{"id":21366,"date":"2021-08-02T05:30:28","date_gmt":"2021-08-02T09:30:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=21366"},"modified":"2021-07-30T09:29:26","modified_gmt":"2021-07-30T13:29:26","slug":"thirty-years-with-the-mother-hips-part-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2021\/08\/02\/thirty-years-with-the-mother-hips-part-one\/","title":{"rendered":"Thirty Years with the Mother Hips (Part One)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Popular West Coast Band reissues its entire studio catalog, on vinyl for the first time<\/i><\/p>\n

Some artists have made a successful career out of establishing a signature sound and then sticking with it over the course of their entire catalog. Other artists take a potentially riskier approach, following their muse wherever it takes them. The latter description certainly fits Northern California group the Mother Hips: across ten studio albums, the group has recorded and released music that can be variously described as alternative rock, jam, folk rock, psychedelic, Americana and even power pop. And along the way the Mother Hips have built and cultivated a loyal fan base.<\/p>\n

Last year marked the 30th<\/sup> anniversary of the band\u2019s formation in Chico, California. In the absence of a tour \u2013 the COVID-19 pandemic made that impossible \u2013 the band has instead launched a reissue campaign: beginning in February 2021, the Mother Hips\u2019 entire catalog is being reissued, one title per month. And for the first time, the band\u2019s album are being pressed onto vinyl.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Guitarist, vocalist and songwriter Tim Bluhm addresses the point about the Mother Hips\u2019 ongoing stylistic metamorphosis. \u201cSome bands have had a lot of success making the same records over and over again,\u201d he observes, \u201conce the label and the band have found an equation that is successful.\u201d He chuckles when he explains that the Mother Hips \u201cdefinitely found some equations that were successful, but none of them were commercially<\/i> successful.\u201d<\/p>\n

And perhaps counter-intuitively, that lack of major commercial success brought with it a kind of creative freedom. \u201cI think that [commercially] successful bands can get pigeonholed,\u201d Bluhm says, \u201cbecause it makes money for everybody. And that’s understandable.\u201d The Mother Hips exercised the latitude that their comparatively under-the-radar status provided.<\/p>\n

Having explained some of the motivation for changing things up from album to album, Bluhm good-naturedly goes on to refute the basic point. \u201cWe’ve always pretty much just played whatever was in our heads,\u201d he says, \u201cbut I personally don\u2019t think [our style] has varied all that much through the years.\u201d<\/p>\n

The fact is, when the Mother Hips recorded their debut album, 1992\u2019s Back to the Grotto<\/i>, most of the members ere barely out of their teenage years. \u201cWe probably didn’t think we were \u2018just kids,\u2019\u201d Bluhm says with a laugh. \u201cBut we didn’t know anything<\/i> about making records, or really even about being in bands, other than just watching famous bands and admiring them from afar.\u201d In Chico \u2013 which at the time had a population of around 45,000 persons \u2013 the band was disconnected from the larger musical world. \u201cWe really didn’t have a lot of people around us who had more experience than we did,\u201d Bluhm says. \u201cSo we were just making a record that was extremely isolated, and unique because of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

But despite \u2013 of perhaps in part because of \u2013 the band members\u2019 tender years and relative isolation, songs like \u201cHey Emilie,\u201d the opening track on that debut LP, have worn well, with a breezy, easygoing character that showcases the band\u2019s assets. Inspired playing, an arrangement that builds from gentle folkiness to swaggering arena rock, and tight vocal harmonies are hallmarks of the tune. And those fundamental musical qualities would characterize the majority of the Mother Hips\u2019 subsequent work.<\/p>\n

Greg Loiacono founded the band with Bluhm; the lineup would change over time, and today they\u2019re the only founding members still in the group. Loiacono doesn\u2019t look back at the Mother Hips\u2019 body of work as the product of any sort of plan, much less a grand design. \u201cI can remember going into each record \u2013 or at least quite a few of them \u2013 thinking, \u2018We should do this<\/i> kind of thing,\u2019 or, \u2018This one’s going to really rock,\u2019\u201d he says. But as the writing and recording got underway, the music sometimes seemed to have ideas of its own.<\/p>\n

\u201cInevitably,\u201d Loiacono observes, \u201cit just morphs into whatever is happening, whatever is coming out of us in the moment.\u201d He laughs when he predicts that the Mother Hips will probably never make a concept album. Each record, he says, \u201ctakes on its own life. We don\u2019t know what it\u2019s going to end up being.\u201d<\/p>\n

To be continued \u2026<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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