The French horn (since the 1930s known simply as the horn in professional music circles) is a brass instrument made of tubing wrapped into a coil with a flared bell. The double horn in F/B♭ (technically a variety of German horn) is the horn most often used by players in professional orchestras and bands, although the descant and triple horn have become increasingly popular. A musician who plays a horn is known as a horn player or hornist.

A few days ago I got a request to look into the Florida early 2000s band The French Horns. And of course, I said yes.

This band featured Jeremy from the Gold-Bears at some point. So I was familiar with them. Josh Ney from Crush 22 and Brittle Stars was also in the band. Maybe I should have contacted them first to get a first-hand account, but at the same time I enjoy doing the investigative work.

I guess it won’t be that difficult to find information about the Gainesville based band. There’s a website and a Soundcloud. But let’s see what interesting details we can find.

The band didn’t release many songs. There was a CDR from 2003, self-released, that was called “Measurably Sweeter”. This CD had songs by The French Songs but also by other projects even though on the sleeve it only says The French Horns.

The French Horns had 6 songs, “Sundays Wasted”, “She May Turn Around” (this one was written by Karen Paris and originally performed by her band The Innocence Mission), “Amy L”, “Starting to Be It”, “Forty Five” and “Begin”. Then there’s a an “Untitled” song listed to no artist. Afterwards we find five songs by MrClay, “Everything That We Could Need”, “Rachel”, “Plans for Tomorrow”, “Run Away” and “Untitled”. And lastly a version of “Amy L” by The Gun Show.

MrClay was the 1996-1998 solo project of Steve Clay, one of the members of The French Horns. The Gun Show? I believe it was another member of the band, Dan Francke.

The French Horns songs in this record were performed by Dan Francke, Jefff Wood, Josh Ney and Steve Clay. They were recorded in July 2003 at 307 House of Fun and Excitement. What was this place? Maybe their own house?

A little other interesting tidbit that I find is that originally 100 copies were made of this CDR: “100 of these were frantically duplicated and packaged (hand-crafted envelopes with beautiful red stitching by Tanya) the day before a trip to San Francisco. We planned to give them all out at the 2003 Pop Holiday music festival, but ended up saving most of them for friends.”

More copies, not sure how many more, would be made, and these would feature two stickers and no stitching.

The band would contribute songs to four compilations. In 2004 their song “45” would appear on “Clouds and Balloons, Vol. 1 – The Search for Skull Island” a CDR comp released by Asaurus Records (ASA035). The next year their song “Starting to Be It” would fly to Spain to appear on Rafa Skam’s CDR compilation “El Planeta Amarillo #7 Marte”. 2005 would also see “Brighter Now” on “Notes from Claire”, a CD compilation released by the Florida label Clairerecords (FERN 050).

Lastly in 2008 they would have “Think of Rain” on the compilation 7″ “Gainesville Pop Mayhem”. I wrote about this comp when I wrote about Citra Super. This record was released for the first edition of this festival that happened on May 7 to the 11th of 2008. “Think of Rain” was actually a cover of Margo Guryan.

Another important thing to mention is the bands the members had been involved with. Steve Clay had been in Brittle Stars and also in three solo-projects, Handclaps & Fingersnaps, I Love You and MrClay. Joshua Ney was in Brittle Stars, Crush 22 and Nervous Systems. Jefff Wood was in Lame Drivers and Get Him Eat Him.

The French Horns were active between 2003 and 2005. Other band members that were in the band were Dan McCoy, Juliet Sy, Brian Lee, Jesse Long and Jeremy Underwood. Seems the lineup changed quite a bit.

On the website there’s a lot of interesting bits. For example that Dan left the band in 2003 when he moved to Philadelphia. They were supposed to play the New England Popfest in 2005 but it seems there was some band drama and it didn’t happen.

But, there is a whole list of shows the band played. Venues they played include Common Grounds, Wayward Council. Civic Media Center, The Atlantic, Faces, The Shamrock, The Beta Bar in Tallahassee and Little Kins in Athens, Georgia (for the 2005 Athens Popfest). They shared the bill with many bands including Nervous Systems, The Beat Buttons, Human Television, Kill Spiders. Tracy Shedd, Men’s Shoes, Zumm Zumm, Elf Power, Duck Church, The Boy and The Knife, Lyndon, Laura Minor, Scum of the Earth, Liger, The Soft Targets, Sarah Tobing, Langry and Pet Monument.

The French Horns EP is on Soundcloud, but there are many more songs there too. For example “Surest Thing (with Slavagoh)“. This was a 2005 demo Steve put together. You can read the story behind this track here.

Other songs include “I Miss Monograph“, “Modem it to Me“, “Whistle“, “20140118 152305“, “Andy Oh Andy“, “Bad Library“, a cover of Moose’s “This River Never Will Run Dry“, “Junk“, “Plissken Love Theme“, “A Little Time Alone” (where Steve sampled from Meters and piano from Petula Clark), “123 Waltz“, “Scale Exercise in D“, “Scrappy demo“, “Ken Burns“, “Bedazzled (Mancini-ed)” (where he reworks the song “Bedazzled” from the 1967 movie), “Waltz for Ben“, “Sludge“, “Shing“, “Synthpop Lullaby (instrumental)” (this demo would turn to be “Plissken Love Theme”), “Modem it to Me (demo 1)“, a cover of “Come On” by the Lilys, “Engineer“, “Brighter Now“, “Work in Progress: ‘C7’“, “For Stevie“, “Big Chandelier Took My Baby“, “70s SF Cop Show Theme“, “The Saloon Sleeps“, “The American Sixth“, “July 4 Starter Theme”, “Tensions in B“, “RPT2“, “April 24 2012 Scratch Demo” and “Everything That We could Need“.

The quality and the stage of being finished of these songs vary a lot. Many are instrumentals too. But it is interesting to have a listen. To see this as a work in progress, a scrapbook of ideas and demo songs.

There were also live recordings, short clips, of the band playing “Brighter NBow” and “Surest Thing” at The Atlantic in November 2004.

Also their last gig which happened on September 2, 2005 at The Shamrock in Gainesville has been uploaded to Youtube. That night they played the following songs, “Plastic Guitars”, “Engineer”, “Brighter Now”, “Surest Things”, “She May Turn Around”, “Sundays Wasted”, “Think of Rain”, “Amy L” and “Starting to Be it”.

I don’t find much more info about them. It seems El Planeta Amarillo used to have an interview with the band but I can’t access it. Seems their website has been hacked.

It does feel that the Gainesville scene revolved around a few people that made wonderful music in the early 2000s. Would be good to get back into documenting that. I have only done an interview with Crush 22 but I think it’d be good to be able to find out more info straight from the source for many of the other bands.

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Listen
The French Horns – Amy L