hi.
we are HYMNS. we have two records out (yes, count them!): 'brother/sister' & 'travel in herds' (in that order, you know).
our new ep, 'appaloosa' just came out and we're more excited than ever. five new songs.yes!
oh, by the way: write us--we love that kind of stuff.
past touring:
ben kweller
sam roberts band
daniel johnston
the lemonheads
mtv choose or lose tour with locksley
butch walker.
-you should buy our records-(click below)
HYMNS: Daytrotter Sessions
-talk-
-Rolling Stone Magazine 'Appaloosa' Review-
3 Stars!
'Buzzed-over North Carolina-via-New York quartet Hymns are a folk-rock band that likes to experiment with a mix of textures: Druggy AM-radio vibes on "Call Me Honey," a harpsichord groove on "Ten Bells," horns on the singalong title track. What doesn't change: the band's strong, rootsy tune sense.' - rolling stone
-Spin Magazine 'Travel In Herds' Review-
3 Stars!
'If Pavement and Neil Young Took A Roadtrip to Burritoville'
'These New Yorkers recorded their sophomore LP on a 60-acre ranch in Texas, and the album's airy country rock feels appropriately spacious and uninhibited. 'Travel In Herds' features a honky tonk instrumentation-pedal steel, piano-but much like early Wilco, nods to the Rolling Stones as much as Waylon Jennings. The skronking 'I Can't Be What U Want' is built around an addictive banjo line, lifted up by trumpet and sax. All that unadulterated plucking, though, inevitably leads you dreaming of flat, unending pastures.' - spin magazine
'the band – childhood pals Brian Harding and Jason Roberts – fashions a musical hybrid that possesses the indie cool of a bustling metropolis, the lush instrumentation of a folk outfit, the vivid storytelling of a campfire singalong, and the world weary alternative country of Wilco’s earliest work. Ironically, most of the songs on Hymns’ latest EP, Appaloosa, bear an uncanny resemblance to White Album-era Beatles.' - adequacy
'Brian Harding and Jason Roberts have been playing together since grade school and it shows, their riffs and leads flawlessly intertwining, gracefully switching roles until they make a nonsense of the terms "rhythm" and "lead" guitar. As supple as they are subtle, the pair blur genre lines along the way, but in the end, their North Carolina roots inevitably show, all those years picking away on the porch shining through.' - allmusic
'Roberts and the band's front man Brian Harding have known each other since they were little kids, been playing music together almost as long and it shows -- the two have a tight, effortless chemistry on stage, and along with drummer Tony Kent and their newest member, bassist Matt Shaw, they play a show that offers Southern fried good times, start to finish.' - john norris, mtv
'The pace and sequencing of this album is nearly perfect, which is difficult when you make a record that touches so many bases. It--s not easy for a band to be this ambitious and still pull it off. Wilco did it with Being There and the Hymns more than succeed with Travel in Herds. Hymns cover expansive ground while keeping the listener comfortable in the familiar realms of Americana.
Sure, you hear some subtle and not-so-subtle nods to The Band, late 60--s Stones, Tom Petty (Blame it On the Mountains), and perhaps Gram Parsons (Off My Mind)--but Travel in Herds is a modern music-lovers album and is a record that any of those artists would have been proud to have made.' - brokenguitarstrings
'the california sunset twang doesn't sound forced and rests nicely in these well-crafted tunes.' - village voice
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