After high school, Matt Myers didn’t really feel like going away to college, so he stayed in New Albany and went to Indiana University Southeast, across the river from Louisville. He didn’t feel like concentrating on anything, so he majored in general studies with a minor in philosophy. Six years later, when the time came to graduate, he thought a little about working in a coffee shop, but he never got around to finding a job. After one last winery gig, he traded in the acoustic duo he had with Katie Toupin and went electric with drummer Shane Cody, an old friend who’d moved back to town. Cody called up bassist Zak Appleby, and something almost clicked. All they needed was for Toupin to join them on organ, and halfway through a session with too many dogs barking in the background, Houndmouth was born. Recorded over five days in the high heat of the Hoosier summer, From The Hills Below The City (Rough Trade) feels like the second coming of the Band, mixing folk, country and rock into a whole that’s bigger than the sum of its parts, with each member writing songs, switching back and forth between instruments, and taking a turn on lead vocals. Houndmouth will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our new feature on the band.
Appleby: I am convinced that being hypnotized is for the weak minded. I get that it is a deep state of relaxation, but to go under someone else’s control and cluck like a chicken upon their very command seems a bit much. And then to alter someone’s lifestyle as much as to get them to stop smoking cigarettes?!?! It’s all bit too heavy for me to handle. It seems people so badly want to be part of something that they follow whatever requests the hypnotists make, no matter how ridiculous. If someone with an amazingly strong mind, like mine, would undergo such an “experiment,” they would scoff at the very idea of being bock!! bock!! bock!! ………. I just blacked out …… What happened?
Video after the jump.
