Recently I played a couple of songs from San Francisco retro rockers The Mother Hips latest long player Pacific Dust for a friend who replied “the seventies called and said they want their sound back.” I laughed and couldn’t help but agree because if you closed your eyes, you’d swear you had time traveled back to 1976 when AM radio, dune buggies, and bell bottoms reigned supreme. Seven albums and almost twenty years into their career, San Francisco’s The Mother Hips play the kind of soul drenched rock and roll music that was popular back when Ringo Starr and George Harrison were kickin’ it with Robbie Robertson and The Band back in the middle of the disco decade.
With Pacific Dust, The Mother Hips finally seem to have put out an album that can be identified as their own signature sound rather than merely just sounding like another band trying to channel the AM Gold era of the 1970’s. Songs like Third Story Floor showcase funky guitar lines drenched in fuzzed out overdrive and swirling phaser stitched together with southern fried harmonies and pounding drums while tracks like Lion and The Bull take a more Phil Spector approach with handclaps, layer upon layer of guitar, greasy keyboards, and one of the best sing along choruses of the entire record. Closing my eyes had me thinking how these songs were simply made for warm summer evenings sitting on the tailgate of an old pickup truck watching sunsets with a cold one in your hands.
The Mother Hips bring their soulful sounds of the ’70’s to a town near you the next six months helping to bust the space time continuum back to 1976 wide open. Check out some video clips of The Mother Hips as well as their current tour schedule below.
THE MOTHER HIPS ON TOUR:
March 10 Vail, CO Street Beat
March 11 Paonia, CO Paradise Theater
March 12 Denver, CO Hi-Dive
March 13 Steamboat Springs, CO Ghost Ranch
March 18-19 Austin, TX SXSW
March 26 Chico, CA El Rey Theater
March 27 Crockett, CA Toots Tavern
April 9 Ventura, CA The Lodge
April 10 San Juan Capistrano, CA The Coach House
April 11 Hermosa Beach, CA Brixton
April 15 Bend, OR Mountain Edge Bar
April 16 Portland, OR Doug Fir Lounge
April 17 Hood River, OR River City Saloon
April 30-May1 Big Sur, CA 2nd Annual Mother Hips Family Hipnic
May 14 New York, NY Bowery Ballroom
May 15 Washington, DC Black Cat
May 28 Moab, UT Desert Rocks Music Festival
June 3 Ozark, AR Wakarusa Music & Camping Festival
June 4 St Louis, MO Old Rock House
June 5 Chicago, IL Schuba’s
June 6 Belden Town, CA Bobolink Music Festival
August 7 Darrington, WA Summer Meltdown Festival
