Ridiculous Hawaii

In accordance with their longstanding devotion to vinyl, Heavy Hawaii will be selling both CD and vinyl versions of their new full-length, Goosebumps, at the Casbah release party on March 18. “Music alone is a tough market, and vinyl is a really tough market,” says Matt Bahamas. “We released music, cassette only, and those sold, but unless you’re Sonic Youth and releasing a vinyl box set on Record Store Day, it’s a big gamble.” Last year, the band’s label, Art Fag Recordings, pressed a three-song vinyl seven-inch, “Superbowl XXIX,” limited to 500 copies.

Having recently pared the group down to a duo with Jojo Keylargo, Bahamas says, “Just about every former member appears on Goosebumps.” The cover photograph shows someone walking a Razor scooter through a park, wearing a Scream mask, and swinging an spewing fire extinguisher. “The cover was very much inspired by Mexican culture,” says Bahamas. “You’ll see kids still wearing old Freddie Krueger masks and shit, as if those movies were released this past year.” To promote the album, the group shot a video in January (“right off of the 94”) that emulates the cover photo.

“It’s funny, those fire extinguishers we let off caused a bit of panic. That stuff doesn’t just quickly dissolve; it floats around in the sky for while. I think the locals thought there was a fire where we were filming and, next thing you know, there’s fire engines and helicopters scoping the area.... We didn’t realize the choppers and trucks were there because we were so focused on getting the filming done before dark. Once we realized what we had caused, we got a little freaked and left. I’m not sure if we were on private property or if we would be fined for having these trucks come out.”

As for the long-planned 12-issue comic-book series Bahamas co-created with Wavves frontman Nathan Williams, “The first Negative Dad book is done.... The book is about two boys uncovering an intergalactic conspiracy between Earth and other planets. It’s been a blast to write, especially with my best friend.

“It will for sure be released this summer. Very excited for Comic-Con. We’re gonna do something ridiculous.”