Biography
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Years Active
1996 – present (28 years)
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Founded In
Boston, Suffolk County, Massachusetts, United States
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Members
- Hamilton Leithauser
- Hugh McIntosh
- Peter Matthew Bauer
'The Recoys' were a alternative rock band comprised of Hamilton Leithauser, Pete Bauer (both of the Walkmen), Damon Hedge, Mike Sheenan and Hugh McIntosh; established officially in the summer of 1997 when their first recordings were produced, and breaking up late in 1999.
The band's roots were not in New York, but in the Cleveland Park area of Washington DC were Leithauser and McIntosh attended school together as of the 5th grade. Bitter enemies in the beginning, the two (soon to be joined by Bauer) began to experiment with music throughout high school.
After a string of events, including recruiting bassist Dave Pole (who was informally known as "Hugh 2"), firing bassist Dave Pole, and finally recruiting bassist Mike Sheenan, the band played their first show at Cambridge's "TT the Bears". Despite a low turnout, the band were extremely nervous, Sheenan had only joined the band two days prior and Bauer vomited backstage minutes before performing.
Encouraged by a good performance, 'The Recoys' played around Boston for the greater part of a year and made their second recording at Leithauser's cousin Walter Martin's (of Jonathon Fire Eater) abode on his eight track. Before permanently moving the band in New York, 'The Recoys' took the trip back to Washington to record five new songs at famed producer Don Zientara's 'Inner Ear Studios'. Leithsauer and Zientara mixed the songs alone due to a particularly riveting board game which had taken hold of the rest of the bands attention in the next room.
By the summer of 1998 only one member of the band had a job, and they were shifting into an ever increasing hostile situation. Bauer and Leithsauer had entered into an 'unfortunate glam stage' which the rest of the band did not agree with. McIntosh left the band and New Yorker Damon Hedge replaced him.
Walter Durkacz started to manage the band, and many times asked other members of the band "who's Damon?" (their current bassist).
Despite these obstacles the band had begun to acquire a following of listeners in DC, and late in 1998 played some of their best shows to date.
Due to a lack of performance space after Jonathon Fire Eater moved out of the one they were currently using, 'The Recoys' found it difficult to find a new space and the band moved into it's final era. This was especially evident when Bauer began performing with a synth. on stage. As noted by Walter Martin "The band was experimenting with a weird psychedelic angle that no one full understood. Things were definitely getting out of hand."
The band went out with a bang, playing a sold-out show at 'DC's Garage' with their best set ever.
After the break up Leithauser and Bauer went on to form [] with three members of their recently disbanded brother band []. Hedge remained in New York to continue studying to be an artist. McIntosh is rumoured to moved back to DC after a period of time spent in China.
Some of the songs on The Walkmen's first album 'Everybody Who Pretended To Like Me Is Gone' are based on Recoys songs. Most notably 'That's the Punchline' and 'Blizzard of 96'.
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