All About Hem

February 2013 News Archive (older news link at bottom of page)

February 28, 2013

Saltlands Interview

Saltlands Studio has a new interview today with Hem's Gary Maurer for your reading enjoyment. (Gary is a co-founder of Saltlands.) He talks a lot about the upcoming album Departure and Farewell, including a number of technical details about the recording process that you can count on a studio like Saltlands to ask about. You can also find a link to this intreview at the articles archive.

February 23, 2013

Rabbit Chords

The site Rabbit Chords, which has fan-derived chords and tabs for nearly every Hem song has a new address. Visit and bookmark it! The site also newly has PDFs for each song, proper "in the key of Hem" versions of cover songs, and the Twelfth Night songs that have singing. Thanks, Geoff!

Departure and Farewell Album Cover

The image to the left posted a few days ago is indeed the album cover for Departure and Farewell, as now shown on the Amazon CD page. You can tell that the red lines (which I termed "red pointy pain sticks" in loving homage to melancholic Brooklyn lyrics) on the right stem from Brooklyn, the band's home base. You can only tell from the expanded cover art image that the red lines on the left stem from off the coast of the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland.

February 20, 2013

Noisetrade Interview

Click here to read an article at Noisetrade (see yesterday's news) that includes an interview. As summed up by the author: "I recently talked with Hem’s founder and defacto ringleader Dan Messé to get a little more info on Departure and Farewell, as well as discuss his thoughts on Funnel Cloud and their penchant for picking fantastic cover songs." This article, and many more, are at the articles archive. Also, the Departure and Farewell meanings page has been updated for the song "Last Call" (which is SO GOOD, you will buy the album for this song), and the Eveningland meanings page has been updated for the cover song "Jackson."

February 19, 2013

Free Hem Music at Noisetrade

Run, do not walk, to Noisetrade, where you can download two new songs from Departure and Farewell, "Walking Past The Graveyard, Not Breathing" (listen for the gospel choir!) and "Tourniquet" (also available alone, see here), AND the entirety of Funnel Cloud, Hem's last full length album of originals (the two new songs come with the Funnel Cloud download below). And it's all free! Thank you, Hem and Noisetrade. Also, if you missed it before, you can see a bigger version of the picture at left, currently featured (bigger) on the Noisetrade homepage, in the new photo gallery.

Departure and Farewell Album Cover

Click on the image to the left or visit the Departure and Farewell page to see what seems to be the album's cover image. The image comes with the 2 new songs at Noisetrade. The map image should look familiar - see the previous two news updates.

February 16, 2013

More Departure And Farewell Art

Click on the little image to the left to see another piece of art by Shannon Rankin for Departure And Farewell (link to the artist's Flickr will open in a new page/tab). You can find more artwork that conveniently blends into All About Hem's color scheme in the previous news update.

Departure And Farewell Pre-order

Departure And Farewell is now available for pre-order on CD at Amazon. The CD should be on sale other places at some point, and digital downloads will surely also be available, but isn't it exciting to see a new Hem album up for grabs?

All About Hem on Twitter

Follow All About Hem on Twitter! News sometimes gets shared there before it makes its way to this page, and you won't find some random bits of Hem trivia anywhere but there.

February 7, 2013

Departure And Farewell Art

Click on each of the little images below to see some of the artwork by Shannon Rankin for Departure And Farewell (links to the artist's Flickr will open in a new page/tab).

Departure And Farewell Meanings

The Departure And Farewell meanings page has been updated with information from the Departure And Farewell press release for the album title and for these songs: "The Jack Pine," "So Long," "Tourniquet," and "Walking Past The Graveyard, Not Breathing."

Click here for older news