Featuring members of The See See and Dan Michelson and the Coastguards, London quintet The Hanging Stars are a collective as much as a band, and have brought their own brand of rootsy, swampy psychedelia to bear on their debut album, tentatively titled Over a Silvery Lake.
From it comes a new song, ‘The House on the Hill’, a murder ballad about a poor girl who drowns herself in the sea after having her heart broken. Recorded in Lake Hollywood, LA with Rob Campanella (The Quarter After, The Brian Jonestown Massacre, The Tyde etc) its a partly true story, partly inspired by an entry in a book of traditional songs gathered by folk music archivist Alan Lomax. It’s got the alt country feeling mixed in with that little bit of psychedelia right from the off, with these echoey guitar lines and driving percussion. There’s more to it than that though, as it steers pretty close to the Mersey(beat) as it ebbs and flows, these little hints of organ coming through here and there.
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