All of us having spent 4 years living in Indiana, I suspect my comrades here at WYMA will agree that the Hoosier state might not be the first place one would go searching for the next great American band. And New Albany might not the first place you'd look even within Indiana.
But we discover bands here at WYMA in the darnedest ways. So there I was quaffing a brew at Bridgetown Beerhouse, my favorite little beer joint in Portland (saying quite a lot given the hopped up culture here), and playing on the sound system was this amazing music I'd not heard before. Was it brand new? Was it some long lost Southern band from the '70's that I'd somehow missed? Did Levon Helm's spirit and groove take over some other band? The vocals, musicianship, lyrics, spirit - it was all there - fantastic.
I left the beer shop, loopy from the music, and went straight home to get on the internets to find this band.
Meet Houndmouth, from yes, New Albany Indiana:
Katie Toupin - keyboards, vocals
Matt Myers - guitar, vocals
Zak Appleby - bass , vocals
Shane Cody - drums, vocals, beard
Houndmouth formed in 2011, and last month released their tremendous debut CD From the Hills Below the City, on Rough Trade Records, the highly regarded mid-major label based in England. This straight to a great label leap rarely happens anymore, even more seldom for an Americana band not likely to get big time radio play.
But they just have it. Here they are recently performing "Ludlow" from the CD on the David Letterman show (the perks of being on a hip UK label):
"On the Road":
One more, "Penitentiary", where I hear shades of The Low Anthem, another great young Americana band:
Artist web page, with tour dates happening now (see them!), links to their Facebook and various pages: http://houndmouth.com/
No comments:
Post a Comment