Chronicle Man

Some 23 years into a journey that has resulted in both a music festival (Hipnic) and a beer (Sierra Nevada’s Hips Helles) being named after them, and the creation of a subgenre and vibe (California soul) that now includes the likes of Jackie Greene and the Tumbleweed Wanderers, the Mother Hips are going back in time to retrieve Chronicle Man. Rescued from tapes discovered in Los Angeles in 2009, these previously unreleased tracks from the grungy mid-1990s range from countrified to hard-edged rock with a touch of psychedelia, and include gems like “Little Rich Girl,” “Desert Song,” “Loup Garou” and the title track. While Greg Loiacono delivers a never-ending variety of sizzling lead-guitar runs, Tim Bluhm, the band’s frontman and principal songwriter, gives us delightful melodies and lyrics. In “Headache to Headache,” Bluhm shares this romantic exchange: “I said put your best foot forward/ she said I’ll put my foot up your ass”; and in the twangy, California-centric ballad “Saint Andrew,” he paints an interesting view of an earthquake: “Well we had a temblor that shook all the hills/ It spooked my lost donkey wherever he is/ Now I’ve never had much; what I have has gone to hell/ It shook all my mason jars off the shelves.”