By It’s our Bandcamp Pick of the Week, featuring hey i’m outside’s remarkably self-assured self-titled debut, among the years best alt-country releases!
hey i’m outside – S/T
Genre: Alt Country, Alternative Rock
Favorite Tracks: “Racecar,” “Instincts,” “Goner”
Patrick McPherson and Hannah Fletcher’s musical transition from cusp fifth wave emo rockers in I Wish I Could Skateboard to spritely alt-country yee-haw’ers in hey i’m outside is relatable—who among us didn’t slowly crawl out of an emo phase and into the arms of Townes Van Zandt, Wilco, or the Dead. While admittedly needing an algorithmic assist, I’ll point out that if I search “alt-country” on a certain not-to-be-named DSP, the first thing that’ll pop up in my feed is friend of the mag Taylor Grimes’ Emo Kid to Alt-Country Pipeline playlist, which throws defining texts from artists like Wild Pink, Ratboys, Alex G, and Runner into one mix. McPherson and Fletcher are clearly in good company.
Joined by drummer and guitarist Noah Wisch, hey i’m outside’s self-titled debut will be on that playlist soon enough. Like fellow scene-straddling y’allternative rockers Happy Just To See You, the bills available to play in New England these days are rife with pop punk and post-hardcore emo acts, but make no mistake, regardless of who they’re playing with, this trio are a proper country band through and through. McPherson’s Southern-twinged, workingman-like delivery on every song, mixed with a campfire jam rhythm section and rollicking crosspicking guitar parts, come together so seamlessly you’d be surprised to even learn of their previous band; on the opening tracks “Frontyard” and “Crash,” everything gets lost in the hypnotic flames, with the cutting country guitars sounding primal in their release. These extremely circular-sounding, uptempo backyard hoedowns come to define the album, from the rousing staccato stomp of “Massachusetts” to the stirring, stripped-back guitar chune “Insects.”
Yet HEY I’M OUTSIDE’s best moments are where the band’s country instincts are redirected ever so slightly towards a style of post-grunge ‘90s roots rock—think the Wallflowers or Toad the Wet Sprocket, but especially Tom Petty’s WILDFLOWERS. “Racecar” is the album’s one true “rock” song, the type that would’ve been a minor hit in 1998 if Soul Asylum had released it, with a meandering fade-out to boot. Highlights “Instincts” and “Goner” are like back porch emo Counting Crows songs, a twinge of Duritz’s brilliant turn of phrase to all of McPherson’s words and deliveries. There is an urgency to the whole record, with rarely a pause within the tempo or pacing (even instrumental interlude “Elevator” has itself a kind of decidedly funky ‘90s squawk to it). hey i’m outside are self-assured musicians with a remarkable understanding of the type of country they’re making—there’s a bit of emo in it, there’s a bit of alternative rock to it, but the combination makes for a formidable debut album. You can listen to it over on Bandcamp. [CJ Simonson]
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