1995 was good to Hum.
The Champaign quartet’s major-label debut “You’d Prefer an Astronaut” received steady airplay and reportedly registered strong sales. The band played Lollapalooza and opened a tour for breakthrough Brit grungesters Bush. Hum also nabbed some valuable media coverage with a stint on “Late Night with Conan O’Brien” and a rare live-on-air set during Howard Stern’s morning show.
Yet you’d be hard pressed to detect even the hint of a swollen head when talking with Hum singer/guitarist Matt Talbott. Perhaps it’s his Southern Illinois background, but Talbott is refreshingly down-to-earth in his assessment of the band and its achievements.
“Face the facts,” he urges, “we’re a loud, two-guitar-bass-drums band, and there are 5,000 others with that lineup. We’re not trying to reinvent rock music.. . . But we really try to make our songs special, and we do that by working very hard at songwriting. Ultimately, I hope that’s what’s cool about Hum.”
Songwriting is indeed what’s cool about Hum. While the band is a practitioner of the Big Guitar sound that’s rife throughout alternative rock, Hum’s distinctive, engaging melodies and lyrical introspection lift it well above the competition.
“When I write lyrics,” says Talbott,” I try to stick to what I know. Since I don’t know a whole lot, maybe that’s why the songs end up kind of introspective.”
Talbott also is more bemused than awed by the band’s appearances on the Howard Stern and Conan O’Brien shows. When asked about the Stern appearance, he responds warily:
“Uh . . . yeah, we were on his show. I guess he’s a fan, although I don’t know how that happened. He’d been playing our song `Stars’ on his show, and when we were in New York, he invited us over to his studio. He was actually genuinely nice to us.”
Talbott is less circumspect about the O’Brien performance.
“We stunk that one up,” he says. “It was only about 50 degrees in the studio, so you couldn’t keep the guitars in tune. And we just didn’t play well.
“Fortunately, the rest of the guests weren’t very good either.”
I suggest that Hum’s performance was probably the highlight of the show.
“We were the nail in the coffin,” insists Talbott. “I think Conan thought he would be fired the next day.”
Though Hum has been on tour since the spring and deserves a break, the band is now back on the road playing selected club dates.
“We want to play small clubs again and perform just for our fans,” says Talbott. “I feel bad that younger kids often can’t go to those shows, but it’s important for us to have some fun and play for people who care about our music.”
Hum headlines Saturday night at the Empty Bottle.
Anita Baker, Friday and Saturday at the Star Plaza: Anita Baker sticks out like Gulliver among the Lilliputians in the world of mainstream pop music, which is for the most part a place of self-satisfied mediocrity. She’s a versatile and distinctive pop singer and songwriter whose approach to music is guided more by aesthetics than marketing. Equally capable and comfortable with gospel, soul and straight pop, Baker is a real musician rather than a whinnying show pony.
Babe the Blue Ox, Friday at the Lounge Ax: Like many New York City-area combos, this trio works up an aggressive guitar welter that it swizzles through an experimental mixmaster. The result is music where time signatures jiggle and jump, acidic dissonance modulates into mellifluent harmony and crooning whispers burst into screams with schizoid abruptness. It’s interesting and intriguing, yet the sudden transitions often sound more contrived than musically organic. RCA recently scooped up Babe on the basis of its bludgeon-blues track “Hazmats” on the “Red Hot + Bothered” compilation.
Willie Kent & the Gents with Bonnie Lee, Friday and Saturday at B.L.U.E.S.: Chicago blues bands that understand the value of subtly blending together as a rock-solid ensemble become fewer with every passing year. That’s what makes bassist Willie Kent & his group, the Gents, such a valuable local commodity. Kent’s vocals are often startling in their West Side intensity, and his bass playing is dead-in-the-pocket. Further, his combo knows intuitively how to contribute to the whole without relying on superfluous pyrotechnics. Vocalist Bonnie Lee, a frequent attraction with Kent’s band, recently released a solid album on Delmark, “Sweetheart of the Blues.”
Bill Dahl
Michael McDermott, Friday at the Double Door: Chicago native McDermott is what’s known as a “literate” singer/songwriter, and as such he operates in a musical minefield. Often, guitar strummers possessing shelves of tattered paperbacks, the complete recordings of Bob Dylan and a handful of psychological insights end up producing clever but anemic songs. On his upcoming, eponymous third CD, McDermott wisely steers clear of self-conscious wit and, instead, opts for passionate, poignant storytelling and sturdy folk/rock tunesmithing. His honesty and working-stiff empathies are unassailable, though the music and lyrics ultimately sound more comfortably familiar than distinctive.
The Frogs, Friday at the Empty Bottle: Since it first surfaced in 1988, this Milwaukee duo has remained one of the most obscure and subversive outfits on the indie rock circuit. The Frogs have proclaimed themselves leaders of the Gay Supremacist movement and concoct songs as openly, if not confrontationally, out of the closet as anything available on record. The Frogs disappeared from the scene several years ago but have recently resurfaced brandishing hundreds of acoustic ditties oozing with edgy satire, gay pride, scatological humor and anti-social attitude. The band’s latest release is a three-song “holiday” 45 entitled “Here Comes Santa’s Pussy.” The title cut relates the zany antics of an anally fixated polar cat armed with a candy cane. The B-side is a spewing of Christmas/New Year’s ill will that’ll curdle your egg nog.
The Fabulous Thunderbirds, Friday at Buddy Guy’s Legends: The T-Birds have come a long way since their crossover hit “Wrap It Up” made them stars nearly a decade ago. Unfortunately, it’s been mostly downhill. The band’s hit spigot plugged up, guitar legend Jimmie Vaughan jumped ship, and the group eventually disintegrated. Undaunted, T-Birds patriarch and harp master Kim Wilson is back with a new gaggle of R&B fledglings, along with longtime, rock-steady drummer Fran Christina. The band’s recent “Roll of the Dice” record revisits the blue-collar, boilermaker R&B that was the original T-Birds’ stock-in-trade. The tunes spill out some solid roadhouse hooks, the playing is earnest and gritty, and the T-Birds generally sound like they’re back to stay.
