Massachusetts-based art-pop combo Hands and Knees combines inventive guitar noise and indiepop sensibilities with a dose of melancholy to create a stunningly stark and pretty sound. Built around the unadorned smokey vocals of Carina Kelly and the distant and lovely tenor of Joe O'Brien, Hands and Knees creates music that splits the difference between maximum hummability and the soundtrack to a country teen's death flick. Echoes of other influences include The Jesus & Mary Chain, Elliott Smith, Mazzy Star, and Guided By Voices, and they show off the depth of their music knowledge with a winning cover of the Tall Dwarfs' obscure lo-fi masterpiece "All My Hollowness To You." The members of Hands and Knees record and often rehearse in guitarist Scott Hoffman's haunted church-like studio in a sleepy town in western Massachusetts, though the members travel between there and Boston. The story goes that Hoffman went for a walk on a snowy afternoon and discovered Carina and Joe in a clearing deep in the woods, trading songs while they strummed on their guitars, apparently too shy to risk being heard by any other humans. Several weeks later, they stumbled upon drummer Philip Ilatovsky and found themselves in Hoffman's ghost-ridden studio, with songs and a name to boot. That was only a short time ago, yet now with a handful of recordings and numerous live shows behind them, Hands and Knees have separated themselves from that fateful cold day in the woods. Hands and Knees are pleased to announce the release of their debut self-titled record in early 2007 by Banazan Records. http://www.facebook.com/handsandknees