Getting serious as a band, they found a drummer, Dash Hutton, and sought out eclectic collaborators. Sisters Danielle, Alana and Este Haim grew up playing music with their parents in the amazingly named cover band Rockinhaim, and tried several music-business career moves (Nickelodeon cameos, Este's ethnomusicology degree, Danielle's apprenticeship playing guitar with Julian Casablancas and Jenny Lewis) before breaking through as a trio in 2012. And that's good thing right this minute: HAIM's thoughtful, playful music is good for the radio, good for rock, and good for music lovers of all ages who need to carve out a little space to dream.
When did that become a good thing? To which this critic replies: Who said it isn't? HAIM's song "The Wire" does bear traces of Twain's 1999 hit "Man I Feel Like a Woman," one of many inspirations hidden in plain sight on the trio's debut album, Days Are Gone. Geoff Barrow of the revered English band Portishead recently maligned the fast-rising Los Angeles sister act HAIM with a snippy tweet: Hiam sound like Shania Twain.
HAIM's new album, Days Are Gone, comes out Sept.