Strapping Fieldhands are on hiatus, enjoy the site! The Strapping Fieldhands Story: The answer to the indie rock snob trivia question, "Whatever happened to the Strapping Fieldhands?" is that for the last three years they've been buried deeply underground conjuring up their new album, The Third Kingdom. After a bit of a meltdown and hiatus in the late Nineties they've been playing steadily ever since, making music and culling tunes from an inner labyrinth like lobotomized miners relentlessly searching for the true ore. The results of their labors you can hear for yourself, but to pan back for a moment to where they came from... The Strapping Fieldhands were born in the basements and bedrooms of Philadelphia over ten years ago when they began taping their loose jam sessions on home recording equipment, with no other goal than to play around with some sounds among friends and just tape some weird crap to amuse themselves. Bob Malloy had some songs, Bob Dickie had a home studio, Jacy Webster had to be there. A band was begun. Their earliest efforts became the first Strapping Fieldhands 7" single that was originally meant to be a one-off on Siltbreeze, but the immediate interest generated sparked a series of vinyl singles now collected on the CD Gobs on the Midway. The Fieldhands' first live gig was with the Frogs in a basement in the seedy Fishtown section of Old Philly with Bob Malloy and Jacy Webster on guitars and Bob Dickie on cello. By the time of their next gig, Sky Kishlo had joined on drums and accordion. Later, percussionist Jeff Werner was added to round out the sound. Through the mid-Nineties the Fieldhands played many memorable gigs with a who's who of the best bands of the time, tours with Guided by Voices, Pavement, Thinking Fellers Local Union 282, the Grifters, gigs with the Fall, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Royal Trux, etc. The first album, Discus, was released in 1994 by the band's own Omphalos Records label on vinyl only. The disc quickly sold out its small pressing and was named by Spin as "One of the Ten Best Records You've Never Heard" of that year. Two 10" EP's were released, The Caul, a compendium of experimental studio tracks, and In the Pineys, a record dedicated to the Jersey Devil recorded in Ohio by legendary lo-fi shaman Mike Rep. In the fall of 1996, the Strapping Fieldhands put out their second album, Wattle & Daub on Shangri-La Records. There was a raucous record release party on a lurching paddlewheeler on the Mississippi River at Memphis and tour dates set up for the spring. However, due to the Hale Bop Comet and the harmonic convergence of 1997, after tossing deer bones and especially with the emergence of the 17- year locust, it was decided by council that it would be a good time for a hiatus. Malloy hiked the northern half of the Appalachian Trail. A variety of side projects occurred. Though they gigged occasionally, after a few years the Fieldhands missed playing together regularly and by 1999 they were back at it, writing new material and recording in their homespun manner. With the addition of ace instrumentalist Robert Bell on violin and bouzouki, there was a snowballing of energies as the sessions that make up The Third Kingdom began to take on a life of their own. Bassist Bruce Reckahn, formerly of Delta 72, was brought in after the departure of Bob Dickie, and he fit like a glove. It was now time for the Strapping Fieldhands to emerge from their self-imposed cocoon and present to the world a rarified basket of earthen fruit, replete with the atmosphere of roots and husks. With a new record, a batch of new songs in process, and a band that's itching to tour, frontman Bob Malloy feels that the Fieldhands have never been better, "Right now we're hitting on all cylinders, for the first time since things were coming automatically in the early days." Look forward to a storm of activity from these guys in the near future. For as a Gypsy soothsayer recently said, "Now is your time, and oh, by the way, your souvlaki is ready."
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