Hookworms “Off Screen”

Maybe it’s because I’m sitting in a coffeehouse smack-dab in the middle of an ivy-town collegiate setting and they’re streaming my youth over the sound speaker (ahhh: Simple Minds, The Cure, Psychedelic Furs) and not even ironically, I don’t think–although admittedly my irony meter has suffered a bit with age–but regardless, rather than slipping into a sudsy bath of nostalgia, I’m having an urge to write about something new. And here, for me, is the funny thing about new: a sense of I haven’t heard quite that combination of sounds before mixed with ah, yes, I’ve always enjoyed a groovy [synth beat, steady drum rhythm, wayward guitar].

So here I am hanging out with the Hookworms, who for all the world, look like guys you may go camping with and while sitting around the campfire in the woods, they’d pull out a keyboard, bass, guitar, one simple drum and a mic with a lot of reverb (because it’s amazing what you can carry into the woods these days), and we’d all trance out a bit to this first single “Off Screen,” which is filled with the kind of goodness in sound that bands who take chances yet still respect their roots are wont to make. And they do have great range, because beyond this single, other tunes feature blistering beats that might take you up steep mountains, and some steady rhythms that can paddle you across lakes. All good.

S’mores optional.