your father is dancing naked again

Last night I had the excellent fortune to see Out Hud at the Mercury Lounge. This was their first performance in over a year; their last show being the last time I saw them live. As before, they killed it. For those (most) of you who don't know the band, Out Hud is three of the members of !!!, plus Phyllis Forbes and Molly Schnick, who've been playing together since they were kids. Out Hud play music that is expectedly similar in sound to !!! at times, but IMHO are much, much more appealing on the whole for several reasons. You still get the same long-form, 5-8 minute tracks. You still have the funny song titles. You still have the incredible percussive beats with the instrumentals layered on and mixed with reverbed elastic vocals. But unlike !!!, there's a few additions that make Out Hud the stronger cousin.

For one thing, plain and simple, after having seen both live a few times, Out Hud packs a dance floor in a way that !!! just can't. Also, what's so fucking cool about seeing them live is that with the one exception of the fella on the sequencers, everyone in the band plays every instrument at one point or another. This means that a vocalist is the bassist on the next track and takes over keyboards halfway through the next. Finally, in addition to their mainstay bassit being INCREDIBLE, what really gives Out Hud their meat is cello. Electric cello. I'll never diss a cello again after seeing whichever of the two girls that was attacking that thing last night, she totally made those songs the monsters they were.

Beyond all that, the stuff on their forthcoming LP (due in March, just finished with the test pressing) makes you want to move. The beats are nutso, pounding affairs that get built up with vocals and insane basslines (thanks to the maniac bassist). They keep layering it on until you're in an absolute dance-infused frenzy. That said, their first real album, Street Dad [buy it on CD or LP from Insound] is a little more mellow, though a solid listen from start to finish. there's also a !!!/Out Hud mixed 12" you can [download from iTunes] as well, or pick up at one of their shows. Keep an eye out for the new LP, and if you want to go to a show that won't break the bank and will rock your face off, go see them ASAP, whenever and wherever they play next.