May 18, 2006 - Missoula Independent
A leg up
by Skylar Browning
Photo by Sarah Daisy Lindmark |
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Shorthanded hermans release debut CD
In a birth typical of so many aspiring rock bands, the hermans began life as a couple dudes jamming together in a basement. Since that beginning, however, the local prog-rock outfit has experienced a string of luck—good and bad—that qualifies as anything but typical: releasing of a debut album, inking a national book deal and having their drummer suffer a career-threatening table-saw accident that’s left the quartet’s immediate future in question. “This band is full of peaks and valleys,” says lead guitarist Chris Entz, “and right now, it’s about as deep a valley as you can imagine. But, again, I think we’re coming out of it.” The hermans (the lower case being the band’s preference) started in August 2003 when novice guitar player Dave Jones, a native of Philadelphia, and pianist Derk Schmidt, a Michigan native who happens to be a huge Philadelphia Eagles fan, became fast friends playing Neil Young covers in Schmidt’s Missoula basement. The sessions were spirited, but as Schmidt says, “It was a guitar and a piano—I mean, what are you gonna do with that? We sucked as rockers.” So Schmidt picked up the drums and he and Jones recruited Bill Pfeiffer, another Pennsylvania transplant, to play bass.
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