Video: Hikes – “Shepherd’s Clock” (Recommended)

This song is killer. I’ve been hearing hype about this band for a while, and everything in me is hoping they will be as phenomenal live as I want them to be. If they continue what they have going on in in the video for “Shepherd’s Clock,” the prognosis is good. God bless choral chanting, rhythmic snarl-singing, and 90s indie post-rock influences. On “Shepherd’s Clock” there’s absolutely no way they will escape comparisons to Modest Mouse. That’s okay! It doesn’t matter so long as you deliver the rock. One of my favorite live music experiences ever is seeing the song “Fight” performed by a brief band called Kickball at What the Heck Fest in Anacortes, Washington in 2007. I’ve included a video of a different performance of that song that’s not nearly as explosive as the set I saw. Why the tangent? Like Kickball (who sounded like Modest Mouse), Hikes has the potential, the instrumentation and musical reference points to be a band that can produce emotive, beat-driven, bombastic rock. And nothing is better in a live setting. Okay, Hikes, listen up: I can’t come to your show on the 23rd. Please, play again soon, and I’ll be there–and please be as incredible as I want you to be.