Hum in Kansas City @ The Record Bar (11.04.11)

These cats have been a favorite of mine since I first heard their (only) radio song "Stars" back when I was a sophomore in high school. Densely layered, effects-heavy guitar work mixed with some pretty strange, and often cryptic, space-essenced lyrics made for music more interesting than a lot of what was being played on the radio at the time. I was fortunate enough to be living in a city that got reception from the indie-rock station near the campus of the University of Kansas (R.I.P. 105.9 the Lazer), so I got plenty of Hum, Soul Coughing, Morphine, Elastica, early Deftones, and I think I even remember hearing Quicksand once or twice, which shocked me.

"Downward is Heavenward" - 1998

 

This album quickly made my top 10 favorite albums of all time. From front to back, this album gets listened to in one complete sitting. No tracks get skipped and all get turned up very loud. Some of my favorite memories are attached to this album, but specifically driving late at night on Highway 10 heading back into Kirksville, MO, my old college town. I'd be driving with Ben and Scott (or even alone sometimes) and we'd put this album on during the hilliest, darkest highway I've ever been on. Perfect album for driving on a star-lit roller coaster of a backwoods highway.

"You'd Prefer An Astronaut" - 1995

Released the year I moved to Kansas City, this was Hum's breakout album. Their song "Stars" was all over the radio at the time and, typically, it's the only one that ever gets played on the radio despite them having a solid discography of songs to choose from. It took me awhile to really get into this album as it was my first taste of them and the style of music, but eventually became a mainstay as well. While I prefer their last album more, this one has some great tracks on it regardless.

"Electra2000" - 1993

I used to cruise the local Best Buy for new music all the time. Every once in awhile I'd find a new album or early EP from a band that I'd just gotten into and this was one I stumbled across during one of my forays through the music section. A very different and earlier style, it's heavy and chunky, but damn good. You can definitely see how the band's sound progressed from 1993 to 1998. They kept the heaviness, but cleaned it up, made it pristine, made it louder and fine-tuned everything from top to bottom. A solid album despite it being less meticulous and more gritty compared to their last two.

"Fillet Show" - 1991

To this day, I still haven't listened to this one all the way through, I'm ashamed to say. We (my friends and I) didn't even know this one existed until we came across a cassette version on eBay. Ben bought it, but I don't know if he's still got a copy or not. The beautiful thing about the digital age is that someone else had a copy, uploaded it, and now the rest of us can enjoy the early works of the band too. I should probably give this one a spin for the flight home this weekend.

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