The Mother Hips

If you told me 20 years ago that The Mother Hips would be making albums well into the aughts I would have told you it’s the weed talking. Yet over the past few years the band has put out arguably some of the best records of its career. In 2007, the band released its first album in six years, the spotless Kiss the Crystal Flake. Pacific Dust could be considered its sister album, with the Hips again making such diverse influences as Gene Clark, the Bee Gees and Black Sabbath sound as if they’re all sitting comfortably at the same table. The songs aren’t as consistent as on Crystal Flake, but when they’re good, they’re really good. Greg Loiacono dishes up his best tunes in years, especially “Young Charles Ives,” which tells the tale of a boy’s relationship to his father through music. The title track is the album’s centerpiece, a six-minute stoner rocker that pits stunning three-part harmonies against an ominous Sabbath riff. While it may sound ridiculous to say the guys in The Mother Hips have finally hit their stride this late in the band’s career, it wouldn’t be far-fetched to consider that this is a band with a good chance of clocking in another 20 years.