The Bowery Presents

The Mercury Lounge upcoming shows

The Mother Hips
11:00

Hymns
10:00
Katy Mae
9:00
Ron Wax (Ron Albertson of The Liars)
8:00

Venue:
The Mercury Lounge
Date:
Sat 5/16
Notes:
21+
Doors: 8:00 PM / Show: 8:00 PM
$15
Tickets
The Mother Hips
official website
myspace
The Mother Hips have flown under the radar as true indie music pioneers for almost
two decades. With the release of their new album Pacific Dust (available October 27th
on Camera Records), California's unsung psych-pop heroes tell their story. Hailed by
critics for their "rootsy mix of 70s rock and power pop" (pitchfork.com) and for their
unflinching ability to "sing it sweet and play it dirty" (New Yorker), on Pacific Dust The
Hips' signature sound rings more genuine and relevant than ever before.
The Hips - led by co-founders Tim Bluhm (vocals/guitar) and Greg Loiacono
(guitar/vocals) - have been playing music for nearly 18 years, and in the process, have
had the luxury of exploring and refining their craft. For the band's seventh full-length
studio album, The Mother Hips have never been more primed to share their welltraveled
tales - the long days and nights on the road, the gritty politics, the smart inward
reflections and man, the music! - all delivered with a most appealing balance of
Americana storytelling and their California-burnished rock.

Pacific Dust's compositions about penning a song in your kitchen at 3:00 am (the
thundering album opener "White Falcon Fuzz"), record company politics (garage-rock
boogie "Third Floor Story"), and a father and son's relationship through music (on the
ballad "Young Charles Ives") indeed tell the story of many American rock bands. But
here's why it matters: The Mother Hips have survived, and in fact thrived, throughout
the journey - and Pacific Dust, with its bittersweet melodies, poignant lyrics, and strong
and gritty musicianship, is a perfect example of why.

The Mother Hips owe most of their success to their large and loyal fanbase. Earlier
releases such as Part-Timer Goes Full, Green Hills of Earth, and Red Tandy have
become almost cult classics among indie music buffs, and the band's most recent 2007
album, Kiss the Crystal Flake, offered proof that the band still continues to attract new
supporters. Over the years, the band has worked with and played alongside a slew of
renowned/respected colleagues including super-producer Rick Rubin, Wilco, Johnny
Cash, and many others.

Today, armed with their newest release Pacific Dust, The Hips are poised to take their
experience and talent to another level for this next leg of their already epic journey
Hymns
official website
myspace
HYMNS bucked tradition on 'Appaloosa,' trading in the isolated flatlands of Texas where they recorded their first two albums for the urban bustle of Los Angeles. Surrounding themselves with a host of friends including Grammy-nominated fiddler Tracy Bonham, Ned Brower and Taylor Locke of Rooney, and acclaimed producer Dan Horne, the band managed to turn out a six-track EP that stands as their most diverse and adventurous work to date. 'Appaloosa' keeps one foot planted firmly in HYMNS' southern roots and another square in the heart of the thriving Brooklyn indie scene they now call home.

From the very first, HYMNS have always embraced musical contradictions like these. Guitarist Jason Roberts and singer/songwriter Brian Harding met growing up in southern North Carolina, cementing their friendship as teenagers over a shared love for the Americana roots of The Band and the distinctly not-southern rock of Nirvana. The two parted ways after college when Roberts joined Ben Kweller's touring band and Harding relocated to New York City, but it was only a matter of time before the undeniable musical chemistry that the two shared brought them back together.

"Brian and I are complete opposites," explains Roberts, "but we understand each other better than anyone. I think I'm the only person who can really tell what he's looking for in a song, so we learned to rely on each other's strengths."

The duo reunited in Brooklyn in 2005, fleshing out their sound with a drummer and bass player before traveling to rural Texas to record their debut album, 'Brother/Sister,' for Blackland Records. An exhilarating blend of country twang and indie drive, 'Brother/Sister' was a critical hit drawing comparisons to Tom Petty and Gram Parsons. HYMNS suddenly found themselves touring nationally with The Lemonheads, Ben Kweller, and Canadian star Sam Roberts, while back home in New York they began sharing bills with artists like Beck, Hot Hot Heat, and The Redwalls.

