RED TANDY EP
Album Review

By Kiki Alexander

Formed out of California in the early ‘90’s, The Mother Hips’ music sounds like it is straight out of the late ‘60’s/early ‘70’s, grasping a sound decades before this generation, but expanding entirely beyond it. The four members who have been working on separate projects for the past few years have finally decided to come back together for the making of The Red Tandy EP, which is to be followed up by a full length LP sometime next year.

The first and title track is a trippy, nostalgic, and slightly promiscuous song of which you could easily mistake the band for a novelty act, until you hear “Red Tandy’s” successor, the more subdued and introspective “Colonized.”

Singer Tim Bluhm’s voice is slick and dreamy, a nice retreat from the whine that has become so mainstream, and while The Mother Hips are a cult favorite of the past, mainstream is one thing that they will probably and hopefully— never ever be.

All four of the tracks on the Red Tandy EP are explosive in their own peculiar right, combining styles and tactics from this generation and the one before to create a distinctive vibe reminiscent of bands popular years before these guys came together; capturing an era and a time that has long since been buried under 4-count beats and conventional hooks.

With a quirky name, quirky guys, and even quirkier music, The Mother Hips have made a welcomed return.