HAIM

RELATIVE COOL

The smooth retro-R&B pop stylings of the strangely alluring sister act Haim

by Matt Ashare |  
Published November 27, 2013

“Saturday Night Live,” the nearly 40-year-old NBC variety-show warhorse that once stood nearly alone on the frontlines of the American cultural battlegrounds, has understandably had to retreat over the years. And, not just because this or that cast of the Not Ready For Prime Time Players just aren’t as smart/funny/talented as the brilliantly hilarious folks they used to have in house in whatever good old days one happens to prefer. While the show has had some very real and obvious ups and downs, it’s always been, well, a bit hit and miss. But, back when it was the only game in town — when there weren’t hundreds of cable channels, streaming services, and YouTube videos to choose from — we tended to take the good with the bad, and allow the latter to slowly fade from memory.

         But, if there’s one arena in which “SNL” producer Lorne Michaels and his crew have consistently and rather remarkably excelled, it’s been as a bellwether of popular musical tastes. Last year, for example, after kicking the season off with soul man Frank Ocean, the show featured an eclectic array of guests that, along with safe bets like Paul McCartney, Rihanna, and the Justins Timberlake and Bieber, included the Brit-folk sensation Mumford & Sons, indie-upstarts Fun, and Southern-fried rockers Alabama Shakes. This fall, the 39^th season of the show kicked off on September 28 with 2011 Album of the Year Grammy winners Arcade Fire, the newly sexified Miley Cyrus, and pop pin-up Katy Perry, before showcasing Fun’s great soulstress Janelle Monáe, and then returning to mega-star power with Eminem and Lady Gaga. It’s almost felt like yet another preview of what we’re likely to see when the Grammy nominations are announced early next year.

         So, I felt compelled to tune in when I heard that that Haim, an enterprising young California-based band fronted by three sassed-up, multi-instrumentally adept sisters, had been tapped as “SNL”’s first real out-of-left-field and, I’m gonna guesss, not particularly well known musical guests for the show this past weekend. Haim have an interesting back story: 27-year-old Este, 24-year-old Daneille, and soon-to-be-22-year-old Alana Haim (pronounced like the Hebrew word “chaim,” as in “l’chaim,” or “to life”) are San Fernando Valley girls who got played in a high-school band with their parents. The two older sisters took a early run at ’tween stardom with the Valli Girls, who had a cute little track (“Valli Nation”) included on the “Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Awards” compilation in 2005.

Apparently, they ultimately had something more substantial in mind. With Valli Girls disbanded, Este moved on to get her degree in ethnomusicology from UCLA, while Danielle put her considerable talents to work playing drums for indie songstress Jenny Lewis (ex-Rilo Kiley) and Strokes fronman Julian Casablancas, as well as in Scarlet Fever, an all-female backing band that Goodie Mob rapper, Gnarls Barkley soulmaster, and “The Voice” talent judge CeeLo Green put together to back him in 2010.

         With some real experience under the collective belt, Haim — also featuring drummer Dash Hutton, the son of Three Dog Night vocalist Danny Hutton — emerged in 2012 with a three-song EP, a big gig at the annual South By Southwest music festival and conference in Austin, Texas, and a buzz big enough to secure for them dates opening for Mumford & Sons and Florence and the Machine (alums of “SNL”’s 38^th season). And, in the lead-up to the release of their debut album, “Days Are Gone,” in late September of this year, the sisters started getting a whole lotta attention for, well, being sisters, and for their long, flowing hair, which was the subject of a “New York Times” Sunday Styles feature, as well as several fashion magazines spreads (“Glamour,” “Vogue,” and “Elle” all got in in on the act).

         Parallels were inevitably drawn between the Haim sisters’ retro-rock style and their revivalist sound, leading to the odd conclusion that they were somehow or another akin to Fleetwood Mac in their musical approach. It’s certainly possible that Este, Daneille, and Alana were weaned on the hits from the 1977 blockbuster “Rumours,” but they’ve since moved on to wholeheartedly embrace the ’80, but not the kitchy, stylized new-wave synth-pop that so many underground bands have been drawn to. No, “Days Are Gone” betrays something beyond a mere genuine fondness for, if not an earnest devotion to the r&b-flavored dance-pop of the ’80s, from smooth sheen of Michael Jackson’s 1982’s classic “Thriller,” to the Lovesexy grooves of Prince at his height, to the New Jill Swing of En Vogue, Destiny’s Child, and TLC. And, perhaps there’s also a touch of “Bella Donna”-era Stevie Nicks in the romantically torn, strength-through-vulnerability tone of much of “Days Are Gone,” but Nicks was working without Fleetwood Mac at that point in 1981.

         In that sense, Haim reflect emergence of a new movement among indie-identified rock bands, away from the noise of the ’90s and the irony-laden appropriations that followed, and towards a nostalgic appreciation for the art of pop — for the kind of clean hooks, crisp grooves, and seasoned musicianship that were all but anathema to underground rock bands when the Haim sisters were growing up. And, it puts them in league with artists like the Arcade Fire, Fun, and Vampire Weekend (with whom, not surprisingly, Haim share producer Ariel Rechtshaid), a representatively eclectic trio of indie-bred bands who have each forged a favorable peace with mainstream musical forms.

         With Rechtshaid’s help, Haim slip easily into the echo chambers of “Days Are Gone,” with programmed drums, gated handclaps, and rubbery bass laying a funked-up foundation for Danielle’s breathless declaration that she’s “a slave to the sound” on the start to the disc’s discofied opening track, “Falling.” Este and Alana join in with close harmonies on an infectiously repetitious bridge of,  “Don’t stop, not we’ll never give up, and I’ll never look back, just hold your head up, and if it gets rough, it’s time to get rough,” and Haim are off and running back to the days when dance clubs still had the occasional dance band, and “Beat It” was on the top of the charts.

         “Falling” sets the general tone for “Days Are Gone,” with its good-times-in-the-face-of-bad-breaks attitude, and its sleekly Chic-y to get into the groove. The band toys with a mega-pop chorus on “If I Could Change Your Mind,” a romantically inclined dance-pop number that wouldn’t necessarily be out of place on a Kelly Clarkson or Katy Perry album. And they deviate from the script a bit on the Afro-Caribbean flavored “Honey & I,” and the dark and stormy, slow-creeping “My Song 5,” a gltchy electro-rock track that brings a touch of grungy guitar to the party, and finds Danielle cooing, “Honey I’m not your honey pie.” But Haim are at their best when they’re doing their best to aim for pure pop pleasures, basking in the uneasy ambiance of a track like the lovelorn “Running If You Call My Name,” stutter-stepping through the chopped beats of “Forever,” and stomping through the coyly rocking “The Wire.”

         On “SNL” last weekend, Haim sounded like a rock band as they charged a speedily through “The Wire” and “Don’t Save Me,” which is to say, not quite slick in a good way. They looked like a stylist’s dream, with Danielle outfitted in tight pants, boots, and guitar flanked by her short skirted sisters —a blond, bass-wielding Este and waifish Alana with keyboards, drumsticks and guitar — kinda like the Kardashian kids with a talent for more than just self promotion. (I hereby promise to eat those words with an entire bottle of hot sauce if Haim ever appear on their own reality tv show.) But, mostly, they just seemed pretty damn psyched to be sharing the very same stage that Miley, Katy, and the Arcade Fire have already rocked this season. And why shouldn’t they?