Honeypower, a Brooklyn-based fever dream, came into existence late one fall night in 2003, when frontman Gavin Rhodes decided to skip any auditioning process and head straight for the music. Bringing his considerable skills to the table (as well as his guitar, bass, keyboard and drum kit) Rhodes began laying down melodies that would later expand into the 12 tracks that round out the (one-man) band's debut album, "Deflowered."

 

Honeypower's lush, guitar heavy sound is brashly addictive--the musical lovechild that might have been borne out of a wild night between the Wedding Present and the Jesus and Mary Chain. Songs manage to be emotionally mature without being stilted, worldly without being contrived. Their surprising subject matter gives the album a smart kick, ranging from the well-covered territory of love ("My Little Sun"), to the wreckage of the Kursk ("Exit Cue"), to the fictional terrain of Huraki Mirakami's "The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle" ("Oh, Kumiko").

 

"These songs had been waiting to happen for a while," explains Rhodes, a Placitas, New Mexico native who got his musical start at age 13, when he traded in his remote-control car for a guitar. After overcoming the initial regret and teaching himself to play, Rhodes earned his chops as the guitarist for punk band Silver. Sharing the stage with Albuquerque bands like Scared of Chaka and Flake (now the Shins) proved to be an exhilarating experience.

 

"It was a lot about dodging bottles," says Rhodes, who nevertheless persevered, leaving the desert for San Francisco, and Silver for the more poppy Halo.

 

After touring the northwest in support of a 7" single, Rhodes moved northeast in the fall of 2002. Inspired by the fact that Robert Smith of The Cure had written "Japanese Whispers" solo, he began playing alone in earnest, releasing "Deflowered" in March of 2004. And the rest, as we know it, is a just a blessing of Brooklyn history.