Biography
The Jameses hail from Lake Worth, Florida, where they are occasionally tagged “ambient pop-punk.” Multi-instrumentalist Dan McHugh, bassist Jesse Bryan, and drummer Danny Hitchcock make up the lineup. The three friends first connected musically in their early teens, trading ideas that drew on Anticon-style hip-hop and punk. The group itself, however, took shape in the late 2000s as a duo featuring only McHugh and Hitchcock, who share the middle name James. By then Bryan had settled in New York City, but the blend of punk, pop, and psychedelia he heard convinced him to split his time between the Big Apple and the West Palm Beach area so he could join. Their first release, the summer 2010 single The Haunted Rider/Rat People, caught the ear of Captured Tracks founder Mike Sniper while it played in a Brooklyn record store, prompting him to bring the band aboard. That December Bryan co-founded Zitfest, an event spotlighting the Palm Beach/Miami-area indie scene that included the Jameses’ tourmates Lil Daggers plus acts such as Band in Heaven and the Jacuzzi Boys. Late in 2010 the group issued its Captured Tracks debut, the Caribou/Fifth Dimension single. Their first full-length was slated for early 2012.
Albums
Singles