Eveningland

This is what I love about the alt-country genre, you can be folk and country and poppily atmospheric and it all fits. I guess I really don't like genres and classification, but it's a necessary evil if one is to explain what a band sounds like.

The Brooklyn band Hem has a new album out this week titled "Funnel Cloud." If you haven't heard this stuff yet, I recommend it. There's a bit of Neko Case (with and without the New Pornographers), but then there's also some Nick Drake, Belle & Sebastien, Beth Orton, and Patty Griffith in there, too.

I probably shouldn't bring up the alt-country thing because that may skew your opinion before you hear Hem. A better way of putting it would be traditional American music. And the band's principal members Dan Messe, Sally Ellyson, Steve Curtis, and Gary Maurer completely and totally bring it on this record. Guest players include Amy Helm (of Olabelle), the 21-piece Gowanus Radio Orchestra, and James Iha (Smashing Pumpkins). The instrumentation alone is staggering: piano, celeste, glockenspiel, guitar, mandolin, banjo, and harmonica.

You can check out Hem's site here, and you can click on that pic below to check out their MySpace page.