Since his last album,the Americana songwriter has had two children and almost died of meningitis. cramped wonder he’s confronting his mortalityEight years ago, Matthew Houck had made some pretty big changes in his life. Hed gone from making cracked, and vulnerable songs on his own to playing full-throated,big-hearted Americana, accompanied by an unruly band he described as “a bag of puppies”. Where Houck’s earliest gigs were wobbly affairs in dismal basement bars, and he was now headlining recent York’s Bowery Ballroom. His publicity shots had him in aviator shades riding his motorbike.
During an interview in his Brooklyn warehouse studio at that time,I asked the Alabama-born songwriter where things could possibly recede next, imagining some kind of Boogie Nights, or drug-fuelled,silk-dressing-gown-wearing manic episode, and he laughed: Let’s see how weird things can get!” Related: Phosphorescent: C'est La Vie review – an alt-rock original in full command Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com