Country Fever
Phosphorescent's Matthew Houck Shoulders the Weight of Ambition
originally published December 8, 2004
Twenty-five-year-old Matthew Houck, darling of the U.K. music press and the key member of Athens' fastest-blooming dream-country outfit Phosphorescent, is a man with big ideas. For his forthcoming third record under the Phosphorescent marquee, he hopes to employ a particularly grand earthwork. It's been a tricky process; he insists I don't mention it by name. "I know it's crazy," he says, "but it's a delicate situation, and if they were to get bothered by even one more person, they might not let me do it." Take note, fans: the man likes to do things himself, and he does nothing half-assed.
Maurice Snook
Houck jokingly includes both "making the cover of Reader's Digest" and "singing the chorus of 'O Holy Night' in an empty office building in South Dakota" in his definition of success. Such ostentatious gestures are Houck's stock in trade. In his music, he drives at beauty, but eschews that shortcut called understatement. He courts the sublime and the ridiculous with equal fervor, and they both often fall for him.
The stirring "All Of It, All," from Phosphorescent's new EP The Weight Of Flight (WARM), is a fine place to pick up his trail. His voice, a blizzard of nervous tics, often falls behind the song's rhythm, as if to spur it on. As with the best of Bob Dylan, couplets that would appear willfully obscure on paper ("The thing about lifetimes / Is sometimes you have to be cruel / It's sad that it's sad / But don't let that dampen you") can suddenly be about anything but nothing. A blazing organ throws red and blue light in the darkened corners, so that no emotion can be ignored.
"It's almost always a surprise when someone tells me something specific they liked in a song," Houck says. "I mean, I'm really glad these songs mean something to people. That's what they're there for. But at that point, it's not mine any more, you see? It's theirs, and what I originally meant I don't think matters much."
Many critics have drawn comparisons to prodigal wunderkind Jeff Mangum of Neutral Milk Hotel. Some even namecheck Kurt Cobain or Willie Nelson, but they always stop short and give Houck his due for veering outside imitation. Critics don't often do that. By the time they admit they can't triangulate you, you must be damn near off the radar.
That said, there's a clear progression from Houck's work as singer-songwriter "Fillup Shack" through A Hundred Times Or More (the first Phosphorescent LP) to The Weight Of Flight, and probably beyond. Each release sounds more like the work of a full band, even if Houck retains creative control.
An Athenian denizen for the past four years, Houck recently moved slightly out of town into "a cheap little old house in the country, where I'm going to hole up and make this new album. Just me and cows and land." He's not ready to make predictions for the next dispatch, though: "This one is still on wobbly legs," he says. "Whether it's a mare or a stallion is not yet clear."
From all reports on the live experience, one could assume it'll continue the trend toward volume and complexity. "As a general rule," Houck claims, "we are much louder and prone to some wicked shredding live. Especially when there are a lot of us." He also claims everything from "the weather" to "what chemicals are flowing through any given member's body" as an influence, so expect, if nothing else and as always, a one-time occurrence.
Emerson Dameron
WHO: Phosphorescent, Viva, Annie & Her Guns
WHERE: Caledonia Lounge
WHEN: Saturday, December 11
HOW MUCH: $5
Emerson Dameron
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2001: Before And After 9/11
originally published January 2, 2002
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