1. Given for You
2. Life
In the City
3. Take Us Out
4. Pull Us All Together
5. Singing
Seems to Ease Me
6. Protein Sky
7. Channel Island Girl
8. Sarah Bellum
9. Such a Thing
10. Emotional Gold
11. Del
Mar Station
12. Rich Little Girl
13. Smoke
14. Seaward Son
TIM BLUHM
guitar, vocals, keys GREG LOIACONO
guitar, vocals, keys ISAAC PARSONS
bass JOHN HOFER
drums
Produced by Gideon Zaretsky
and Mother Hips
Recorded by Gideon Zaretsky
Mastered by John Golden
Design by Erik R. Bluhm
with guest:
Paul Hoaglin
- vocals (7,9), mellotron (12)
Taken
from the title of a sci-fi book by author Robert Anson Heinlein, guitarist
Greg Loiacano explained the resonance of the title "Green Hills of Earth"
with the band. "We liked the image of the title, referring to the earth
like you're not on it." Fitting for a band that began recording their
latest album trying to make music in this new decade that would sound
like a band that wasn't part of it. Frequently pegged as Americana or
accused of lurking on the fringes of the alt-country scene, singer/guitarist
Tim Bluhm said the new record was inspired by influences more along
the lines of pop giants like the Bee Gees and the Kinks, than anything
alt or country."There's no country rock on it at all. It's more pop
music and a little more experimental. The lyrics are more like dream
style lyrics and the music is a little fancier. We really wanted to
play some music that wasn't being played by anybody else. When we recorded
"Later Days" there were a lot of people playing that kind of music,
the acoustic kind of sit down thing."
Even
though some of the new tunes were nearly a year old the Hips tinkered
tirelessly with arrangements and instrumentation, swapping bass lines
for piano parts and endlessly -seeking new ways to bring their ever-evolving
sound forward.
Typical of this approach was the recording of
"Seaward Son," the final song on the album. "I had a very stripped down
acoustic version of the song and that's all," said Greg. "I put it down
with 12-string and sang over it and then we slowly started adding things
that weren't bass, drums and guitar." Some mellotron, tape loops, sound
effects and grand piano later, and it was done, shimmering in its final
reinvented form.