From the Hills Below the City

by Matt Myers, Houndmouth, Katie Toupin, Shane Cody, Zak Appleby

Overview

Hailing from New Albany, Indiana, a town neighboring Louisville, young band Houndmouth make their debut on the meticulously produced From the Hills Below the City. The album's 12 songs find Houndmouth, composed of just four musicians, putting out a passionate and explosively large sound, revisiting bygone themes through both the down-home holler of heartland Americana and some well-schooled rock musicianship. One of the first things that sticks out about the group is the urgent singing of all four members, often backing each other up as one member takes the lead. Opening track "On the Road" finds vocalists Katie Toupin and Matt Myers in a spirited duet not too far off from the lovers-on-the-run anthems of Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros or the dustbowl nostalgia of the Lumineers, who Houndmouth have toured with at times. This song, much like the rest of the album, builds subtly and seamlessly, with supportive organ textures and tambourine showing up just in the nick of time for the brief tune's brilliant summit. The by-the-numbers production goes hand in hand with the bandmembers' tailored playing and thickly stylized vocals, hitting all the marks of emphatic country-enamored rock on tracks like the Toupin-fronted "Houston Train," a tale of being strung out, riding the hard-luck rails. There's plenty of Great Depression-era imagery throughout From the Hills Below the City, with signifiers like coal mines, riverboats, wartime rations, and names of Southern towns making up the lyrical content for many songs. In its best moments, the album taps into an imagined nostalgia at the same time it grabs some of the weary rock & roll grit that made up greasy classics like Exile on Main St. and Neil Young's Tonight's the Night. ~ Fred Thomas

Product Details

Release Date:	06/04/2013
Label:	Rough Trade
UPC:	0883870066211
Rank:	56715

Tracks

1. On the Road
2. Come On, Illinois
3. Penitentiary
4. Casino (Bad Things)
5. Ludlow
6. Hey Rose
7. Krampus
8. Long as You're at Home
9. Houston Train
10. Comin¿¿¿ Around Again
11. Halfway to Hardinsburg
12. Palmyra

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Houndmouth   Primary Artist
Matt Myers   Primary Artist
Katie Toupin   Primary Artist
Shane Cody   Primary Artist
Zak Appleby   Primary Artist
Scott Moore   Strings
Aaron Craker   Piano

Technical Credits

Ed Ackerson   Mixing
Jeff Lipton   Mastering
Kevin Ratterman   Engineer,Producer
Matt Myers   Composer
Houndmouth   Producer
Maria Rice   Mastering Assistant
Katie Toupin   Composer
Shane Cody   Composer
Zak Appleby   Composer
Allie Mack   Logo Design
Danny Shuma   Composer
Stuart B. Wrege   Cover Image