Live at Brooklyn Magazine: Heeney
Heeney is going somewhere fast, and they’re taking you with them. They play garagey punk that sounds like it was just thrown together, but you can tell it’s carefully considered: the lyrics are smart and stark, the guitar solos precise. The sound is infectious and inclusive; audience members at their shows are invited to take the stage at any time. The chemistry between the singer-guitarists Max Kagan and Mark Fletcher is a mix of grungy 90s navel-gazing millennial excitability.
On the song “Brooklyn Pop,” they sing, “Went out to the beach, sat out by the waves/thought it was my choice but I guess it’s just my grave.” The grave in question is New York City itself. The band is comprised of New York City natives, which gives them a unique perspective on the local scene. The subjects they write about in their songs are universal, with nostalgia for being young, drinking too much, hooking up on a patch of grass, etc. Though most of their songs are short and fast, they’re broken up on the album by deeper, more melodic ones. Pairing “Oh, the suspense of what comes first and what comes next” with “I’ll believe it when I see it ‘cause I’ll know that its mine” (‘Happiness’) makes a perfect ode to an age of being both wise and confused, lost but present.
Kagan and Fletcher stopped by Brooklyn Magazine last month to chat, play a few songs, and drink some whiskey. Enjoy the videos.