Well, duh, obviously. When your entire livelihood is based on improvisation, innovation, that spur-of-the-moment decision that elevates a piece of music from “Matchbox 20” to “Popol Vuh,” you’re obviously going to put out a live tape at some point. That’s what’s happening over at Hausu Mountain with the advent of their HausLive series. Surely inspired from label co-head Doug Kaplan’s weeks-long Phish tour forays over the summer from which he brings home stacks of bootlegs with handwritten setlists on the j-card [need citation], HausLive 1: Sunwatchers at Café Mustache 4/13/2019 looks and feels like the real deal, an artifact of a moment that you may or may not have witnessed but is still rad enough to put out as a standalone release.
Nice work, Hausu boys, keep ’em comin’.
But Sunwatchers are putting in the real heavy lifting, don’t get me wrong. Fresh off their sweltering blitzkrieg of raw math jammage Illegal Moves (which I talked about in glowing terms right here), the New York band really shines in bringing these tunes to the masses in a live setting. Take “New Dad Blues (Beef Pizza),”* the lead track off HausLive 1 (and also Illegal Moves), a freak-punk kraut hoedown that sounds like like Zappa conducting Drag City band Cave or some other such excellent nonsense. The point is, that’s some serious energy being expended by the quartet. I can only imagine being an audience member, immediately drenched in sweat from note one, adrenaline zipping from adrenal glands to brain to feet and back, eyes bugged out, pupils dilated, colors swirling, swirling, swirling … and I’m dead sober, honest!
As for the rest of this document… well, you’ll just have to wait until September 6, now won’t you? That’s not too long, actually. You’ll make it, I believe in you. Good old patience.
* The parenthetical subtitle isn’t on any official tracklist, but some wacky band member has appended it while introducing the song.
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