Bonus MP3s: Hats & Statues Passes Along Two Tracks Off Its New EP

Sure it's a tad cliché to say about a band, but Dallas-based Hats & Statues really has come a long way in the past two and a half years. The band first started making waves while playing mostly the basement of J & J's Pizza and house shows in Denton, 1919 Hemphill in Fort Worth and, uh, the Lone Star Country Club in Coppell? Sure.

Over the last few months, however, the band's been landing opening spots at Hailey's and Dan's Silverleaf in Denton and at the Double Wide in Dallas, where the act's been warming up crowds for acts as diverse as RTB2, Whiskey Folk Ramblers, Mariachi Quetzal, Mount Righteous, Here Holy Spain, Dem Southernfolkz and Spooky Folk.

Most recently, I hear that Hats & Statues did pretty well for itself last Saturday night at Hailey's opening for Foe Destroyer during that band's Denton post-Oso Closo debut. (Read last week's North of the Dial for more about Foe Destroyer.) But, in the last year, the band's changed more than just the stages where it plays.

See, when Hats & Statues first started getting noticed, it was for the band's rabblerousing live shows and Bluegrass-infused punk sound. But, the band's newest EP Sombreros y Estatuas finds the act moving in different direction--it now describes itself as an "anti-twee" act.

The band sent along two varied songs off Sombreros y Estatuas for DC9 readers to see what the hell that's supposed to mean. Nab the MP3s for free after the jump, and keep reading to find out what exactly its song called "You Sir Have a Narrow Definition of Kolache" is about.

"Kolache" is packed with some rather concrete visuals conjured by lyrics like, "We have electric eyes / three miles of wires that connect inside our wooden arms" and "On the bottom of the sea / our legs became coral reefs." We contacted the band to find out more about the song, and Hunter Moehring singer/mulit-instrumentatlist just got back with us.

"Um, it seems funny talking about it like this," he said, with a laugh. "It's about wooden robots that go sailing to find a new place to live. But I guess what it's really about social anxiety."

Currently, Moehring said the band is working on its full-length debut, which he said would hopefully be wrapped up in time for a winter release.

Hats & Statues may or may not be playing a house show in Dallas this weekend, too. Try messaging the band on MySpace for the Lakewood-area address.