iSound

“In name and in art, this New York collective is a response to a culture that values style over substance. You'd expect their sound to be more punk considering the anarchy of their name, but instead Blow Up Hollywood prefers to shake things up with an unusual mix of emotional text and cinematic arrangements. Led by Steve Messina, who has scored two films for PBS, the band is comprised of many musicians with Masters' degrees. Dave Eggar studied at Harvard and has a doctorate from Julliard. He has played the Kennedy Center and performed with everyone from Sinead O'Connor to Ornette Coleman. Often, players with advanced degrees can produce cold, calculated music, but Blow Up Hollywood is not an assembly of mechanical studio musicians. Their goal isn't to show off its players' resumes, their intention is to move the listener. Their latest album Fake plays out like one continuous symphony of epic rock, graced by several haunting instrumental passages that feature Eggar's string arrangeme...