Champaign + Siamese Dreams: Hum
Posted by: steve | From: July 13, 2004
The second stage at Lollapalooza was apparently some sort of a golden appetizier tray for me from which I could pick bands that would stay with me for years and years ad this is the second band (the other being Shudder to Think) getting the GBoAT treatment from me that I had an enlightening experience with at a Lolla second stage. It was that 1995 Lollapalooza with Pavement and Beck and The Jesus Lizard and Hole and Sonic Youth. Man, good day, seriously, and the highlight of that good day was the 2 hours plus that I spent at the 2nd stage. I skipped a good portion of Cypress and all of Hole to hang out at that bastion of cool, the 2nd stage. The Roots were totally rad, Hum were so loud and amazing, and then Pavement played a second set of mostly requests. It was so great. Alright, enough of the embarrasing reminiscing, but the point is there was something important about that 2nd stage that I paid 28 bucks or 35 bucks or whatever to see. It was such an important step in the deepening and broadening of my music understanding. That Hum performance especially was one of those epiphaninal events. I was standing there dumbstruck looking up at this man who was one of the dorkiest looking dudes I had ever seen in my life. He was playing the crappiest looking guitar I had ever seen and leading his band in this incredibly loud and powerful music. I mean his guitar looked like crap. It was this crummy looking Yamaha or like Suzuki or something and it was an awful bright green and it was so scratched and carved. It looked like it was purchased for no more than what I paid to get into the concert and that was the most exciting thing ever. Man, it pumps me up just thinking about it. Just the concept of a 17 year old realizing that not everything has to be all Stone Temple Pilots is awesome. Standing there in the dusty field in the warm summer night air mouth wide open. All right, enough of the cliche teenage epiphany let's talk about the band.
Hum came out of the suprisingly legit music scene from Champign/Urbana, Illinois. The leaders of the scene, The Poster Children, took Hum under their wings and released their first two albums on their own label. Two members of The Poster Children even joined Hum. The first two albums had a lot of promise and the songwriting was interesting but the production really dragged the albums down. They were signed to a major label after touring with some big acts like Shellac, The Jesus Lizard, and Smashing Pumpkins. Bringing up the Pumpkins is interesting, because Hum is compared to the Pumpkins quite a bit. Both bands are heavy on the heavy and also bring the pretty. In 1995, everything went haywire. Hum released their major label debut, You'd Prefer An Astronaut, and the single "Stars" became a hit on alternative radio. They toured and toured and sold a bunch of records and then it sorta fizzled in a very classic mid 90s alternative sorta way. They took too long to record the follow up and the whole alternative thing died, you know, so Hum faded away. BUT, they did record the follow up, called Downward is Heavenward and it was released in 98, and it came out amazing. It's one off the most underrated albums of that period. It sold poorly though and the band had a van crash, and dissolved later that year. The members moved onto new projects (Centaur, National Skyline) and Hum will be mostly forgotten.
Hum put out two excellent albums of crushing guitars and soft mumbled vocals.
Most importantly, like all other bands to ever perform on a Lollapalooza second stage, they are The Greatest Band Of All Time.
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I'm glad you found that interior van image--it reminds me of how much I enjoyed reading the liner notes to "YPAA", especially the creative use of adjectives.
They were a kind group that I only saw once (in 99?)...even though there was this legendary show in 95 where they opened up for Verve, but Richard Ashcroft was sick, but Hum played anyway, but I didn't go...blah blah...Hum=beautiful guitars!
Posted by: J_John at July 14, 2004 11:04 PM