Moon Hooch

After spending the better part of the summer touring Europe, Brooklyn-based band, Moon Hooch, return to the U.S. in late summer and early fall for an extensive tour. Supporting their new studio album, ‘Red Sky,’ which was released in June, the run includes a performance on Sunday, Nov. 13, at The Saint in Reno.

With the exception of a handful of U.S. festival appearances, Moon Hooch—the explosive horn-and-percussion trio featuring Mike Wilbur (horns), Wenzl McGowen (horns) and James Muschler (drums)—have spent the majority of this summer touring Canada and Europe, which led to an invitation to perform on BBC Two’s Later…With Jools Holland.
Mixing elements of indie rock, virtuosic jazz and pulse-pounding electronic dance music with a DIY spirit, Moon Hooch’s latest album ‘Red Sky’ captures the spontaneous, manic energy of their live shows, while at the same time demonstrating the marked evolution from their early days busking in the New York City subway system with just two saxophones and a drum kit.

The collection was recorded at The Bunker studio in Brooklyn. Diffuser described the album as “…a return to their more organic sound, but with no less ambition.” The collection opens with the tribal urgency of the title track and proceeds, over the next 45 minutes, to utterly demolish any and every possible barrier that could stand between the music and the dance floor.

Never content to stay in one sonic place too long, “Psychotubes” finds the trio at their heaviest, channeling apocalyptic fire. The staccato intro of “That’s What They Say” gives way to a gritty, late-night come-on of a saxophone line that’s far more suggestive than any whispered words ever could be. Wilbur’s expanding role as a vocalist is once again felt on the haunting “Sunken Ship,” which points to an evolving depth and maturity in Moon Hooch’s sound, while “Shot” finds Wilbur delivering a stream of consciousness vocal line over an airtight groove. NPR Music wrote: “We also hear this mostly instrumental band tackle a handful of songs with Wilbur singing; in the past, those tracks felt like a nice break from all the relentless energy, but on ‘Red Sky’ his vocals feel integral and expansive.”

Here is a review of Moon Hooch’s March 2015 show at the Crystal Bay Casino. LINK