If It's Too Loud...

MorganEve Swain's musical project The Huntress and Holder of Hands has a new single out, and the truly great news is that it's the first from an upcoming album. "Promethean" is a monster of a song. It may use traditional folk instruments, but I couldn't possibly consider it a folk song. It might be the fact that Swain has repeatedly covered Alice in Chains, but "Promethean" reminds me more of grunge (and particularly Alice in Chains' darker version of the genre) than anything roots or Americana. This is a heavy track that shows the power of more traditional instruments. We've been huge fans of Swain's for well over a decade now, and "Promethean" stands up as one of her best. MorganEve Swain says of her latest single: "As punishment for stealing fire and bettering humanity with technology, Prometheus is doomed to have his liver eaten by an eagle every day. We all benefit from his sacrifice. But whether societally or personally a...

You might recognize Emily Dix Thomas from playing cello in The Huntress and Holder of Hands or bass in NOVA ONE. Thomas's solo project is EDT, and just released a new single, "Depths." As you might guess from her other bands, "Depths" is hardly traditional folk. It's a lovely song with swirling noise and a hypnotic riff and drums. The repetition of the riff never gets old despite going through virtually the entire song. Thomas's vocals are the highlight, as they sound like they belong in a more mainstream, traditional modern folk song. Instead, they anchor this foray into relatively experimental folk. Whatever you do, don't let EDT slip below your radar. You can listen to "Depths" below. it was a wave, of course is due out August 5 on Pretty Purgatory and can be pre-ordered through Bandcamp . For more on EDT, check out the artist's website . it was a wave, of course by EDT

The Huntress and Holder of Hands' 2017 album Avalon  has stealthily become an all time favorite. Although I did see MorganEve Swain perform solo late last summer, it had been quite a while since I saw The Huntress and Holder of Hands as a full band. Add to that the fact that they were playing in a new venue I had yet to make it to, and Eye Witness was opening, and it quickly became an impossible to miss show.  Eye Witness opened the show. They're an indie folk duo out of central MA making their debut as a trio. Rainy and Milo are now joined by Lovina on keyboard. Seeing as how I had never seen them, I can't compare them to their previous incarnation, but the trio played quite well together. One thing that surprised me is how loudly they played for an indie folk band. Sure, Eye Witness have some folk elements, but they rocked more than a little too hard to be truly folk. Plus, the music had some very dark vibes. An alt-rock band disguised as a folk trio playing dark music? S...

Saturday was a ridiculous day filled with live shows in the Boston area. No matter what I chose, I was going to have some level of FOMO. But, I've been hoping to get back to The Word Barn before they close up their meadow stage for the season, and with a dual bill of Pete Bernhard of The Devil Makes Three and The Huntress and Holder of Hands playing solo, I truly couldn't pass that up.  During the show, MorganEve Swain mentioned that she hates playing solo since it was all her and any mistakes couldn't be covered up. I was personally curious how The Huntress and Holder of Hands songs would work solo seeing that her music is quite noisy. Sure, it's primarily folk but with elements of indie rock and even metal it can get quite loud and discordant. Stripped down to just guitar and vocals her music was at its most bare bones. Swain played a good amount of new songs that were just being played live for the first few times, including last year's "Doctrine." If t...

I'm a fan of bands like The Pogues, Flogging Molly, and Dropkick Murphys, but I always avoid Irish music in the month of March. I dislike the whole St. Patrick's Day thing, I'm just a grump like that. But yesterday Deer Tick released a cover of the Irish folk song "Muirsheen Durkin" and brought together an all-star crew of guest stars for it. The "Friends" are Steve Berlin (Los Lobos), James Felice (The Felice Brothers), Spider Stacy (The Pogues), MorganEve Swain (The Huntress & Holder of Hands, Brown Bird, The Devil Makes Three), and Spencer Swain (Flogging Molly, The Devil Makes Three). Deer Tick and these guests doing a traditional Irish folk song sounds exactly like what you'd expect, and truly demand. It's an upbeat, fast paced ode to being sick of working and just wanting to court ladies and head out to California to make it rich. It's pure fun and joy in musical form, and it's enough to have made me lift my snobby self-imposed ...

We've been posting a lot of political music lately, but it's nearly impossible when so many artists we love keep releasing great political music. The latest is Rhode Island's The Huntress and Holder of Hands's new single. "Doctrine" is an intense slow burn of a song. MorganEve Swain's song feels like it's going to explode, but never quite does. It's just filled with a brooding, festering tension and anger throughout. While it does build, there is never quite that indie rock noise explosion you would expect, even though "Doctrine" leans much more heavily on the folk side of music than indie rock, while still having that noise lurking underneath, which is what we truly love about most of The Huntress and Holder of Hands's music. You can listen to "Doctrine" below. The song is available as a standalone single on The Huntress and Holder of Hands's Bandcamp . For more on The Huntress and Holder of Hands, check out the artist...