Noise

Las Vegas trio Headwinds lets loose with a noisy rock declaration

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(From left) Gady Miguel Monterroso Calix, Cromm Fallon and Dustin “Dry” Ybarra
Photo: Yasmina Chavez

It’s been a while since we last heard from Headwinds, on 2017 EP Cruel World, but the Vegas garage-punks are back at last with their first full-length album, Honeydew Dream.

Headwinds

Recorded by longtime friend Dillon Shines (Dark Black, Caravels) in his Las Vegas home and mastered by Shelco Garcia, the LP has been released digitally by San Francisco’s Don’t Look Down Records and on cassette through Portland’s Wormtown Tapes.

““We recorded this literally at the beginning of the pandemic,” Gady Miguel Monterroso Calix, Headwinds’ vocalist, guitarist and songwriter, explains of the timing. “Me and Dillon go way back; he’s one of my good friends.”

Having worked with Shines on Headwinds’ previous EPs, Calix says Honeydew Dream only took a week to record. “We put the guitar amp in the living room, drums in one bedroom and the bass in the other bedroom,” he details. Everything was recorded that way—live—except the single “Breakfast for Dinner,” for which a music video dropped in February on YouTube (youtu.be/QLVowxjtf-U).

Calix says his goal for the album was to have nothing sound overproduced. “This time I wanted it to be live or single track—no multitracking. I wanted the space in between the sounds,” he says. “I kind of like that fast, frantic kind of recording, so that’s what we were going for, just trying to put things on record and seeing how they sound, trying to be very minimal and simple.”

Honeydew Dream, which also features Dustin “Dry” Ybarra on drums and Cromm Fallon on bass and backing vocals, plays like hazy, smoke-filled air, as transcendental as it is rough and worn. “I think you get to hear us for the kind of band we are,” Calix says.

The record opens with lo-fi ballad “Mushroom Head,” before picking up steam on the fuzzed-out “You Belong to No One,” reminiscent of Dinosaur Jr. and early Foo Fighters. The album finishes with “Noise Jam,” a six-minute improv piece that comes closest to nailing the Headwinds live experience.

“That’s something we always do at practice—end with a freestyle just to jam out,” Calix says. “It’s just part of our rehearsal and part of our set. There’s no rules.”

Calix, who launched Headwinds back in 2013, says he’s already working on material for another album. “We have a whole new bunch of songs, I’m always writing,” he says. “This time, I want to take my time a little bit and try something different.”

With shoegazey references to My Bloody Valentine and other ’90s greats, Honeydew Dream is a reminder that, no matter what genres top the charts these days, rock’s flame remains eternal.

Headwinds Dontlookdownrecords.bandcamp.com/album/honeydew-dream, Facebook.com/headwindsnv

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