Music / Hum

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She thinks she missed the train to Mars

She's out back counting stars

—"Stars"

Hum is an alternative rock band hailing from Champaign, Illinois formed in 1989. Although it had a revolving door line up in its early years, it settled on a stable line up with Matt Talbott on vocals and guitars, Tim Lash on guitar, Jeff Dimpsey on bass and Bryan St. Pere on drums. This line-up would be present on the albums from Electra 2000 to Inlet^note Jason Gerken would fill up for Bryan in 2015 on tour dates. until Bryan St. Pere's untimely death in 2021.

The band gained a small following thanks to its commercial success with their third album, You'd Prefer an Astronaut in 1995, spawning the hit "Stars", charting at #28 in the Mainstream Rock charts and #11 in the Modern Rock charts. They disbanded in 2000 after the release of their fourth album, Downward is Heavenward, sporadically reuniting for touring purposes until they made their surprise release on their Bandcamp with Inlet in 2020, their first album in 22 years.

Band Members:^note Current members are in bold; founding members are in italic

• Matt Talbott – vocals, rhythm guitar (1989–2000, 2003, 2011–present)
• Jeff Dimpsey – bass guitar (1992–2000, 2003, 2011–present)
• Tim Lash – lead guitar (1993–2000, 2003, 2011–present)
• Andy Switzky – guitar, vocals (1989–1993)
• Akis Boyatzis – bass guitar (1989–1990)
• Jeff Kropp – drums (1989–1990)
• Joe Futrelle – bass guitar (1990)
• Rod Van Huis – bass guitar (1990–1991)
• Baltie de Lay – bass guitar, vocals (1991–1992)
• Jason Gerken – drums (2015)
• Bryan St. Pere – drums (1990–2000, 2003, 2011–2015, 2015–2021; died in 2021)

Discography:

• Fillet Show (1991)
• Electra 2000 (1993)
• You'd Prefer an Astronaut (1995)
• Downward Is Heavenward (1998)
• Inlet (2020)

Tropes

• Advanced Tech 2000: Their sophomore album, Electra 2000.
• Album Title Drop: The second line of "I’d Like Your Hair Long" from You'd Prefer an Astronaut and the first line of "Afternoon With The Axolotls" from Downward Is Heavenward.
• Careful with That Axe: Matt Talbot does quite a bit of this on Electra 2000, particularly the verses of "Shovel". Also on the final line of "The Pod".
• Cover Drop: The final verses of "Suicide Machine" mention a zebra, which appears on the cover art of You'd Prefer an Astrounaut.
• Deliberately Monochrome: Fillet Show, Electra 2000 and Inlet, with the former two having red and yellow colored lettering respectively.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: Fillet Show is a more barebones Post-Hardcore album, and it has relatively shorter songs compared to subsequent albums. It's also the only one to feature Andy Switzky, sharing vocal duties with Matt Talbott. Subsequent albums would feature Matt as the main vocalist.
• Epic Rocking: A common staple of the band, with most of their songs going above the 5-minute mark. Proper examples include; "I Hate It Too" (5:59), "Songs of Farewell and Departure" (6:16), "Isle of the Cheetah" (6:38), "Afternoon with the Axolotls" (6:27), "Dreamboat" (6:07), "The Inuit Promise" (6:07), "Aphids" (6:08), "In the Den" (6:45), "Desert Rambler" (9:01), "The Summoning" (8:31) "Folding" (8:19), and "Shapeshifter" (8:01).
• Gratuitous Foreign Language: The final two minutes of "Aphids" has a spoken word section of a girl reciting a poem in Dutch.
• Hidden Track: "Monty Python Organ Grinder", which comes after the final track "Winder", on the original pressings of Electra 2000.
• Longest Song Goes First: "Isle of the Cheetah" from Downward Is Heavenward (6:38).
• Longest Song Goes Last: "Pocket" from Fillet Show (5:55) and "Songs of Farewell and Departure" from You'd Prefer an Astronaut (6:16).
• Minimalistic Cover Art: You'd Prefer an Astronaut.
• Perfectly Cromulent Word: Matt tends to use some of the most obscure words on his lyrics. The fansite has a section for terms of the words used.
• Perishing Alt-Rock Voice: Frequently present thanks to Matt Talboit’s mellow vocals.
• Revolving Door Band: The band had constant line up changes from 1989 to 1993, with Matt Talbott being the only consistent member. The band finally became solidified with Talbott, Jeff Dimpsey, Tim Lash and Bryan St. Pere by Electra 2000 and were able to keep a consistent line up, including their disbandment and subsequent reunion, right until St. Pere's passing in 2021.
• Space Rock: Combined with elements of Post-Hardcore and Shoegazing.
• Surprisingly Gentle Song: "The Very Old Man" and "Apollo".

And so we land only to find we never left the ground

Please leave the walls and the floors exactly as you found

A love song to everyone I know, arms wide open, here we go

Here we go