Ed Schrader’s Music Beat

Mac McCaughan

Ex Hex

Listen to Hiss Golden Messenger’s 2009 debut, Country Hai East Cotton, and you’ll find it sounds a lot like The Court and Spark. Actually, so do all the band’s records, with their deeply Southern soul and meditative simmer. But Hiss Golden Messenger has gotten more attention than 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 earned 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 Poor Moon — and “He Wrote the Book,” which officially arrived this year on the Southern Grammar EP. 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.

Watch Hiss Golden Messenger play “He Wrote the Book,” above, and “Blue Country Mystic,” below. Bandwidth recorded both live at WAMU on a snowy January afternoon, hours before the band took the stage for a second night at 9:30 Club.

Subscribe to Bandwidth’s channel on YouTube, and don’t miss our awesome playlist of every Bandwidth session to date.

Photos by Rhiannon Newman for WAMU’s Bandwidth

There aren’t a lot of big, important messages coursing through the lyrics penned by Timony, the veteran musician (ex-Helium, Wild Flag, Autoclave, Mary Timony Band) who writes most of Ex Hex’s songs. Mostly, she tackles people and relationships, then blows it all out of a cannon preloaded with nails and confetti. Then there’s the rest of the band, hardly sidewomen: Bassist and co-songwriter Betsy Wright burrows right into a groove with effortless cool; and drummer Laura Harris, as focused as an electron microscope, kicks off her shoes to get deep in the zone.

I’d been trying to get Ex Hex into WAMU’s studios for months, but the band took its time in the run-up to its Merge Records debut, Rips. That chunk of noise came tumbling down from rock mountain last week, not long after the band finally stopped by our studio to lay down two wailers from the LP: “Everywhere” and “Don’t Wanna Lose.”

On recording day, the response from inside WAMU HQ gave us a sense of how historic this session would be. Within minutes of Timony’s first solo, staff from WAMU’s Bluegrass Country came in to say they could feel it all the way down the hall.

Mission accomplished.

May Ex Hex’s clamor forever transform nerds into leather-clad rockers! Let it disturb the productivity of a million more office workers! Long live the rock!

Subscribe to Bandwidth’s channel on YouTube, and don’t miss our awesome playlist of every Bandwidth session to date.

Rips is due out on Merge Records Oct. 7. Ex Hex plays Black Cat with Speedy Ortiz on Oct. 5.

Fourteen years after that record first appeared on the U.K. indie-pop scene (and 13 years after its U.S. release), Merge Records gave Suburban Light the reissue it needed, polishing up the recordings and tacking on a batch of bonus tracks. Critical acclaim arrived swiftly, and the band recently played a string of successful shows on a short U.S. tour—including one sold-out gig at D.C.’s Black Cat.

The Clientele stopped by WAMU 88.5’s studio before that Black Cat show to play two perfect tunes: “Porcelain” (featured on 2003’s The Violet Hour) and “Reflections After Jane” (from Suburban Light). Mercifully, little has changed about these beautiful songs—including that hushed sound that so many sound engineers tried to steamroll with their take on OK Computer.

Subscribe to Bandwidth on YouTube, and watch a playlist of every Bandwidth session here.

The album, Rips, comes out Oct. 7 in the U.S. and Oct. 13 worldwide, and the new track, “Don’t Wanna Lose,” is another blazing power rocker that bodes well for the full-length. Mitch Easter—known for his studio work with R.E.M. and Pavement and his time in the late jangle-pop band Let’s Active—recorded the record.

Ex Hex consists of longtime guitar shredder Mary Timony, drummer Laura Harris, and bassist Betsy Wright (also of Chain & the Gang). The band plays July 24 at Rock & Roll Hotel and Oct. 5 at Black Cat. Get psyched—and stream “Don’t Wanna Lose” below.

Vertical Scratchers’ songs are punk-quick shots of infectious pop goodness, and we were excited to host them at the Wilderness Bureau. Check out this quick sampling of the band as they perform “Turn Me Out” and “These Plains” from their debut album, “Daughter of Everything.”

photos by: Maggie Famiglietti