Hanalei

Originally launched by Brian Moss as a one-person endeavor in the acoustic-guitar-and-laptop vein pioneered by the Postal Service, Hanalei took shape while Moss was still a member of the Chicago emo band the Ghost—distinct from both the longer-running Japanese psychedelic unit of that name and the little-known early-1970s U.K. folk-psych act also called the Ghost. That Chicago group itself descended from the Wunder Years, a late-1990s Bay Area pop-punk outfit, and issued two albums, This Is a Hospital and This Pen Is a Weapon, before splitting in 2004. Moss had already tracked the songs that formed Hanalei’s debut, the 2004 solo release We Are All Natural Disasters, prior to the Ghost’s breakup. Once the Ghost dissolved, Moss briefly converted Hanalei into a full band by adding second guitarist Pete Tsoukas, bassist Pete Croke, and drummer Jason Kyrouac—each a veteran of lesser-known Chicago ensembles—before cutting the second album, Parts and Accessories. The new lineup replaced the debut’s sparse textures with a roots-oriented palette of acoustic guitar, pedal steel, cello, banjo, and violin. Soon after Parts and Accessories appeared in 2006, Moss disbanded this configuration, relocated to his former home base of Oakland, CA, and returned Hanalei to its original solo format.