New York-based indie rock quartet Hooray for Earth materialized officially in late 2005, though the band had been in a slow-to-gel state of formation since singer Noel Heroux and bassist Chris Principe met and played in various projects during their high-school days. While he and Principe were living in Boston, Heroux worked diligently on home recordings of his songs, many of which developed into some of the earliest Hooray for Earth tunes. With the addition of drummer Seth Kasper and keyboardist/guitarist Gary Benacquista, the band worked on a self-titled demo, playing out around Boston before relocating to New York City in the summer of 2007. The demo highlighted their unique blend of high-power rock and synthesizer tones, ultimately capturing the attention of Dopamine Records, who signed Hooray for Earth and released their Cellphone EP in early 2008. The label later reissued the band's early demo as an official album in 2009. That same year, Kasper left the group and was replaced by new drummer Joseph Ciampini. A second EP, Momo, was released by online subscription service eMusic Selects and later released in the physical realm by Dovecote Records in 2010. All of this led up to the recording of the band's first proper full-length album, True Loves. The album was constructed, produced, and performed mostly by Heroux, with other bandmembers and collaborators like Zambri and mixing engineer Chris Coady contributing in various ways. The album was released in June of 2011 and was followed up in the summer of 2014 by the group's second full-length, Racy. The band called it quits a few months later, playing a farewell show at Brooklyn's Glasslands Gallery that November. ~ Fred Thomas