Expanding on their rootsy sensibilities by adding horns, banjo, and pump organ to the mix, HYMNS followed up 'Brother/Sister' with 2008's ‘Travel in Herds’ and a series of stellar performances at SXSW. “If Pavement and Neil Young took a road trip to Burritoville” raved SPIN magazine, which named the band an "Artist to Watch.". Similar accolades rained down from The New Yorker, The Village Voice, Daytrotter, WNYC's Soundcheck, and MTV's John Norris, who praised the band's "tight, effortless chemistry onstage." They hit the road for U.S. tours again in 2008-9, pairing up at various points with Locksley, Daniel Johnston, Butch Walker and many more. Most recently Hymns were noted by Paste as the ‘Best of What’s Next’ in February 2010.

The release of 'Appaloosa' marks the beginning of an exciting new chapter for HYMNS and finds them once more on the road, touring with newest member Joey McClellan on bass.
Katy Mae
official website
myspace
The music of Katy Mae is evocative in a fundamentally personal way, for it is music that defies easy definition. Their
songs evoke places and sounds in a sensory, intimate way; like returning to a town last visited years ago, it is familiar
yet different. Katy Mae's music has a rural sound, the sound of the countryside, the sound of 'up-state'. It is created by
musicians who grew-up outside of the big cities, but with a deep love of an eclectic range of music; from the classic
rock bands of the 70's, to Wilco, Buddy Holly, R.E.M, The Byrds and The Who. They are musicians with a true sense
of place, but whose influences are broader than that place they are from.

What grips the listener is the raw honesty of this EP. It is live, visceral, basic and intimate; powerful and even
sometimes brutal. The soaring, emotionally stained vocals of Philip Doucet have a deeply passionate appeal that meld
with the powerful cord riffs and pounding rhythms of the band. Words and phases are almost subliminal, building a
virtual landscape through sound.

Katy Mae is a band that likes to build. On tracks such as 'Dust of My Friends', the band introduce basic rhythms and
simple cord sequences that they then repeat and multiply, building layer upon layer, before introducing melodies and
syncopated rhythms to broaden and expand the sound even further.

'Falls Down' starts with such a simple cord sequence that it lulls us into a false sense of security - a quiet simple track
to follow the opening track's big sound. Yet it is a charade, for after it's humble beginning, the track builds with
crescendo upon crescendo before falling back into the narrative of the lyrics - a musical pause for breath before
building onto even greater heights.

'Let Me Bring You Down' has an almost punk-rock simplicity. Frenetic and lively, you can imagine hearing it as the
last song of an energetic set. A song to be played when the last vestiges of restraint have gone out of the window,
when the audience is free from all inhibitions and in a state of 'rock'uphoria'.
'Two Dollars Late' starts with a welcome return to a slower, deep rock track, utilizing blues riffs with plenty of bends.
Truly epic cords from backing rhythm guitar and pounding bell ride from Mark Levy on drums build up to on a 70's
rock track reminiscent of early Thin Lizzy.

The raw guitar picking of 'You May Already Be A Winner' builds from the outset and is a well deserved title track .
The anthem'esque overture gives way to reverbing rhythms and more driving guitars - courtesy of the band's newest
member, Hans Gutknecht - bridging into a slow, feedback-orientated mid section before finally returning to the
driving verse and a cliff-hanging ending worthy of an episode of LOST.

The music industry loves to create genres; rock, country, punk, grunge, garage, pop, techno, jangle pop; all terms
created to define subdivisions within a long list of endless derivatives. Katy Mae's biggest appeal is that they need no
genre, no plot of land to call their own; they play good old fashioned rock and roll; created by musicians, for
musicians, and for those with a simple love of a great tune. "You May Already Be a Winner" will be listened to by
those who know a good thing when they hear it, and they won't need a reason why.
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