Hiss-Golden Messenger performed a couple of songs on the Bandwidth Sessions “Blue Country” the indie-rock ensemble also performed “He Wrote the Book” Hiss Golden Messenger has gotten more attention than MC Taylor and Hirsch’s old outfit, and I can only guess why. Is it because the singles sound meatier? Hooks stickier? Or is it the forces at work in the background — like Merge Records, the weighty indie that released the band’s phenomenal fifth LP,Lateness of Dancers, last year?
Whatever its cause, the notice seems deserved for a gifted band that works hard to do what it loves: As I write this, Hiss Golden Messenger is in Berlin, en route to Scandinavia, then back to the States to play a string of dates through the South and Midwest. And three weeks ago the group was here in D.C., on the edge of a snowstorm, hauling a mountain of gear into WAMU’s studio before it blew our hair back with two tremendous live performances.
For the quintet’s Bandwidth session, it played a jaunty take on “Blue Country Mystic” — one of Taylor’s best songs about fatherhood, originally released on the album Poor Moon — and “He Wrote the Book,”. The band played both songs with more force than may be obvious in our videos — I’m told the drums bled through three studio doors and worked their way into a DJ’s live show (sorry!) — but the skill and heart that went into both songs is impossible to overlook.
The Fat Angel Sings 