Hoots & Hellmouth



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Photo by michael persico

Listen to Hoots & Hellmouth on the Umm...Drop Podcast.

First and foremost, they’re known as a live band. “When we’re live, there are four instruments with strings on them that are being strummed and plucked with aplomb, and we’re all stomping on boards, so you feel it as well as hear it,” says Sean Hoots of the band that bears his name, Hoots and Hellmouth, the country folk-rock quartet rounded out by Andrew Gray, Robert Berliner and John Branigan.


The band owes its tight live performance to touring incessantly since the release of their debut self-titled album in 2007. Two years later, they’re finally ready to release their second record, The Holy Open Secret .


Foot-stomping, hand-clapping and three-part harmonies dominate their invigorating live shows, and the band attempted to capture that electric energy on Holy . “We wanted to try to get a little bit more of that live, raw vibe in there, but it’s still a bit different,” Hoots admits. “I think that’s a really necessary part of a lot of the songs. Their makeup is in the feeling as much as it is in the theory that goes into the chord progressions and melody. We had to resign ourselves to the fact that we weren’t going to capture the live sound in the studio.”


One listen to Holy Open Secret and Hoots’ claim is somewhat terrifying. The album is full of whoops and woohoos, yodels and yowls, twangy guitars and chilling, resonating vocals. To downplay the raw vibe of the album is to imply that live shows are simply bombastic. 


Find out at your own risk this week at the band’s Johnny Brenda’s shows.

Thurs., May 28, 9pm, and Fri., May 29, 9:30pm. $12-$15, $20 for both nights. With Old School Freight Train + the New Familiars. Johnny Brenda’s, 1201 Frankford Ave. 215.739.9684. 
johnnybrendas.com

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