CATALOG

NEWS

"Hermit Thrushes sounds like a blender. A blender of modern indie, a little folk influence, and jazz inspired pitch shifts and clumsy arrangements. If this doesn’t sound appealing, I don’t know what does. At first it does feel disjointed, but what feels off about Hermit Thrushes’ latest release Slight Fountian, is ultimately what makes this an engaging listen... Slight Fountain is a refreshingly disjointed affair."
Delusions Of Adequacy

"The second album from Hermit Thrushes, a five-member art-rock outfit from Philadelphia, juxtaposes sedate vocals with wily, discordant jangles and honks, much like the melodious bird for which they're named. Songs either inspire joyful disengagement of the mind or wild, frantic movement. Either way it's pretty mesmerizing. 7/10"
Under The Radar

"Hermit Thrushes walk the line between guitar-driven lo-fi and unruly noise rock... melody interwoven with dazed vocals is jarringly contrasted with belligerent and glockenspiel-punctuated synthesizer wails."
Magnet Magazine

"On the concise Slight Fountain, Hermit Thrushes aspire to a similar mix of awkward and approachable... As angular, lo-fi modern rock goes, many bands have garnered more hype with work less gripping than Slight Fountain."
Pop Matters

"If you never heard Hermit Thrushes, they're a very mathy and off-kilter band that add soft subtleties to their music. On Slight Fountain, the subtleties grow into styles... On a side note, why in the world did Tiny Mix Tapes A). Give this 2 1/2 stars? and B). Compare Hermit Thrushes to Dirty Projectors? Yeah, good guitar players. THEY SOUND NOTHING ALIKE. Sometimes I just don't know what to say about TMT..."
Olive Music

"What can only be described at multi-instrumental acoustic experimentation, Hermit Thrushes brings you their newest piece of work, Slight Fountain. This 14-track album comes across as a twisted yet respectable homage to the sporadic sounds of Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention, as well as the classical acoustic folk sounds of decades past... I think those with an open musical mind will enjoy this album for its quirkiness and heart. Heart…now that’s something missing in music these days, and it’s clear these guys aren’t afraid to show they have it."
Verbicide

"...rad, mathy tones that remind my Longstreth-saturated ears of a Glad Fact-era Dirty Projectors, which is a very good thing."
Tiny Mix Tapes

"This Philadelphia band’s press kit lists CAPTAIN BEEFHEART and POLVO as influences and upon listening to their forthcoming new album, it’s apparent that the main quality Hermit Thrushes shares with both of them (as well as bands like say, DEERHOOF) is the feeling of listening to something that’s just barely holding on. You feel like it could collapse at any minute, any second really, but it never does. Still, this is difficult listening, with few easy melodies, though repeat plays reveal folksy leanings along with other songs that remind me of some of the more experimental Elephant 6 type stuff (particularly OLIVIA TREMOR CONTROL)"
The Big Takeover

"Philly’s Hermit Thrushes are one of those refreshingly unclassifiable bands, using mishmash to their advantage and taking “experimental” to mean free-for-all. There are definitely threads of psychedelia in their tunes, as disorienting tempos and trippy found-sounds blend with overstimulating instrumental bits and parts... Hermit Thrushes’ consistent strength is that they keep it interesting, whether one looks for sheer pop in their music, or the more intricate details of song craft."
Impose Magazine

"With every play of the Hermit Thrushes sophomore release, it makes that little bit more sense. What initially sounds disjointed, chaotic and formless, with an occasional melodic part (a chorus here, a verse there), becomes, with every spin, a very fine and very interesting album indeed. "
Americana UK

"...a unique affair, for sure. Take Pavement's slackerdom, American Analog Set's moody slowcore and a hefty portion of Joan of Arc, toss in Roadside Monument's mellow moments, stir for 30 minutes and tada! Slight Fountain."
Ghettoblaster

"They're like the indie rock soundtrack to a Fractured Fairytale. They're jumpy, skittish, sound broken, and encapsulate enough non-playing ala Pavement to last a lifetime. As songs they really shouldn't work, but their lazy and melodic nature just sounds dandy."
The Pop! Stereo

"The things that most folks are going to hone in on when listening to Hermit Thrushes’ sophomore release (out June 23 on Joyful Noise) are the weirder bits: the dissonance, sharply angular guitar sounds, odd stops and starts, occasional free jazz solo, impressionistic and scattershot lyrical content, wildly disorganized and chaotic acoustic soundscapes and, perhaps most strikingly, the ten seconds of a field recording of cats mewling. All of that stuff is in here and I don’t think you’ll hear anyone denying that this is a gleefully strange record. But. Underneath that layer of eccentricity, there are some really good tunes."
Citizen Dick

"This is one of those slightly offbeat albums that we had to spin several times before the music sank in... These folks create music that sounds something like Athens, Georgia-based progressive pop bands from the 1990s peppered with some of the odd jagged musical fragments found in the music of Captain Beefheart. The tunes on Slight Fountain are simultaneously smooth and peculiar. While there are certainly enough solid melodies for satisfying listening, there are also enough surprises and oddities in the mix to keep things interesting without ever veering too far off the main path."
babysue

"Melding hours of field recordings with the quirk rock sound you might expect from their new label home, the latest addition to Joyful Noise Recordings is a young band that's equal parts interesting and talented. Meet The Hermit Thrushes. The Philly-based act is making waves with their creative new LP, Slight Fountain, and by sharing the stage with acts like Elf Power and Pattern Is Movement, among others."
Indy.com

"Awkward rhythms and sporadic melodies... instrumentation that varies between marching band and jazz combo. All done tastefully, of course. A breath of fresh air, without being overly obscure or discordant."
The Broken Bell

"Hermit Thrushes is an exciting band and the sound they are producing with their own brand of eclectic, quirky music inspires the imagination and takes you on a journey."
Punk Globe

"...a la Captain Beefheart had he played with Polvo, that sounds like it's about to fall apart at any second. Nice work, gents."
The Walrus

"This song hits me like a charming account of a failed flight. It is, in total, a very bumpy ride, though there are these pauses where a comforting breeze blows in. It's really a tease!"
DreamBigDreamFree

"Minimalist pop occasionally deconstructed into something sublime. Hermit Thrushes refuse to play a song straight through--there's always a reason to slice up a line or two in an attempt to find deeper meaning."
Aiding & Abetting

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