Hum - Inlet

'90s space rock band back after 22 years:

https://humband.bandcamp.com/releases

https://www.stereogum.com/2088703/hum-surprise-release-first-album-in-22-years-inlet/music/

  Quote

The band Hum formed in 1989 in Urbana, Illinois. Over the next decade, they released four albums and had exactly one big success, the 1995 alt-rock radio hit “Stars.” But Hum’s impact goes far beyond that one song. The band’s sound — a huge, surging guitar swirl that drew on American punk and metal as much as shoegaze — made them an underground touchstone. Hum broke up in 2000, but they remain an important influence still.

I was a huge fan of them back in high school, went to see them in '95 or '96. I can't remember the first band that opened, but Mercury Rev went on right before Hum. I had a curfew and it was getting late, so my friend and I left before Hum played. when we got to my truck, the passenger side window was smashed like someone put their fist through it. my friend and I were pretty stoned and stood there awhile wondering what to do. the drummer for the opening band just happened to be walking by and stopped to help us out. he ended up pulling the rest of the window out by hand. 

Hum and Failure tour incoming when?

Fuck yeah. Was expecting this soon as I knew they were working on new material. Surprise drop is excellent. Gonna listen to this when I get a long enough break between meetings.

Never saw them live, not even sure I even started listening to them until the late 90s or early 2000s, but I like them a lot. Seems people are very pleased with this.

  On 6/23/2020 at 8:12 PM, Zephyr_Nova said:

Hum and Failure tour incoming when?

Holy shit if that happened one of my best friends growing up would probably have an orgasm on the spot.

I was lucky enough to see Hum live (Downward is Heavenward tour) and no surprise to anyone, they are amazing live. Very tight, they looked like they enjoyed playing in the same band together. "I Hate it Too" was damn near as good live as on record (that's basically me giving as high of praise as I can).

Hum fucking rules. There is no bad album. I will be checking for this.

This is quite possibly their best album, and I say this as a huge Hum fan. The production is excellent and there's a lot of variation from song to song. I'm in love.

Never heard of them, sounds pretty good! Thanks for the discovery, always looking for good guitar-driven bands / records, and hadn't heard anything appealing since True Widow.

wow, this is very nice !

edit : Pre ordered the double LP, this is absolutely perfect, sound of the summer.

  On 6/24/2020 at 6:17 AM, mattlines said:

This is quite possibly their best album, and I say this as a huge Hum fan. The production is excellent and there's a lot of variation from song to song. I'm in love.

yeah this is killer. 100% agree about the production, the guitars sound fucking awesome. this totally reminds me of some of the very well produced heavy alternative rock albums from around '94 - '96. I got Helmet Betty vibes from some of these tracks. and not to derail this thread, but if there's anyone here who hasn't heard Betty, then you need to listen to that shit now because it's a fucking beast.

and dammit...this new Hum album made me pull out my You'd Prefer an Astronaut CD last night and the CD is missing from the case. hate it when that happens...so now I can either dig through hundreds of CD's looking for it (as I may have drunkenly put it in the wrong one at some point) or go download it somewhere...

  On 6/24/2020 at 5:10 PM, zero said:

and dammit...this new Hum album made me pull out my You'd Prefer an Astronaut CD last night and the CD is missing from the case. hate it when that happens...so now I can either dig through hundreds of CD's looking for it (as I may have drunkenly put it in the wrong one at some point) or go download it somewhere...

OT but still hilarious. In the insert for You'd Prefer an Astronaut. My doppelgänger is shown in profile view (won't say who but anyone who knows me personally, if you see this you'll know). 

And agreed 1000% on Betty. I personally still like Meantime more but the drums on Betty are all-time great (pro tip:  the opening of "I know" is some of the best drum sample fodder you're ever gonna get, literally "When the Levee Breaks" quality).

  On 6/24/2020 at 5:10 PM, zero said:

and dammit...this new Hum album made me pull out my You'd Prefer an Astronaut CD last night and the CD is missing from the case. hate it when that happens...

I Hate It Too

new album is fuckin good.

  On 6/24/2020 at 8:31 AM, Nil said:

Never heard of them, sounds pretty good! Thanks for the discovery, always looking for good guitar-driven bands / records, and hadn't heard anything appealing since True Widow.

If you're a fan of True Widow I can imagine you'll like this very much.

  On 6/24/2020 at 5:10 PM, zero said:

I got Helmet Betty vibes from some of these tracks. and not to derail this thread, but if there's anyone here who hasn't heard Betty, then you need to listen to that shit now because it's a fucking beast.

When Betty came out, I immediately liked it better than Meantime. Still their best IMHO.

  On 6/24/2020 at 5:10 PM, zero said:

yeah this is killer. 100% agree about the production, the guitars sound fucking awesome. this totally reminds me of some of the very well produced heavy alternative rock albums from around '94 - '96. I got Helmet Betty vibes from some of these tracks. and not to derail this thread, but if there's anyone here who hasn't heard Betty, then you need to listen to that shit now because it's a fucking beast.

Totally hear what you mean with the Betty comparison, especially when thinking back on songs like Speechless and Overrated. Those power chords are heavy and crushing, while simultaneously sounding clean as hell.

I've been deafening myself to this album non-stop for the past 24 hours and it keeps getting better and better. 

