Hear Now: The Owls
BY CHUCK TERHARK
Pioneer Press, Friday 06.11.04

LaBonne and Tighe are the stars of the Twin Cities music scene's favorite love stories, a tale that begins with Labonne playing bass for the Legendary Jim Ruiz Group and Tighe fronting the consistently praised pop maestros the Hang Ups. They met in the early '90s and, to make the story short, they fell in love and got married. And yet, through it all, it took LaBonne a full six years to work up the courage to play her hubby the songs she'd secretly been writing.

"She was shy," Tighe explains. "Once she played them for me, I was ecstatic. I'm still blown away by the things she comes up with." The couple began playing LaBonne's songs together as the Owls at parties, and eventually Tighe called on fellow Hang Ups members Maria May and Steve Ittner to fill out the band. Ittner eventually left, and Jerry, drummer for acclaimed local pop band the Ashtray Hearts, took his place.

The Owls are an example of a side project that grows too big for its seams — the back burner catching fire. Since hitting the club circuit earlier this year, the band, sometimes dubbed an "accidental supergroup," has all but overshadowed the bands from which they came. The Hang Ups are coming down from the success of their last effort; the Legendary Jim Ruiz Group has turned into the solo Jim Ruiz recording session; and the Ashtray Hearts are taking the summer off, leaving plenty of time for the Owls to take center stage.

That's good news for the lovelorn Tighe. "I was used to being on the road with the Hang Ups and really missing Allison," he says. "It's been great to be playing with her."

The Owls' debut EP, "Our Hopes and Dreams," was released early this spring. It includes many of those songs that LaBonne first introduced to Tighe; lately, though, she has been taking a break from songwriting while Tighe and May step up new material. Tighe says the Owls have a couple of albums' worth of material that hasn't been recorded yet. Until then, the band is thrilled to be touring in support of "Our Hopes and Dreams," which has received a hefty amount of college radio airplay around the country. "That was a complete surprise," says May. "We never expected it to do this well outside of the Twin Cities. We were always perfectly happy to entertain people locally, even if it was just our friends."

While "Our Hopes and Dreams" aptly captures the joie de vivre that accompanies a happy marriage, it's also inflected with traces of tender sadness. The songs flutter sweetly by, seesawing between bubbly, Free Design-like creations and a heavier, dreamy lollipop reminiscent of Mazzy Star. The instrumentation is predictably impressive, but it's the vocals that make this record, as LaBonne's and May's voices swim together, casting a wake of smart lyrics, jarring harmonies and blissful melodies.