The Beauty Shop
Encyclopedia
The Beauty Shop was an Americana
rock / alt country band, led by singer-songwriter
-guitarist John Hoeffleur, based out of Champaign
, Illinois
. Formed in 1999, they released two EPs
and two full length album
s before disbanding in 2008. Hoeffleur described their music as "influenced by old-school punk (Wire
, Minutemen
, Misfits) and old-school country (Hank, Lefty
, Patsy
, Johnny
) with a dash of singer/songwriter (Leonard Cohen
, Nick Drake
)".
, 26 November 1977) grew up in the suburbs of Chicago
, and graduated from the University of Illinois
. He had previously played with local band The Blackouts, and on his own playing in local coffee shops.
The duo’s first release was The Grief EP, a self-released limited edition recorded in Smith's home, which they sold at local concerts. The EP caught the eye of the Urbana, Illinois
-based record label Parasol Records
, who signed the band to produce an album. At the same time, the band put out hand-written ads for a bassist
, and recruited Ariane Peralta. The band released their first album Yr. Money or Yr. Life in October 2000. The album garnered many positive critical reviews, and the band attracted a growing audience at its live performances, boosted when they opened at the last minute for The Violent Femmes in Champaign. According to one reviewer, "the unsettling cover art reflected the bleakness of Hoeffleur's lyrical vision … spinning tales of dysfunctional characters drawn into seemingly terminal decline."
In August 2001, Smith left the band, and Hoeffleur played several solo shows before he and Peralta recruited drummer Joe Martin in early 2002. By that time, the album had been licensed to Shoeshine Records
in Scotland, who released it in the UK
. Shoeshine also released a limited-edition 7" single of "Death March", the single from Yr. Money or Yr. Life. The band toured across the UK
in July 2002 to promote the album's release, again gaining critical acclaim. However, they then took a second hiatus after Martin left, with Hoeffleur playing solo shows in the UK, and Peralta concentrating on school.
The Beauty Shop reformed in 2004 to record a second album, Crisis Helpline, with drummer Steve Lamos. In July 2004 they returned to live performance in the USA, with drummer Brett Sanderson, of The Blackouts. Crisis Helpline was released in Europe in September 2004, the record company concentrating on seeking to break the band there first. They also released a 7" and CD single, "Monster", which enjoyed considerable airplay on BBC 6
in the UK. A second single, "Rumplestiltskin Lives", was released to UK
radio station
s in spring 2005.
The band then signed to Bryan Morrisson’s label, Snapper Records, in summer 2005. The label released two further singles in the UK, Paper Hearts for Josie (August 2005) and A Desperate Cry for Help (October 2005). New drummer Ben Ucherek replaced Sanderson for the filming of the video
for "A Desperate Cry for Help". In April 2006, they released a hybrid album of the best tracks from their previous releases, Yard Sale.
Their song "I Got Issues" was listed in Maxim
magazine as "the #4 Song to download if you're missing Johnny Cash
". They often include cover songs as B-sides. Their single release Monster includes a cover of the Misfits' "Hybrid Moments", Paper Hearts for Josie included The Pixies' "Gouge Away", A Desperate Cry Help contained Judas Priest
's "Breaking the Law", and Death March featured a cover of Depeche Mode
's "Personal Jesus
". The band often played at The Great Cover-up, an annual Champaign-Urbana
based charity show.
Bassist Ariane Peralta left in late 2006 to pursue a Ph.D. at university. She was replaced by Eric Fisher, formerly of the band Lorenzo Goetz.
In October 2007, the band released a new EP, Just Some Demos, on their own label.
In late 2008, after the group disbanded, a new song entitled NuFuture was released on their MySpace page. The band's final demos were given a digital-only release as Just Some More Demos in January 2009.
"A departing speech - CU music scene has a lot of problems right now impeding local people from making progress making music, and local people themselves are chief among those problems - the only solution is taking a little ownership (back?) and growing a lot of balls to jump up and do the right thing, say what needs to be said, keep everybody (EVERYBODY!) honest. A good scene doesn't happen by smiling at each other and cheerleading - you have to go the show, you have to share the headliner spot, you have to work with people you don't know or even don't like, you have to have fights over things that matter, and you have to resolve them. And you have to do it a lot. Because you have to maintain a sense that you are all in the same boat, and I don't feel much of that anymore, not like I did in the past. Given that very few of us seem to have this viewpoint or the wherewithal to address any of those issues (fear?), I'd say CU will continue to get what it deserves. Which is to say, screwed."
