Posts Tagged ‘Mount Moriah’

H.C. McENTIRE – ” Quartz in the Valley “

Posted: January 18, 2018 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
Tags: , , ,
0

hcmcentire_heatherevanssmith1.jpg

You might not have heard of H.C. McEntire, but you’ll almost certainly know her collaborators; Kathleen Hanna, William Tyler and Angel Olsen to name just a few of the stellar accompanying cast. Currently best known as frontwoman of Mount Moriah, stepping out solo feels like a logical next step for H.C, a songwriter with the noble aim of reclaiming country music from, “the hetero-normative, homogenous schtick of tailgates and six-packs and men chasing women”.

The resultant album, “Lionheart”, is undeniably a record of turbulence and change how could any album about America released this year not be – but more than that it is a record about reclaiming your own power. Lionheart takes all the traditions of the American South, and sets about tearing them to pieces. As H.C. McEntire explains, “in music, there are no rules. You make your own language. You can be both the Southern rock outlier and the twangy gospel conduit. You can be both the cherubic, honey-tongued innocent and the ardent punk. To get here—to find my lion heart—I had to become them all”. Mainly though on Lionheart, despite all her influences, all her outfits, all her collaborators, H.C. McEntire sounds entirely like herself, and it doesn’t get much better than that.

MOUNT MORIAH – ” Baby Blue “

Posted: February 14, 2016 in MUSIC
Tags: , ,
0

The video for new How To Dance single “Baby Blue” ruptures the fourth wall in the same way Mount Moriah’s music ruptures the traditional themes of Southern roots rock. The intimacy of each moment captured on camera mimics the slow and heartfelt vocals and dusty instrumentation, the clip’s surreal nature accenting the slow-burning single’s dreamy qualities all the while. Seeking to highlight the fact that each seemingly candid moment captured is indeed a construct, director Jordan Michael Blake sought to use the film’s voyeuristic qualities in order to “prompt some thought about the way to frame our own personal memories/perceptions of others.” Watch the music video for “Baby Blue” below.

From the album How to Dance, out February 26th on Merge Records.

MOUNT MORIAH – ” Cardinal Cross “

Posted: December 10, 2015 in MUSIC
Tags: , , , , ,
0

http://

Beginning with their 2010 EP, “The Letting Go”, North Carolina’s Mount Moriah has been a steady, subversive force in the state. The band’s members have backgrounds in punk and heavy metal, but deliver sharp, twang-tinged rock music together as a unit. Heather McEntire, who fronts the outfit and writes the band’s lyrics, pens moving songs that ache and soothe as she sings about heartache and redemption. A crucial part of Mount Moriah’s songs has been the idea of a conflicting Southern identity: loving the place you call home, but sometimes clashing with dominant cultural politics or mindsets. The band transforms those sometimes ugly skirmishes into utterly stunning songs.

The band delivered two excellent records with 2011’s Mount Moriah and 2013’s Miracle Temple and, in February, their third LP will arrive via Merge Records. “Cardinal Cross,” the first single from the forthcoming new release titled “How to Dance”, is a strong, scorching tune that ponders supernatural and astrological elements. Jenks Miller, who crafts most of Mount Moriah’s intricate and intriguing guitar licks, explains that the song’s theme is based on an astrological phenomenon called the Grand (or Cardinal) Cross, which represents the intersection of personality traits that seem to conflict with one another.