Handsomely Dishonest is the new project of former Eight Hour Company singer Kevin Lange. With the help of good friend Drew Ryan, Lange breaks free from his punk rock roots in this pop-influenced indie rock band. Influenced by a wide range of musicians (The Good Life, Death Cab for Cutie, Brand New, The Avett Brothers, The Get Up Kids, Straylight Run, amongst others...), Handsomely Dishonest merges mellow and acoustic with powerful and epic. Each song becomes a new story narrated by heartfelt lyrics and illustrated by an even mix of heavy rhythm and delicate leads, depending on what the story calls for. Sprinkle in some piano and back it up with some synth string sections, and you've got the makings of an incredible band. The beginnings of this group can be traced to Ryan's basement apartment in 2007. Lange and Ryan began playing their acoustic guitars and coming up with chord structures, vocal melodies, and song ideas with a cassette recorder archiving everything. After struggling to find a decent band name, Ryan came up with Handsomely Dishonest. "I was at work and thinking about the saying "handsomely rich". "Oh, that man is handsomely rich. Every girl wants to marry a handsomely rich man." And I began imagining that most who were that rich, did it by climbing on the backs of others through underhanded and dishonest practices. In my mind those people were handsomely dishonest. I brought the idea up to Kevin, he liked it, I liked it, and the name stuck." says Ryan. Spare time became a limited commodity for the duo and soon the tapes began collecting dust on a shelf in Lange's studio. In the fall of 2008, Lange pulled the tapes down and began listening again, pulling pieces here and there and putting them together in a definite structure. "It was like putting together the pieces of a puzzle. I knew there was great music there, it just needed to be put together." adds Lange. "Even though we've gotten an EP finished and recorded, there's probably ideas for 25 different songs on those tapes. It's a well of ideas that we can turn to any time we hit a writer's block." The Handsomely Dishonest EP was released on the Aux Sable Records Showcase Vol 1 CD on August 4, 2009. Old friends Ben Young and Bob Lynch have teamed up with Ryan and Lange for live shows to bring the project on the road. With this line up, the group began touring the Midwest fall of 2009. The band plans to continue writing and recording aiming to have a full length release sometime spring 2010.