"I will blather about this endlessly if you buy me a drink. You have roughly a week and half to take me up on that and then I will officially be an expat and not fit to comment. I'm reminded of the scene in "Half-Baked" where that Puerto Rican cat quits his job at the fast food place, and he points at customers as he talks into the bendy microphone, "Fuck you, Fuck you, Fuck you, you're cool, fuck you..." right on down the line."
"On a more pleasant note (which I wouldn't put to a vote) -We have some demos we recorded in the winter that I will probably release digitally because they won't be good for anything or anyone just sitting on my shelf, so we'll actually have a nice posthumous release, watch this space for details on "Just Some More Demos." If you can come up with a better title that communicates that these are demos, not accurately conjured musical perfection, then by all means have at it."
The band played its final show on June 6, 2008 at the Canopy Club in Urbana, Illinois
.
In mid-2009, Hoeffleur formed a new band, Heyokas, with Kelly McMorris (keyboards), Marc Turner (bass), and Jesse Greenlee (drums).
Americana (music)
Americana is an amalgam of roots musics formed by the confluence of the shared and varied traditions that make up the American musical ethos; specifically those sounds that are merged from folk, country, blues, rhythm and blues, rock and roll and other external influential styles...
rock / alt country band, led by singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriters are musicians who write, compose and sing their own musical material including lyrics and melodies. As opposed to contemporary popular music singers who write their own songs, the term singer-songwriter describes a distinct form of artistry, closely associated with the...
-guitarist John Hoeffleur, based out of Champaign
Champaign, Illinois
Champaign is a city in Champaign County, Illinois, in the United States. The city is located south of Chicago, west of Indianapolis, Indiana, and 178 miles northeast of St. Louis, Missouri. Though surrounded by farm communities, Champaign is notable for sharing the campus of the University of...
, Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
. Formed in 1999, they released two EPs
Extended play
An EP is a musical recording which contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify as a full album or LP. The term EP originally referred only to specific types of vinyl records other than 78 rpm standard play records and LP records, but it is now applied to mid-length Compact...
and two full length album
Album
An album is a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution. The word derives from the Latin word for list .Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album...
s before disbanding in 2008. Hoeffleur described their music as "influenced by old-school punk (Wire
Wire (band)
Wire are an English rock band, formed in London in October 1976 by Colin Newman , Graham Lewis , Bruce Gilbert , and Robert Gotobed...
, Minutemen
Minutemen (band)
Minutemen were an American hardcore punk band formed in San Pedro, California in 1980. Composed of guitarist D. Boon, bassist Mike Watt and drummer George Hurley, Minutemen recorded four albums and eight EPs before Boon's death in an automobile accident in December 1985...
, Misfits) and old-school country (Hank, Lefty
Lefty Frizzell
Lefty Frizzell , born William Orville Frizzell, was an American country music singer and songwriter of the 1950s, and a proponent of honky tonk music. His relaxed style of singing was an influence on later stars Merle Haggard, Willie Nelson, Roy Orbison, George Jones and John Fogerty...
, Patsy
Patsy Cline
Patsy Cline , born Virginia Patterson Hensley in Gore, Virginia, was an American country music singer who enjoyed pop music crossover success during the era of the Nashville sound in the early 1960s...
, Johnny
Johnny Cash
John R. "Johnny" Cash was an American singer-songwriter, actor, and author, who has been called one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century...
) with a dash of singer/songwriter (Leonard Cohen
Leonard Cohen
Leonard Norman Cohen, is a Canadian singer-songwriter, musician, poet and novelist. Cohen published his first book of poetry in Montreal in 1956 and his first novel in 1963. His work often explores religion, isolation, sexuality and interpersonal relationships...
, Nick Drake
Nick Drake
Nicholas Rodney "Nick" Drake was an English singer-songwriter and musician. Though he is best known for his sombre guitar based songs, Drake was also proficient at piano, clarinet and saxophone...
)".
History
The Beauty Shop was formed by John Hoeffleur and drummer Casey Smith in 1999, in Champaign, Illinois. Hoeffleur (b. Arlington Heights, IllinoisArlington Heights, Illinois
Arlington Heights is a village in Cook and Lake counties in the U.S. state of Illinois. A suburb of Chicago, it lies about 25 miles northwest of the city's downtown. The population was 75,101 at the 2010 census....
, 26 November 1977) grew up in the suburbs of Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, and graduated from the University of Illinois
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
The University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign is a large public research-intensive university in the state of Illinois, United States. It is the flagship campus of the University of Illinois system...
. He had previously played with local band The Blackouts, and on his own playing in local coffee shops.
The duo’s first release was The Grief EP, a self-released limited edition recorded in Smith's home, which they sold at local concerts. The EP caught the eye of the Urbana, Illinois
Urbana, Illinois
Urbana is the county seat of Champaign County, Illinois, United States. As of the 2010 census, the population was 41,250. Urbana is the tenth-most populous city in Illinois outside of the Chicago metropolitan area....
