Holy Hail

After issuing their 2003 novelty smash "Cameltoe," the one-joke wonders Fannypack delivered the listless follow-up album See You Next Tuesday along with a 2006 Old Navy commercial jingle touting the chance to get one's "fash on," then wisely disbanded. Cat Hartwell, who had fronted the group, launched her next endeavor Holy Hail without any reference to that earlier chapter in the project's promotional materials. Holy Hail replaces Fannypack's tongue-in-cheek reworkings of Salt-N-Pepa and L'Trimm with the currently favored new-wave dance-rock style associated with the Gossip and the Rapture. The quartet features Hartwell on vocals and guitar, Kevin Cooke on vocals and keyboards, the mono-named Michally on bass, and Matt Cuttler on drums. Assembled in Brooklyn in 2005, the band tracked a ten-song demo the next year under producer Nicolas Vernhes of Fischerspooner. Selections from those sessions surfaced first as the single "County Fair, Pt. 2," issued by the British label Playlouder in fall 2006. A second U.K. single, "Born of a Star," followed on Adventures Close to Home in spring 2007, after which Holy Hail signed with Kanine Records for the American EP Big Guns.