The Huntress and Holder of Hands and Corn Smut Reviewed
The Huntress and Holder of Hands – Doctrine
Things are finally breaking down! And, if you’re a music fan, this is wonderful. The general unease of the world, the tension felt especially in the biggest mass producer of entertainment, the USA, is now reflected in modern music.
It took a while! The great Punk-Rock Revolution advertised to us years ago never happened. The big punk bands never wrote protest songs, or when they did, spent less time on them than it takes to warm a cup of coffee.
Now, it’s hard to ignore. Sure, glossy Hollywood movies can still be made, and I’m sure that there are people writing poems about flowers and Spring. However, The Huntress and Holder of Hands are eager to tell us, while singing a song, that you can’t ignore reality.
“Doctrine” is a moody folk tune and, also, a protest song. It’s what David Crosby and his crew would’ve been making if they hadn’t been busy sailing. And while the lyrics are vague, so are political and religious doctrines, the things that Huntress and Holder of Hands know will always stop us from reaching consensus on anything of importance. The season for protest songs is finally here!
Corn Smut – Man Overboard
There are plenty of art-rock bands being formed every year. They write songs, they worry about their guitars being in tune, and they record material that they hope will be heard by millions.
But hardly any of these bands ever tour. In fact, very few of the musicians involved in these kinds of endeavours have ever left their home town. Theirs is the world of constant studying and of learning from other people’s stories.
Maybe why there are so many songs about feelings and so few about possible nautical disasters. And, if you’re not able to search for adventure yourself, your best bet is to dream it up as the wonderfully titled Corn Smut do.
“Man Overboard” is a beautifully conservative country-rock number about, I assume, adventures on the high seas. And as you listen to this, you assume that Corn Smut are in on a joke that you’re not.
The band’s humour, you presume, comes from playing everything straight. The song’s strength comes, meanwhile, from the strong performance and from the imagination blended with the band’s art-rock ambitions.
