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Hands Like Houses: “A Pleasant Australian Surprise”

When all of your friends constantly badger you to check out a new band, you get skeptical. Questions may arise in your mind like “what if these guys don’t have a taste in music,” “why this, right now, instead of everything else I’ve grown to love,” or “how many times have I told you NOT to call me at 4 in the morning to tell me about a new band?” But with Hands like Houses, I sincerely wish that I’d have listened to them right then and there, because maybe it wouldn’t have had my life taken over by them for as long.

Published

12 years ago

05/24/2012

Misha Kotok

Article Views: 464

The Skinny: When all of your friends constantly badger you to check out a new band, you get skeptical. Questions may arise in your mind like “what if these guys don’t have a taste in music,” “why this, right now, instead of everything else I’ve grown to love,” or “how many times have I told you NOT to call me at 4 in the morning to tell me about a new band?” But with Hands like Houses, I sincerely wish that I’d have listened to them right then and there, because maybe it wouldn’t have had my life taken over by them for as long.

Hands like Houses are by every definition a standard post-hardcore rock group, except for the overlying fact that they use exclusively clean vocals. They released their debut album Ground Dweller on March 13th of this year, featuring vocals from Jonny Craig (Emarosa, Dance Gavin Dance), Tyler Carter (Woe, is Me), and Matty Mullins (Memphis May Fire). Originating from Australia, the 6 man band gained almost instant success, and started off on European and North American tours. Most notably, they recently got added to the “Scream It Like You Mean It” tour and will be trekking all around the US this Summer with bands like In Fear and Faith, Woe, is me, Glass Cloud, and Volumes.

Between the gratifying vocals of Trenton Woodley, the perfect melody brought on by so many different instrumentalists and instruments, the captivating lyrics that you just want to get tattooed all over yourself, and the uniquely slow gang vocals that are throughout the album, you never find yourself unsatisfied. No moment of the music is dull, but some moments stand out in such a way that you’re replaying the same 30 seconds for hours. To make things even better, once, sorry, IF, you get sick of the album, you can always go on YouTube and check out their four song acoustic videos titled “snow sessions,” for not only a different take on your favorite songs, but an endlessly entertaining performance.

Genre(s): Rock, Experimental