Biography
Honeyhander was a dance-noise-rock band from Providence, Rhode Island that existed briefly from 2004-2006.
Although active for only a hot minute, the band's buzz level went into the red almost immediatly with it's first and last release in EP Woolly Mannerisms. Highly praised amongst the press, sweat from kids to jaded record snots, and charting in CMJ's Top 30 almost immediatly, the 5 song EP donning the notorious Dixon illustrated elephant mutant on stilts over a pink netherworld sounded like really nothing before or after it.
Although largely frontman Anthony Ferreira (then fresh out of longtime membership with A Trillion Barnacle Lapse) and guitarist Mike Cardoso's studio brainchild, the band expanded into a 5 piece with Dan Burns picking up additional guitar duties, Chris Todd on drums, and Shane Broderick on bass guitar.
Live sets typically were set to such extreme volumes My Bloody Valentine or early Sonic Youth were brought to mind. Despite the band's flamboyant sound and image, Honeyhander shows became notorious for outbursts of violence resulting in the band fighting the crowd, each other, or both due to the erratic personalities involved within the band. Leaving for their first and only tour in a quick East Coast bender during 2005 and stacking a melay of Providence and NYC performances, the band became a much gossiped upon live act with everyone from noise kids who thought they already saw it all to famous fucks all coming out to see what the fuss was about.
The band signed to Aptos' Strictly Amateur Films imprint for a one-off EP deal, which would result in the release of previously mentioned Woolly Mannerisms. Eventually in it's only lineup change, John Refano would replace Broderick on bass and longtime cohort David "Coolshadez" Gregory on additional electronics.
Honeyhander's last show was at AS220's second annual "Friendly Fest" which resulted in a riot (Ferreira cracked a heckler in the face with a mic stand subsequently causing the crowd to jump said heckler). Ferreira disbanded the group shortly afterwards during the writing process of what would have been their debut full-length Fiji Juggernaut. Tracks off Fiji including "Goldchains", "Momo Magneto", and "The History of the World in Numbers" were played during later day performances but only exist as crude live recordings circulating on the internet.
Ferreira would shortly afterwards hi-jack two CMJ dates Honeyhander was slated to play with Some Girls and The Chinese Stars as new solo alias Spanish Dancer citing to audiences that the other members of Honeyhander had "died in a freak gasoline fight accident". Although largely brand new material, elements of Fiji Juggernaut were also drafted into Spanish Dancer's live set (most noticeably in song Faith Faith Faith which seems to marry elements of "Goldchains" and "Momo Magneto" into a new canvas). Christopher Todd and John Refano would later go on to form minimalist ambient act Sannhet. Mike Cardoso continues to play in thrash band I, Destroyer and grind dudes Suffering Bastard. Gregory continues to record under hip-hop alias Coolshadez having just released a mix tape in the summer of 2007. Dan Burns has been collaborating with a number of artists and will have new material surfacing shortly. Shane Broderick continues to play in noise group Twodeadsluts onegoodfuck.
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