Plush

Vocalist, pianist, and guitarist Liam Hayes first gained notice through his contributions to Will Oldham’s Palace, yet he had already begun composing material for his own project Plush at the start of the 1990s. The Chicago-based group remained quiet until 1994, when Drag City issued the single “Three Quarters Blind Eyes”/“Found a Little Baby.” Despite limited live activity, that debut recording drew unusually strong coverage from the music press; one British publication named the B-side Single of the Week, while additional outlets offered further acclaim. Three more years passed before Plush returned with the 1997 single “No Education” on Flydaddy, after which the full-length debut More You Becomes You appeared the following year. On that album Hayes sat at the piano and delivered spare, exposed, and romantic material that recalled the emotional directness of Carole King and Burt Bacharach ballads. After the release the band stayed active, with Hayes switching to guitar for tours alongside the Japanese ensemble Ghost and with Yo La Tengo. He also appeared briefly in a bar scene of the 2000 Chicago-set film High Fidelity. In 2002 the Japanese label After Hours issued Fed, a recording whose density and scope stood in marked contrast to the earlier album’s minimalism. Hayes resurfaced in 2009 under the name Liam Hayes & Plush with Bright Penny, a meticulously assembled tribute to pop music. He later acted in and scored director Roman Coppola’s 2012 independent comedy A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swan III.