Horse Jumper of Love, an indie rock, slowcore 3-piece rock band from Boston, Massachusetts that formed in 2013, consist of Dimitri Giannopoulos on vocals and guitar, John Margais on bass, and Jamie Vadala-Doran on drums. Their music is a downtempo mix of sombre vocals that echo over subdued muddy guitars forming a wall of sound that their infectious abrasive riffs cut through during crescendo moments.
The band’s self titled debut album, which I discovered back in 2018 was one of the first in its genre I had heard at the time and has been a staple in my musical rotation ever since; to say I was excited would be an understatement.
I arrived at Strange Brew with only a few minutes to spare before support Joyer came on. The band, started by brothers, Shane and Nick Sullivan I had no clue who these guys were, but Horse Jumper of Love chose well, their similar muted singers reminiscent of lo-fi 90’s slacker/indie rock bands in their scene such as Mogwai, Smog and Codeine. Their setlist switched effortlessly from more singsong focussed traditional indie-rock to shoegaze-y riffs with country-esque licks due to the use of a steel slide bar by their talented lead guitarist. My favourite song I saw was ‘Cure’. For fans of MJ Ledermann, Smog, Built to spill and Codeine, they are certainly one to keep on the radar.
After a quick intermission between bands, Horse Jumper of Love came on stage. They introduced with a little talk explaining they – in celebration of its 10th anniversary – were going to be playing their debut album in full and thanked the audience for their support and continued love for the record after all these years. They began the set with track ‘Ugly Brunette’, their most popular song and the album’s opening track. The signature riff opens the song as Giannopoulos’ haunting vocals talk of missing childhood joys and younger years.
The following track is “July 5th”, an intermission that showcases the band’s ability to create charged soundscapes that sweep like an ocean wave over the audience. ‘Bagel Breath’ follows and brings the audience back to the similar sound showcased in ‘Ugly Brunette’. The next standout track for me was ‘I Want to Paint Horses… And to Have a Horse’. For this track Giannopoulos switched from guitar to electronic drum and sampling pad to recreate this spacey tune. The monotonous lyrics of “cut my head off”, with its blasé attitude to self-harm, presents a contrast to the rather dark but poetic and intricate lyrics across the album. The repetitive drum machine reminds me personally of the likes of ‘Videotape’ and ‘Idioteque’ by Radiohead with the spacey synths recall. Following this, is ‘DIRT’, which continues the poetical lyricism mentioned previously; this time sung in a choked-up tone, until the guitar and bass, with their aggressive crescendo crash in for the chorus’.
The penultimate track, ‘I Love You Very Much Forever’, presented yet another new sound that permeates album. The punchy drums were replaced with muted symbol crashes as the bass hums a dull, dismal tone beneath the twinkly guitar licks. This sound presents itself as very unique and is the first of its kind I have heard live, sounding inspired by the experimental bedroom-indie rock that was being born around that time with bands like Fox Academy, Teen Suicide and Salvia Palth. It was heartbreaking and horrible, in the best way, and has presented itself as a truly unique live experience so far.
They closed with the song ‘Orange Peeler’ which started a big cheer from the audience, seeming to be the crowd favourite. Much of the audience began to sing along as they knew the set was ending, leaving with a much more comforting presence after the last song brought many emotions to much of the crowd.
The encore songs played were ‘Twist Cone’, another electronic intermission followed by a solo rendition of ‘Hole’ by Dimitri, a song from the extended cut of the album that remained unreleased until its official release in 2021 on the back of a demo anthology album, before being added to the B-side of deluxe remastered release that released this September.
This 10th anniversary tour has also coincided with a deluxe edition remaster, proving no better a time to dive into this band for those unfamiliar.
Callum Preston
