Album Notes

Hearth is a black heart folk rock band from New York City. They come jangled and direct, cryptic and depressed.

Virginia natives and cousins Scott Loving and Dan Penta have been playing together since middle school when the discovery of late-Seventies punk rock originators gave them the confidence and the drive to start their own band.

Later, recovering from a year long habit, Dan began writing songs on an old acoustic guitar left behind by Scott who was living in Colorado. These compositions were minimalist and painfully personal.

Dan relocated to New York, performing alone in the cafes and bars of the East Village and Williamsburg. A handful listened.

Among them were Kimya Dawson and Adam Green of seminal antifolk group the Moldy Peaches. They took Dan out with them as an opening act on their first headlining U.S. tour. On the road Dan got to know their drummer Strictly Beats a/k/a Brent Cole.

Sometime after the tour, with a newly transplanted Scott Loving on lead guitar and Dan Penta on rhythm guitar and vocals, Larval Organs was formed with Brent Cole on drums and Scott Fragala on bass.

Larval Organs gained a following in New York and Brooklyn. An e.p. entitled Schwag was released on Tuolumne Records. They toured the United Kingdom.

The band came to an abrupt end when Dan was institutionalized following a psychotic breakdown.

After being released and spending months on Virginia couches, Dan was invited to play a summer music festival in New York. Performing songs old and new, he was joined by Scott Fragala on upright bass.

Over the following months the act expanded and changed. Brent was there again locking down the backbeat. Harmonies were layered by vocalists Amy Hills and Angela Carlucci. Scott Fragala was replaced by Scott Loving on electric bass, making everything grounded and full. Cello was added first by Crystal Madrilejos of the Babyskins and later by Benjamin Kalb who performs also with Regina Spektor.

They called themselves Hearth and they rose from Avenue A. They have since taken the stage at Pianos, Sin-e, Bowery Poetry Club, and more.

Recently a three song e.p. was completed with producer Mark Christensen at Engine Room Audio in Manhattan. The recordings are a conscious movement towards high fidelity - too tortured and too bizarre to be pop, too tender and too polished to be punk.
Hearth continue to define their sound and direction. They reach. The high is to play. Everything else remains.