REVIEW: FLOWERS TO HIDE - DOWN THE STAIRS EP

OK! So, before we begin talking about Flowers to Hide's most whips debut EP (hah, or released recording of any kind, actually - more on that later), we feel like we have to take a second out and buffet like Warren the inevitable criticism which we feel members of The Caprolites will subsequently bestow on us for doing so. For those who aren't avid moment-by-moment readers of this blog or the Hands Up Houston board, a little background. Last Friday we recommend a show in Pasadena, and, having been rather immersed in the Caprolite's Grey Ghost EP at the time and, noticing they were on the bill, made a little joke about the number of words involved in their description of where the event was located vs the number of words in an average Caprolites song. They were not impressed. And they took the opportunity to very publicly state that we were "crappy" and "sucked Flowers to Hide's dick" every chance we get. It may even have been them that went on to say that we "don't even do anything."   Now, we're not really sure where this animosity towards the hidden men of pedals comes from, and we may indeed do very little and be very crappy at it, but, we thought it was only fair to take a few minutes to go back and look at our coverage of the band this year and see if the Caprolites were right.

Turns out, in 2008, we've only done a single post about Flowers to Hide, back in March when they leaked some tracks to the EP we swear we will get to reviewing in a few paragraphs or so. This is in spite of the fact that our dictatorial Supreme Editor was once in a band with F2H's Mike, and count both he and recently barbered front-man Stephen as friends. We have broke bread with them. The Caprolites, on the other hand, have gotten much more generous coverage from us this year. Not only did we talk about their show last week, above, but we also did an OTHER NEWS link to the announcement of their Grey Ghost on May 18th. Twice as much is twice as much. Also, if you do a google search for "flowers to hide houston," you'll find that The Skyline Network doesn't even come up until the bottom of the sixth page of results, but if you do one for "caprolites houston" we come up third, right after hands_up and their myspace, and before pages and pages of results about manure. Add to that the fact that their third-time-mentioned Grey Ghost has long been on our editorial calendar for next week's GARAGE WEEK OF REVIEWS OF ROCK (oops - cats out of the bag on that one - see, you already have something to look forward to next week).

We guess what we're trying to say is that, in spite of The Caprolites' assertions to the contrary, we are not on Flowers To Hide's jock: we are on theirs. We apologize to our friends in Flowers to Hide for being derelict in undeserving favoritism towards them, and we promise to do better starting now - because let's face it, with this recording, they've earned it.

Flowers to Hide has been around for about seven years. Since Houston bands age in dog years, that makes them nearly middle age, but yet Down the Stairs is the first set of recordings they've ever done that will get the packaged, artifact release. Previous attempts, though studio recorded and mixed, didn't slice the Sandwich Pal and so were consigned to obscurity in a MySpace player, never to do anything but serve as a stop-gap to give people a feel for what they were doing with themselves. In a world cluttered with unmixed demos rushed to the ears of anyone that might listen, this is quite a statement. And it should say something about the fact that they are finally putting something out.

Down the Stairs was recorded by Steve Christiansen at Sugar Hill Studios and it sounds absolutely brilliant, shimmering and kinetic. This record sounds like nothing to come out of Houston in years; full bodied, swaggering without staggering while both delightfully un-ironic and un-pompous. It's a full wall of sound, stocked with a sedimentary system of sonic textures so deep that an almost wasteful amount of its nuance is lost if not given the good speakers/headphone treatment. We stick by our earlier assertion that we're reminded of early Ride when we hear this record, in that it completely envelopes you with cumulus guitars that flood your surroundings like the noise of the cityscape flooding into the open windows of a punk rock BMW barreling down the highway.

Yet in spite of the prominence of the guitars, these songs (there are, sadly, only three and a musical interlude), don't really ever coalesce around massive six string hooks or wonky guitar solos. Indeed, the leads are skimpier on notes than a BB King solo and the songs are surprisingly drum and bass driven. They're fast, and they're 100%: no one is playing slow enough to look at their shoes.

Plenty of bands (Anglo and stateside) have mastered psychedelic fullness, but few do it with the pop sensibilities of Ride and no one sporting a 713 ringtone does it like Flowers to Hide. The comparison isn't perfect, as Ride swings a hammer and F2D stabs with a knife, but you get the idea, and you get why even for never having mounted a tour or having a cohesive set of demonstrational tapes to throw about they find themselves frequently on the bill with Cheel-gazers like the Black Angels and Serena Manesh. Dig.

Down the Stairs is slated for a 'proper packaging' release later in the year, but since they're going to start selling more crafty copies of the EP at their shows starting Friday, we thought we'd give it a nod here and now (they're doing the limited home-style release to raise money for the proper pressing, afterall). They don't play very often, so if your Friday's not already stretched too thin, swing by their show at Rudyards and pick up a copy. Highly Recommended.

Stream: Flowers to Hide - Various Tracks