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
- The Mother Hips
- official website
- myspace
- Kiss the Crystal Flake, the new studio album by California’s The Mother Hips, was released April 3 on New York based-indie Camera Records. It is the follow up to the acclaimed Red Tandy EP (Camera Records, 2005) and the first full album for The Hips since 2001’s Green Hills of the Earth. Featuring 12 new songs Kiss The Crystal Flake reintroduces the world to The Mother Hips’ own brand of California rock, blending a natural psychedelia with their own 21st century musicianship and songwriting. It is produced by The Mother Hips with Badman Recording Co. founder Dylan Magierek (Mark Kozelek, Call and Response, Erlend Oye.)
"This album is almost like a debut album for us,” said singer/guitarist Tim Bluhm. “It is very different from anything we recorded in the past. You know that saying about wishing you knew then what you know now? Kiss The Crystal Flake is that coming true."
Formed in 1991 at Chico State in Northern California, The Mother Hips have run the gamut of experiences as a band - from dorm band to buzz band to cult favorite. They took an extended break which nearly became a permanent one after the 2001 album’s release, but decided to reconvene a few years ago, first playing shows, and now as a full-fledged band, writing, recording and releasing new music.
“Many things have come our way,” explained singer/guitarist Loiacono. “Opportunities, challenges, gifts, hard times, misfortune…. Kiss the Crystal Flake is about embracing everything. It's about standing face to face with whatever comes.”
- Hymns
- official website
- myspace
- Somethin’ good was cooked up in Texas …and it ain’t barbeque. It’s Hymns. They use a type of rich and evocative story telling that could only come from the South. The songs have a rollicking, classic sound, rich with instrumentation and full of reflective lyrical vignettes. Lead singer and songwriter, Brian Harding is a singular voice. Hymns will release their 2nd album, Travel in Herds on March 11th, 2007, on Texas-based independent label, Blackland Records. Hymns’ story is rooted in childhood friendship and plays out like a scene from Stand By Me. Hymns are elementary school band mates, Brian Harding and Jason Roberts of Harrisburg, North Carolina and Tony Kent and Matt Shaw of Celeste, Texas, whom are now based in New York City. Brian and Jason continued playing together till the end of University; when Jason went on to join Ben Kweller’s band as lead guitarist, and Brian relocated to NY to continue to forge forward with the band the two had originated. During Roberts’ stint in Kweller’s band, he became close with band-member, John Kent, who went on to form Blackland Records. Jason loved to play John the old songs he had written with Brian while on tour, and before long, John was hooked on the sound.
In 2005, Brian’s band was signed to Blackland Records with Jason back at the guitar. Good hospitality in check, John Kent offered Hymns the chance to record in Celeste, TX, population 817, home to the most decorated WWII veteran, Audie L. Murphy, and most importantly, Kent’s studio, “The Vault”. Their first LP, Brother/Sister garnered them national attention, playing shows with artists like Beck, the Lemonheads, Hot Hot Heat, Ben Kweller, Sam Roberts Band, the Redwalls and Butch Walker, and Celeste, TX allowed them to meet current band members, Tony Kent (brother of John) and Matt Shaw.
Recording in Texas worked like a charm, and so did the new lineup. Travel In Herds was recorded in Palmer, TX at Palmyra Studios located in the middle of a 60-acre ranch. Sleeping on studio couches, entertaining themselves with Coen Brothers movie marathons, and eating every meal inside the studio, an album reminiscent of 70’s folk-rock tunes and toe-tapping rhythms was born.
A bevy of traditional and modern instruments are heard on Travel in Herds. Running the gamut from piano to pump organ, trumpet to saxophone, even the pedal steel and banjo to the electric bass and guitar, all give this record the homegrown authenticity which carries the performances from country bars to city stages providing a beautiful dichotomy between the old and new, which Hymns seem to have mastered. From the funky-horn beat of, “I Can’t Be What U Want”, to the Tom Petty-esque “Blame It On The Mountains”, to the modern day Stones’ “Rocks Off” entitled “St. Sebastian,” Hymns’ music falls in line with the songs of America’s greatest troubadours, whose lyrics and timeless tunes resonate with fans who crave something much more than the fare offered by flash-in-the-pan bands.
‘Travel In Herds’ was release in March and the band will be touring all throughout 2008 to support it…
- 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.
OTHER UPCOMING SHOWS FROM THE BOWERY PRESENTS
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