Phosphorescent

Matthew Houck’s adoring fans occasionally find themselves conscripted into straw-sheriff roles, bound to struggle against the mob justice of Inspector Bloggit followers who'd charge him with petty theft just because he seems aesthetically connectable to other dignitaries within his cosmic art-folk / mystic alt-country / slowcore-gospel idiom. The Neutral Milk Hotel comparisons that his work used to attract were inexplicable to this typist's ears-- wtf, because he also lived in Athens? And yes, now that he claims Brooklyn, one can detect-- in three songs-- a flirtation with those post-Animal Collective poles of, y'know, elliptical ethereality and raucous tribalism in his approach to song structure and performance.

Sure, a few acts do consciously cannibalize others' textures, but we hype-machinists too frequently commit the fallacy of assuming that soundalikeness equals influence or translates as aping. Try this at home: Play a guitar and sing, and odds are, now that so many of our psyches are plumb awash in multiplicities of bands, you're going to innocently/organically "sound like" somebody else, unless you're, I don't know, David Thomas Broughton. If in the past Phosphorescent's work contained moments that could be received as echoing Sparklehorse, Tindersticks, Clem Snide, Low, downbeat Flaming Lips, the Pacific-pastoral K Records stable, and the Joe-Henry-curated Jesus' Son soundtrack's commingling of soul, spirituals, oldies, and faux-ldies, well, good for humanity(http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/10815-pride/).

A Hundred Times Or More - 2003



1. Salt & Blues
2. Where to Strip
3. Bullet
4. Little Pt.1
5. Little Pt.2
6. How Far We All Come Away
7. Remain
8. Last of the Hand-Me-Downs
9. Pretty Pt.1
10. Pretty Pt.2

Good Music!

Aw Come Aw Wry - 2005



1. Not A Heel
2. Aw Come Aw Wry #5
3. Joe Tex, These Taming Blues
4. Aw Come Aw Wry #6
5. I Am a Full Grown Man (I Will Lay in the Grass All Day)
6. Dead Heart
7. Aw Come Aw Wry #3
8. South (of America)
9. Lost Name
10. Endless Pt. 1
11. Endless Pt. 2
12. Nowhere Rd.

Good Music!

Pride - 2007




1. A Picture Of Our Torn Up Praise
2. Be Dark Night
3. Wolves
4. At Death, A Proclomation
5. The Waves At Night
6. My Dove, My Lamb
7. Cocaine Lights
8. Pride

Good Music!

To Willie - 2009



1. Reasons To Quit
2. Too Sick To Pray
3. Walkin'
4. It's Not Supposed To Be That Way
5. Pick Up The Tempo
6. I Gotta Get Drunk
7. Can I Sleep In Your Arms
8. Heartaches Of A Fool
9. Permanently Lonely
10. The Last Thing I Needed (First Thing This Morning)
11. The Party's Over


Good Music!

Here's to Taking It Easy - 2010



1. It's Hard To Be Humble (When You're From Alabama)
2. Nothing Was Stolen (Love Me Foolishly)
3. We'll Be Here Soon
4. The Mermaid Parade
5. I Don't Care If There's Cursing
6. Tell Me Baby (Have You Had Enough)
7. Hej, Me I'm Light
8. Heaven, Sittin' Down
9. Los Angeles

Good Music!