was a French sociologist, philosopher, cultural theorist, political commentator, and photographer. His work is frequently associated with postmodernism and post-structuralism.-Life:...
’s Simulacra and Simulation
Simulacra and Simulation
Simulacra and Simulation is a philosophical treatise by Jean Baudrillard seeking to interrogate the relationship among reality, symbols, and society.-Overview:...
. Crawford, a poet and visual artist, identifies “Transmutilation” as the technique behind his long-form poem Morpheau. In a video interview in 2009 Sullivant describes Kuroma’s music as “transmutilation.”
In November 2008 Kuroma put on a two-part performance at The Georgia Theatre. Part One featured a 15+ minute cover of Spacemen 3
Spacemen 3
Spacemen 3 were an English alternative rock band, formed in 1982 in Rugby, Warwickshire by Peter Kember and Jason Pierce. Their music was "colorfully mind-altering, but not in the sense of the acid rock of the '60s; instead, the band developed its own minimalistic psychedelia"...
’s “Big City;” the intermission was a screening of the late 1960s psychedelic art film The Invasion of the Thunderbolt Pagoda; and Part Two was a set of Kuroma songs. Formal playbills were passed at the door.
Single/Video Releases
Green Label Sound, a one-off video/single label funded by Pepsi/Mountain Dew, approached Kuroma in early 2009. Sullivant submitted “In New York Everything Is Tropical,” a song he describes as “soulless.” Sullivant elaborates, “There’s a celebratory part of the song, but also a cynicism, and when you combine both of them, you’re left with nothing.” In contrast to the quiet release of Paris, GLS heavily promoted the single, and the video itself shows a barrage of graphics on top of rapid-fire shots of Sullivant walking overconfidently through famous sections of New York, including the Marcy Projects and the financial district. During the publicity run, Sullivant hosted MTV2’s Subterranean, and MTV2 routinely played the video for two months.Sullivant identifies Kuroma’s following video/single, “Get The Gunz,” as a companion to “In New York Everything Is Tropical.” Directed collaboratively with Ash Sechler, the video features Sullivant dancing in rollerblades, stabbing water, suggestively being “curbed,” and killing his bandmates and himself with cartoon-like liquid after-affects as blood.