-based record label Parasol Records
Parasol Records
Parasol Records is an American independent record label based out of Urbana, Illinois. The label was founded by Geoff Merritt as an outgrowth of the catalogue Parasol Mail Order ....
, who signed the band to produce an album. At the same time, the band put out hand-written ads for a bassist
Bassist
A bass player, or bassist is a musician who plays a bass instrument such as a double bass, bass guitar, keyboard bass or a low brass instrument such as a tuba or sousaphone. Different musical genres tend to be associated with one or more of these instruments...
, and recruited Ariane Peralta. The band released their first album Yr. Money or Yr. Life in October 2000. The album garnered many positive critical reviews, and the band attracted a growing audience at its live performances, boosted when they opened at the last minute for The Violent Femmes in Champaign. According to one reviewer, "the unsettling cover art reflected the bleakness of Hoeffleur's lyrical vision … spinning tales of dysfunctional characters drawn into seemingly terminal decline."
In August 2001, Smith left the band, and Hoeffleur played several solo shows before he and Peralta recruited drummer Joe Martin in early 2002. By that time, the album had been licensed to Shoeshine Records
Francis MacDonald
Francis Macdonald is a drummer and sometime member of British alternative rock band Teenage Fanclub and used to play with BMX Bandits and Eugenius...
in Scotland, who released it in the UK
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
. Shoeshine also released a limited-edition 7" single of "Death March", the single from Yr. Money or Yr. Life. The band toured across the UK
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
in July 2002 to promote the album's release, again gaining critical acclaim. However, they then took a second hiatus after Martin left, with Hoeffleur playing solo shows in the UK, and Peralta concentrating on school.
The Beauty Shop reformed in 2004 to record a second album, Crisis Helpline, with drummer Steve Lamos. In July 2004 they returned to live performance in the USA, with drummer Brett Sanderson, of The Blackouts. Crisis Helpline was released in Europe in September 2004, the record company concentrating on seeking to break the band there first. They also released a 7" and CD single, "Monster", which enjoyed considerable airplay on BBC 6
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
in the UK. A second single, "Rumplestiltskin Lives", was released to UK
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
radio station
Radio station
Radio broadcasting is a one-way wireless transmission over radio waves intended to reach a wide audience. Stations can be linked in radio networks to broadcast a common radio format, either in broadcast syndication or simulcast or both...
s in spring 2005.
The band then signed to Bryan Morrisson’s label, Snapper Records, in summer 2005. The label released two further singles in the UK, Paper Hearts for Josie (August 2005) and A Desperate Cry for Help (October 2005). New drummer Ben Ucherek replaced Sanderson for the filming of the video
Music video
A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...
for "A Desperate Cry for Help". In April 2006, they released a hybrid album of the best tracks from their previous releases, Yard Sale.
Their song "I Got Issues" was listed in Maxim
Maxim (magazine)
Maxim is an international men's magazine based in the United Kingdom and known for its pictorials featuring popular actresses, singers, and female models, sometimes pictured dressed, often pictured scantily dressed but not fully nude....
magazine as "the #4 Song to download if you're missing Johnny Cash
Johnny Cash
John R. "Johnny" Cash was an American singer-songwriter, actor, and author, who has been called one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century...
". They often include cover songs as B-sides. Their single release Monster includes a cover of the Misfits' "Hybrid Moments", Paper Hearts for Josie included The Pixies' "Gouge Away", A Desperate Cry Help contained Judas Priest
Judas Priest
Judas Priest are an English heavy metal band from Birmingham, England, formed in 1969. The current line-up consists of lead vocalist Rob Halford, guitarists Glenn Tipton and Richie Faulkner, bassist Ian Hill, and drummer Scott Travis. The band has gone through several drummers over the years,...
's "Breaking the Law", and Death March featured a cover of Depeche Mode
Depeche Mode
Depeche Mode are an English electronic music band formed in 1980 in Basildon, Essex. The group's original line-up consisted of Dave Gahan , Martin Gore , Andy Fletcher and Vince Clarke...
's "Personal Jesus
Personal Jesus
"Personal Jesus" is Depeche Mode's 23rd UK single, released on August 29, 1989, and the first single from the album Violator. The single reached No. 13 on the UK Singles Chart and No. 28 on the Billboard Hot 100...
". The band often played at The Great Cover-up, an annual Champaign-Urbana
Champaign-Urbana Metropolitan Area
The Champaign-Urbana metropolitan area, also known as Champaign-Urbana, is a metropolitan area in east-central Illinois. It is the 191st largest metropolitan area in the U.S. It is composed of three counties, Champaign, Ford, and Piatt...
based charity show.