I don't listen to too much hard rock anymore, but this album is gold. Only the last Daughters album had me this giddy with excitement and before that, I couldn't tell you what rock albums did it for me, at least since the mid-2000s.

TBH I've never heard about them before reading this thread, I would have loved it since I was quite into this style between 12 and 18Yo, stuff like early Silverchair , helmet, deftones

edit : folding is so lush, hit me right in the feels.

guitars are lovely, but those drums sound fucking crap lmao

  On 6/25/2020 at 7:24 AM, mattlines said:

I don't listen to too much hard rock anymore, but this album is gold. Only the last Daughters album had me this giddy with excitement and before that, I couldn't tell you what rock albums did it for me, at least since the mid-2000s.

same. it's been a long time since I felt genuinely excited about this type of music, since I rarely listen to it anymore. and I listened to this stuff pretty much exclusively back in my high school days, then slowly grew out of it around the time the nu-metal scene came along.

but damn, as soon as I was a few minutes in with this new Hum album, I was grinning, mentally saying this is fucking awesome, and memory diving back into my life from the mid nineties. fantastic album and I guess I didn't realize how much I miss this type of sound.  

Right In The Feels :

Curious what you all thought of the Failure comeback album The Heart Is a Monster 5 years ago? Don't recall if there was a thread. Seems like the general consensus was similar to this one, that it was a really solid comeback album. And I agree. I gave it 4 stars, but to be honest I haven't played it much - maybe 3 to 5 times. Might be the case for this one too, simply because I don't listen to this type of stuff that much anymore. Plenty of rock, still, but I guess comeback albums just have a tendency to fade away. But this is definitely great and probably stronger than Failure's comeback.

BTW who's in the band for this album?

  On 6/26/2020 at 2:45 AM, sidewinder said:

BTW who's in the band for this album?

Original lineup

This is amazing, probably their best album yet.

just grabbed the downward is heavenward repress. 

  On 6/26/2020 at 6:52 AM, mattlines said:

Original lineup

Guessing you mean the last lineup before hiatus, as some original members have left before and after Electra 2000. So probably Matt Talbott, Bryan St. Pere, Jeff Dimpsey, and Tim Lash.

From RYM:

Matt Talbott (vocals, guitar), Andy Switzky (guitar, vocals, 1989-93), Akis Boyatzis (bass, 1989-90), Jeff Kropp (drums, 1989-90), Bryan St. Pere (drums, 1990-2000), Joe Futrelle (bass, 1990), Rod Van Huis (bass, 1990-91), Balthazar De Ley (bass, 1991-93), Jeff Dimpsey (bass, 1993-2000), Tim Lash (guitar, 1993-2000)

15 years old me would have loved this a lot.

  On 6/26/2020 at 7:53 PM, sidewinder said:

Guessing you mean the last lineup before hiatus, as some original members have left before and after Electra 2000. So probably Matt Talbott, Bryan St. Pere, Jeff Dimpsey, and Tim Lash.

Correct! I was only taking into account anyone past You'd Prefer an Astronaut.

  On 6/26/2020 at 7:53 PM, sidewinder said:

Guessing you mean the last lineup before hiatus, as some original members have left before and after Electra 2000. So probably Matt Talbott, Bryan St. Pere, Jeff Dimpsey, and Tim Lash.

From RYM:

Matt Talbott (vocals, guitar), Andy Switzky (guitar, vocals, 1989-93), Akis Boyatzis (bass, 1989-90), Jeff Kropp (drums, 1989-90), Bryan St. Pere (drums, 1990-2000), Joe Futrelle (bass, 1990), Rod Van Huis (bass, 1990-91), Balthazar De Ley (bass, 1991-93), Jeff Dimpsey (bass, 1993-2000), Tim Lash (guitar, 1993-2000)

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actually since y'all wanna get technical...

the main lineup of Matt/Tim/Jeff/Bryan has been the same on all records since (and including) Electra 2000. the way you stated it there implies someone other than those four were on Electra (according to the liner notes it was just M/T/J/B). though to get even more technical, some/most/(all?) of the songs on Electra were written before it was just M/T/J/B so there could be some writing credits to previous members. 

and also there was a brief stint a few years ago where Gerken from Shiner/others played drums live with Hum but that didn't last but a few shows from what i read. otherwise since '93 Hum has just been those four dudes.

  On 6/30/2020 at 3:11 AM, auxien said:

actually since y'all wanna get technical...

the main lineup of Matt/Tim/Jeff/Bryan has been the same on all records since (and including) Electra 2000. the way you stated it there implies someone other than those four were on Electra (according to the liner notes it was just M/T/J/B). though to get even more technical, some/most/(all?) of the songs on Electra were written before it was just M/T/J/B so there could be some writing credits to previous members. 

and also there was a brief stint a few years ago where Gerken from Shiner/others played drums live with Hum but that didn't last but a few shows from what i read. otherwise since '93 Hum has just been those four dudes.

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Cool, thanks for clarifying. I was assuming based on the RYM dates and album release that yes, the previous members would have a lot of writing credits on Electra 2000, but also wrongly assumed they performed on the album. Difficult to know without looking at join/departure and recording dates – and liner notes . I gave up my CD collection some years ago. 

ETA: Anyone ever heard the 1991 album Fillet Show? I haven't, wonder if it's worth seeking out. I'm a big fan of Electra 2000 fwiw.