Despite working in the chocolate industry, Justin Angelo
Morey has never seen Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory.
Either version. He’s never quite had the time to get around to it, but
he will soon. He promises. That the longtime chocolate factory employee
has ignored his profession’s finest cinematic representation can be
blamed on the attention Morey’s instead given to his band, the Black
Hollies.
In a sea of rock ‘n’ roll revisionists, the Black Hollies stand
head, shoulders, and moptops above the rest of the pack. Less of an ode
to the bygone era of 45s and Beatle boots, Morey & Co. act as a
masterfully refined extension of the finest moments in ’60s rock,
complete with syrupy pop hooks and sweeping rock arrangements.
Softly Towards the Light, their third long-player, is still new
to store shelves, but it feels like a greatest hits
collection—not from a band, from an entire decade—where
every single song feels as fresh and relevant today as it would had it
been unearthed for a Nuggets compilation. The swirling cotton
candy psych-pop of “Don’t Be Afraid to Ask” could be culled from the
Strawberry Alarm Clock collection, while “Gloomy Monday Morning” and
“When You’re Not There” share a carefree simplicity with iconic acts
like the Zombies and the Turtles.
Morey is the product of a “really rough neighborhood” in Jersey City
(when people insult the Garden State—its pollution, crime, the
inadequacies of living in New York City’s shadow, the
Nets—they’re usually referring specifically to Jersey City). He
was raised in a household where the sounds of Stax and Motown reigned
supreme. His mother “played a lot of Yardbirds, the Kinks, and the
Beatles,” Morey explains, before adding, “then I went into my rebellion
phase, where I was listening to punk rock.”
Rebelling from his parent’s music on instinct, Morey eventually
joined ranks among the stomping and stammering post-punkers—and
confirmed David Yow obsessives—in Rye Coalition. An unlikely fit
given their current leanings, Morey and a pair of fellow future Black
Hollies members (guitarists Jon Gonnelli and Herbert Joseph Wiley V)
played a major role in the Jersey band’s decade-plus run of staggering
rock ‘n’ roll that featured a collaboration with Karp, cleaning up
their sound to appease a major label, and hunkering down in a recording
studio with the band’s number-one fan, Dave Grohl. But when the sun
finally set on Rye Coalition, Morey & Co. found themselves back
where they began—in love with vintage rock ‘n’ roll.
The entire Black Hollies lineup shares another love just as unified
as their commitment to creating music—collecting music. Less
record collectors than hoarders, the band has seriously pondered
outfitting their tour vehicle with a record player, so long drives can
be soundtracked by spinning 45s.
The Black Hollies’ hardwired DIY punk-rock past keeps the band on
the road the better part of the year, which ultimately means less time
at home slinging chocolate for Morey. Although, if he has his way,
there just might be an eventual collaboration between his day job and
his music: “We originally intended on making a chocolate 45. It would
be a solid piece of chocolate that looked like a 45, with a label that
said ‘Black Hollies,’ and maybe a song title. We were going to send
them out, but then realized that people would maybe get the wrong
impression when the chocolate pieces arrived broken.”