I’ve been waiting to listen to tracks from this one for a while. Summer Hymns are currently Team Clermont’s Artist of the Week and i’ve seen it mentioned several places from Lucas of Team Clermont as one of his favorites. All that hype so of course I wanted to hear it. Not that it was necessary as a lot of the albums released on Misra Records are some of the best that the year has to offer like Centro-matic, Shearwater, Evangelicals and now Summer Hymns’ Backward Masks when it’s released on November 22nd.
Imagine J. Mascis jamming with Galaxie 500. Envision My Morning Jacket produced by Phil Elverum. Jason Lyttle getting the Lambchop treatment. Now sit back and listen to Backward Masks, 12 sugary sweet lullabies from Athens GA’s finest southern songsmiths, Summer Hymns. It’s the last vestiges of sunlight as the sun fades away, it’s a mint julep on a humid summer afternoon.
I haven’t really kept up with a lot of what’s currently coming out of Athens right now but this is enough of a jump to start looking into more of the amazing artists that are currently coming out of there as we speak. I’ve never even heard of Summer Hymns until a month ago. So listening to these songs for the first time are surely a treat as “Pity and Envy” has a great hook with a feeling of a warm, mellow pop song with a tinged of that southern flavor in a similiar vein of bands like Grandaddy, MMJ and current label mates Centro-matic. I don’t know if you’d call this kind of stuff pop, but that’s the first thing I think of when listening. Check out these tracks and find out what all the fuss is about as i’m sure you’ll be seeing these songs floating around everywhere soon enough. They’re also playing a few dates in athens/atlanta this month so be sure to check them out.
Nov 8 | Georgia Theater | Athens
Nov 11 | 40 watt | Athens
Nov 15 | The Earl | Atlanta
Summer Hymns | “Pity and Envy”
Summer Hymns | “Start Swimming”
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Thanks, Paul! I’m biased, but Athens continues to astound:
Cinemechanica
We Versus The Shark
Drive-By Truckers
Casper and the Cookies
Elf Power
Of Montreal
Phosphorescent
Dark Meat
Circulatory System
The New Sound of Numbers
Murder Beach
Summer Hymns
Ginger Envelope
63 Crayons
Iron Hero
The Instruments
Col. Knowledge and the Lickety-Splits
Ham1
Tin Cup Prophette
Liz Durrett
The Low Lows
Maserati
The Glands (sorta inactive, but killer nonetheless)
Modern Skirts
The Whigs
Harvey Milk
Pylon (once a year or so!)
Folklore
And, of course, these are just current bands.
This list is hardly complete, but that’s just off the top of my head. I’ll take the Pepsi Challenge with anybody. Except maybe Portland. Heh.
Crap, forgot Music Hates You, Hope foragoldensummer, and more!
And being an ethical commenter, Lucas declined to mention his own band, Venice is Sinking, which belongs on that list of excellent current local bands too