Album Notes

Formed when most of its members were only 13, HOLY MARY MOTOR CLUB has been around longer than anyone cares to admit. In its early years, HMMC specialized in juvenile punk-rock ditties like "Bocce Ball" and "The Booger Song". Those heady days behind them, the group has since moved on to bigger and better things - releasing two full-length albums on SPARKLER RECORDS, playing constantly throughout the Midwest, and turning their songwriting skills to more mature themes, such as walkie-talkies and crime-fighting llamas. Describing their music as "irreverent pop-rock" - with influences such as The Kinks, The Violent Femmes, and of course, The New Monkees - Holy Mary Motor Club is the rock-and-roll equivalent of eating a bologna sandwich while being repeatedly kicked in the groin.

Drummer BROCK GOURLIE and bassist BRAD VOLLMER created the band in Gourlie's basement one fateful afternoon. Their first album, written entirely on-the-spot and recorded with a barely working boom-box, demonstrated the chilling and lo-fi effects of what happens when young teenagers have far too much time on their hands. Soon mutual friend MATT WILD was asked to join the group, inexplicably brought on as a keyboard player and vocalist, though he was skilled in neither discipline. Over the next few years, a large number of basement-boom-box albums were churned out at an alarming rate, including such standouts as FISH GOD, PETUNIA SOUP, and the undeniable classic, ATTACK OF THE VERY CLEVER MONKEYS.

A few years later, after adding ROSS BACHHUBER as a very talented and handsome lead guitar player, the group began playing off-and-on in Milwaukee, leading to gigs with the likes of The Lovelies, The Benjamins, and a host of other local bands that don't exist anymore. It wasn't until 2002 that the group self-released their first proper album, PUSH TO CALL ("Highly enjoyable!" claimed the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel), and began devoting more time and energy to the illicit business of rock and roll. Joining up with local label Sparkler Records, HMMC began playing out constantly at any and every Milwaukee venue (shows with Mark Mallman, The Frogs, Sylvain Sylvain, and the SuicideGirls Burlesque Show have been but a few high-points).

Their new album, ONA ONA, features a number of songs recorded and produced at i.v. Studios in Nashville, TN, and a few more recorded in that other music capital of the world, Racine, WI. Mastered and engineered by local mainstay Gary Tanin, the album promises to flutter the heart and shake the posterior of all who are lucky enough to hear it. Enjoy.