Bassist Ariane Peralta left in late 2006 to pursue a Ph.D. at university. She was replaced by Eric Fisher, formerly of the band Lorenzo Goetz.
In October 2007, the band released a new EP, Just Some Demos, on their own label.
In late 2008, after the group disbanded, a new song entitled NuFuture was released on their MySpace page. The band's final demos were given a digital-only release as Just Some More Demos in January 2009.
Disbanding
The Beauty Shop disbanded in the summer of 2008 with the departure of Eric Fisher to Oregon and Ben Ucherek focusing his time on his new band Golden Quality. John Hoeffleur wrote: "If you hadn't noticed, game over. No "last" self-congratulatory bullshit show. Tough shit. I'll leave the door open to the band being reborn somehow, but I don't see it as particularly likely. I feel ok about it. I'm not quitting music or doing anything crazy like getting a real job, but not having TBS as the focus has freed me to pursue other musical interests I'd been only casually interested in until now. I will be doing this in Chicago. I'm stoked. It might be a solo record, and you might recognize some songs. Or maybe not. The point is I don't know, for first time in a long time, and I love it. Fun."A departing speech - CU music scene has a lot of problems right now impeding local people from making progress making music, and local people themselves are chief among those problems - the only solution is taking a little ownership (back?) and growing a lot of balls to jump up and do the right thing, say what needs to be said, keep everybody (EVERYBODY!) honest. A good scene doesn't happen by smiling at each other and cheerleading - you have to go the show, you have to share the headliner spot, you have to work with people you don't know or even don't like, you have to have fights over things that matter, and you have to resolve them. And you have to do it a lot. Because you have to maintain a sense that you are all in the same boat, and I don't feel much of that anymore, not like I did in the past. Given that very few of us seem to have this viewpoint or the wherewithal to address any of those issues (fear?), I'd say CU will continue to get what it deserves. Which is to say, screwed."
"I will blather about this endlessly if you buy me a drink. You have roughly a week and half to take me up on that and then I will officially be an expat and not fit to comment. I'm reminded of the scene in "Half-Baked" where that Puerto Rican cat quits his job at the fast food place, and he points at customers as he talks into the bendy microphone, "Fuck you, Fuck you, Fuck you, you're cool, fuck you..." right on down the line."
"On a more pleasant note (which I wouldn't put to a vote) -We have some demos we recorded in the winter that I will probably release digitally because they won't be good for anything or anyone just sitting on my shelf, so we'll actually have a nice posthumous release, watch this space for details on "Just Some More Demos." If you can come up with a better title that communicates that these are demos, not accurately conjured musical perfection, then by all means have at it."
The band played its final show on June 6, 2008 at the Canopy Club in Urbana, Illinois
Urbana, Illinois
Urbana is the county seat of Champaign County, Illinois, United States. As of the 2010 census, the population was 41,250. Urbana is the tenth-most populous city in Illinois outside of the Chicago metropolitan area....
.
In mid-2009, Hoeffleur formed a new band, Heyokas, with Kelly McMorris (keyboards), Marc Turner (bass), and Jesse Greenlee (drums).
Major Releases
- Grief EP - Fall 1999
- Yr. Money or Yr. Life (US) - October, 2000 - Parasol Records
- Yr. Money or Yr. Life (UK) - March, 2002 - Shoeshine Records
- Crisis Helpline (UK) - September 27, 2004 - Shoeshine Records
- Yard Sale (UK) - March 27, 2006 - Snapper Music/Shoeshine Records
- Just Some Demos EP - October 2007
- Just Some More Demos EP - January 2009
Singles / Misc.
- Parasol's Sweet Sixteen, Vol. 2 (contributed "Death March")
- Parasol's Sweet Sixteen, Vol. 3 (contributed "Personal JesusPersonal Jesus"Personal Jesus" is Depeche Mode's 23rd UK single, released on August 29, 1989, and the first single from the album Violator. The single reached No. 13 on the UK Singles Chart and No. 28 on the Billboard Hot 100...
") - Death March - 7" Vinyl (UK) - March, 2002 - Shoeshine Records
- Monster - 7" Vinyl & CD (UK) - September 27, 2004 - Snapper Music/Shoeshine Records
- Stuck in the Chimney - Various Artists (contributed "Christmas @ Friedrich's") (as John Hoeffleur)
- Paper Hearts for Josie - CD (UK) - August 29, 2005 - Snapper Music/Shoeshine Records
- A Desperate Cry for Help - CD (UK) - October 31, 2005 - Snapper Music/Shoeshine Records
- Monster - April 2006 - Believe