Howth (rhymes with “growth”) is the NYC-based indie rock project of one Carl Creighton, and he’s recently collaborated with Preston Spurlock (one of our favorites) to make a video for his single “Tourist Town.” Carl has been touring around this month with BK-based A Deer A Horse, who are also pretty cool (listen). Howth will be making his way to the Cake Shop in lower Manhattan this weekend to play a show with local up-and-comers Doubting Thomas Cruise Control, Whitewash, and Slim Charles – it should be dope! Peep the video below.
I really am never gonna get over how much I love Preston’s style of VHS video editing. It’s like the late 80s threw up all over my computer monitor, and I mean that in the best possible way. This video features an amazing amount of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoons collaged with some trippy TMNT performance clips (ninja turtles with guitars!!) and a long-necked turtle swimming around an aquarium. This video could only be improved if the clip of a turtle playing a saxophone was meshed with a clip of Bill Clinton (Ill Clinton) rocking out on sax. Heh.
I’m actually not sure how well “Tourist Town” represents the fully orchestral and experimental nature of Howth’s considerable back-catalog of tunes; this track in particular sounds garagey and hooky in a way that the rest of Trashy Milky Nothing Town just doesn’t. It reminds me simultaneously of a move from Fleet Foxes to Father John Misty and also a slew of British pop/garage rock bands from the early 00s (think The Maccabees). These aren’t bad things at all, I guess I just find the textural and compositional choices on “Tourist Town” to be decidedly less quirky than other Howth tracks I’ve heard. In any case, it’s certainly musical and pleasant and endearing, not to mention catchy!
You can keep up with Howth on social media or stream more of his music on bandcamp. Plus, don’t forget to stop by Cake Shop this weekend!
Collage by Matthew Price
