Moon hooch

[Embenny]

I talk about gear more than music on here, and also fall into the trap of mostly discussing guitar-centric stuff when I do.

I thought maybe I'd start posting about some more eclectic stuff and see if people are into it.

Who here has heard of Moon Hooch? I found them 5-6 years ago through their excellent NPR Tiny Desk performance (what a deep well NPR is, I don't think they've ever featured someone who wasn't worth listening to at least once).

They're a sax/sax/drum trio who play stuff on a spectrum between funk, jazz, and dance music. They're all talented but their drummer looks and plays like a man possessed when he gets going and he's got an incredible touch and groove. He can pull back when they're playing unamplified shows with only the two saxes and lose nothing, and he can go nuts when they have a fully miked setup without ever losing the essence of the song.

I figured they might be something some OSG people could get into, especially since they have moments where they kinda channel a "Sonic Youth on saxohones" vibe - getting sounds other than notes out of their instruments, taping traffic cones into the bell of a sax, etc. They also have quite a few songs that really lean into a riff-based structure that you don't always encounter in woodwind-based music.

They're at their best live but also cut some interesting records where they are able to lean more heavily into the effects and electronic side of their sound, even including vocals occasionally. Still, a lot of their studio recordings like this one pretty accurately reflect their live sound, with only some doubling and octave effects added (which they use live too, when they're miked up and circumstances permit).

I won't turn this into a giant list of links - if you liked what you heard in either of the videos above, you'll like anything of theirs you can find on YouTube, Spotify or elsewhere. Happy to point in some specific directions if it's of interest to anyone, though.

[Larry Mal]

Who here has heard of Moon Hooch? I found them 5-6 years ago through their excellent NPR Tiny Desk performance (what a deep well NPR is, I don't think they've ever featured someone who wasn't worth listening to at least once).

A quote from the YouTube link was "I've never seen anyone play the drums sarcastically before."

And it's accurate. Folks, it's worth watching the video a bit if only for that, but it's a fun performance. I might dig into it a little more later.

[Cornelius Plum]

Cool! Reminds me of Sons of Kemet. Thanks!

[Scout]

Reminds me of Morphine.

Stylistically and the horns.

[Larry Mal]

I saw Morphine back in the day... I used to go to concerts, I remember.

[s_mcsleazy]

yeah i like moon hooch. i remember an old comment on their tiny desk video that said "so this is what happened to ed edd n eddy" which always made me smile.

honestly i think they're pretty interesting. same with too many zooz
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMyqasy2Lco

honestly, as much as i love guitars and guitar based music, i think sax and most brass can sound pretty neat.

[Scout]

I like them, maybe not in large doses, but then again I used to like the shows that had
widely varied acts that each did a set and then got off the stage.

I'm also not a fan of videos, if I want to watch an art movie I'll watch an art movie.

Back when they had live music I would always watch a part of the show with my
eyes closed , the more I liked it the less I watched with my eyes open.

[Flurko]

Cool! Reminds me of Sons of Kemet. Thanks!

I've listened to this record a hundred times, but this song still makes me dance on my chair a monday morning.

Moon hooch are great, they also did a pretty interesting video with Andrew Huang.