American Hi-Fi

I bet that you wouldn’t believe me if I informed you that alternative rock outfit American Hi-Fi, make up Miley Cyrus’ live band, would you? I didn’t either. However, it turns out that they are a very successful band as a group of musicians and producers as well. Stacy Jones is the musical director of Miley Cyrus’ live band and an A&R for Epic Records. In the early 2000’s, American Hi-Fi, signed to Island Records, and their songs featured on movie soundtracks, American Pie 1 and 2, their self titled debut album, and their sophomore album, The Art of Losing, both charting in the U.S and the U.K.
American Hi-Fi can still put on a fantastic show, and in the midst of their fans in this 1000 capacity room, the tension is high in anticipation for Jones and company to take to the stage. The lights go black with blue haze illuminating the stage as they bound in, launching immediately into track four of their self-titled album, “I’m a Fool” The room erupts and bounce simultaneously to the 100bpm middle of the road sing along. Despite their songs very much ticking all the characteristics of the alternative pop rock genre, each song can stand alone as a single, especially when Jones walks stage left and trades with his guitar tech an electric guitar for an acoustic guitar. The blue lights are stagnant as Jones launches into a heart wrenching nostalgic sing along of “Another Perfect Day”. A real ‘phones or lighters in the air moment’, as the audience cling onto their teenage years belting out this timeless ballad.

You have to say that American Hi-Fi is an interesting name for a band - it really doesn’t give much away - but if you’re wondering just what it is that defines this band with such a non-committal name, it’s largely a pop punk sound, that does owe a little bit to the kind of bands that were dominating that particular scene around the time of their 1998 formation - but that also is unmistakably associated with the Boston four-piece, too, not least in the minds of their fans. Over the course of their career to date, they’ve put out just the four studio albums, but that relatively sparse rate of return doesn’t tell the full story. They’ve also collaborated widely, including with Miley Cyrus, who used to call upon three-quarters of American Hi-Fi as her live backing band. Their live shows, too, have become the stuff of legend in the pop punk community, affairs that are both raucous and yet instrumentally tight, too. With album number five, Blood and Lemonade, lined up for a September release, they played their first UK show since 2005 at London’s 100 Club earlier this year; look out for more British dates sooner than later.

Although American Hi-Fi have been around since the late 90s, it is only the past few years that the reputation has grown dramatically. The Massachusetts pop punk band have close links to Miley Cyrus, sharing band members with the prolific pop star and a number of her fans have discovered the music of American Hi-Fi and the following has expanded in this way.

Led by Stacy Jones who has her own devoted fanbase, the group has no issue packing out venues and the keen fans huddle around the barrier in order to get as close to their favourites as possible. Luckily for them Stacy and the whole band involve the crowd as much as possible throughout the performance with mass singalong and pitting sides of the room off against each other during early single 'Another Perfect Day'. 'Flavour of the Week' is dropped unexpectedly mid-set which feels as though the band are saying they are now so much more than this early hit. With a twenty song strong set you could not argue with this statement and the ground shaking reaction at the finale is evidence enough.