Sons of Hippies is a female-fronted American trippy alternative rock band from Tampa, FL. The band was formed, in 2008, “amid fellow music lovers at a festival on a 700-acre farm on a sunny June afternoon” by
Katherine Kelly (vocals/guitar) and Brazilian native Jonas Canales (drums) who discovered that they are, in fact, children of hippies. So why didn’t they just call themselves Children of Hippies since, you know, Katherine Kelly is a girl and all? I don’t know. Anyway, David Daly (bass) currently fills out the line-up, since 2011. Sons of Hippies has been tagged as indie, neo-psych, post space rock, post shoegaze, etc, but, based on the band’s latest release Griffons at the Gates of Heaven (2013), I’ll just call them trippy alternative rock. Sub-sub-genres of rock are so specific, and confusing, these days. Post-this, post-that, this-core, that-core!
Sons of Hippies have released two videos, to date, from Griffons at the Gates of Heaven (2013), and both, “Spaceship Ride” and “Rose”, are good songs, but my interest wasn’t initially piqued (although I did love the grindhouse-inspired video for “Rose”). Then, I listened to “Dark Daisies”, on the album, and I was officially in with this band’s ’70s-inspired alt-rock.
“Dark Daisies” is a Led Zeppelin-esque hard rocker that is recommended if you like songs such as Dead Sara‘s “Weatherman” (which was heard in a commercial for the Fiat 500 Abarth) or Nico Vega‘s “Beast” (which was heard in a trailer for the video game BioShock Infinite). Who will use this song, I wonder? “Forward” is a favorite track with Katherine’s spacey vocals over a driving grungy riff. “Blood In The Water” is another favorite with a punky shout-out chorus. And, I love the chunky riff of “Minute x Minute”, the near-spoken word verses of “Animal Battle”, and the pleasant melody of “Cautionary Tale”.
Watch the videos for “Spaceship Ride” and “Rose” here:
Sons of Hippies Discography2009 – Warriors of the Light [Album]
2010 – Invisible Personalities [EP]
2010 – A-morph [Album]
2011 – Fade to White [EP]
2013 – Griffons at the Gates of Heaven (Cleopatra Records) [Album]
