By Matt Meyer
After self-producing 1998's critically acclaimed but largely ignored Later Days, Mother Hips join forces with Future Farmer, their first label after a let-down with American Records. The small independent may help the group shed the once half-accurate "jam band" designation with which lazy writers have saddled them. The music, Mother Hips' most accessible to date (but also their most ambitious), should help, too. The 14 songs mix raunchy guitar with honey-sweet harmonies and catchy hooks recalling later Beatles, early Kinks and Bee Gees. Muting the country roots at the heart of their sound that revealed the spirit of the American West on Later Days, Green Hills employs tape loops, synth organs, and several "weird noises" (the technical term) to sound both retro and futuristic. Most tunes are live mainstays, but acquire new depth with the help of co-producer and engineer Gideon Zaretsky and John Golden, who mastered the tapes, as well as the band's relentless pursuit of just the right tone and their painstaking, layered arrangements. "Take Us Out," for example, is positively transformed, its scintillating movement realized here like never before, while the enigmatically devastating ballad, "Protein Sky," its body draped with a simple piano melody, is sexy, sad and dangerous all at once. Macho, plaintive, airy and eerie by turns, Green Hills of Earth is always interesting and often irresistible. Greater accessibility and better distribution may make this album a watershed in the band's career. Green Hills is available online now, and arrives locally March 13th.