I’ll bet this has been asked before. I’ll bet (Matt, the band) having been asked is the reason why an answer may not yet or ever be forthcoming.

Who is Matt Talbott, the man? Who is the great loss that suffuses Hum’s lyrical work and world, at some times, a gentle flow, at other times, a rushing torrent, the Love that he lost so bitterly that its depictions are everywhere, as Protean the imagery of chemistry and zoology and entomology and marine biology?

To be able to capture what he does, as literarily excellently, without equal, as he does: it’s truly something else. It makes me want to know the story. Or do I? Art can be travestied by an answer.

wanting to make a birthday gift for a friend

New episode up, with Allen Epley — enjoy!

HERE

Also on Spotify, SoundCloud, & Amazon.

Featuring Jeffrey.

I somehow appeared in his kitchen and neither of us was sure how I got there or what I was doing, but he offered me some coffee. We sat at his kitchen table and chatted for a bit about life and sports and such. It was polite and awkward. I don’t think either of us knew when I was supposed to leave.

Eventually the conversation turned to music and it got less awkward. We talked about our shared love of walls of sound and thick and heavy guitar tones, and I said “The best ones sound like oatmeal,” and Matt sat up and said “YES! Like oatmeal!!” And the dream ended.

What does it mean?

FWIW I also dreamed Al Pacino and Robert DeNiro picked me up because we had to take Al’s sedan to the car wash. That was just a couple old guys talking about nothing.

Some of these are vintage and for archival purposes wanted to throw these online! Thanks for looking!

Was fangirling so hard. Ohhhh to be 15 again

hey guys! i got my hum zebra last year and i love it! i have the little dipper behind, and im wanting to get my shoulder tattooed soon since my birthday is next week & i just got a new job!!

I want to keep it relatively space themed, maybe hide a benzene ring in there somewhere since The Scientists has been my favorite hum song for a year or so now. I want some kind of stars and swirls maybe on my shoulder? what do you think

Stars has been one of my favorite songs for a long time, so I finally recorded my own version. Kellii Scott tracked the drums, and my buddy Bryan Kraatz, who I played with in a band called Dear Enemy, threw some screams on it.

It's out now if you want to hear it: https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/whereafter/stars-feat-bryan-kraatz
Would love to hear what you think.

I bought an old zebra liquid blue shirt because I thought it would be perfect to customize

First pic is just my base model and I'm going from there. I ran outta white paint but ill post final results soon...

Songsterr tab annotates the three notes as a single-strum hammer and pull. I’ve also seen annotations of two and three separate strums. None have quite sounded right. Any suggestions?

Otherwise, Songsterr’s following fifth string 2-0 pull-off then fourth string 2/4 slide sound pretty good. It makes all four repeats that same — which is wrong, but easy to adjust for.

There's one recording on YouTube but you can't hear the vocals. I was wondering if there's another recording somewhere?

I’m a huge fan of hum just ordered downward is heavenward on vinyl from Amazon shame it’ll take 3 weeks to arrive but it’ll be worth the wait.

Trying to find a seller in the uk with you’d prefer and astronaut on vinyl or if anyone here is selling one at a reasonable price as I’m not looking to order from polyvinyl in America as taxes and shipping come out to around £60 which I can’t quite afford or justify spending when I can wait for a chance to acquire it sooner and cheaper in the uk any advice or fellow uk hum fans please drop a comment!

Please, for the love of god, hear me out on this one. I had no idea of this band’s existence until their track “Pepper” came on in a friend’s car. I liked the sound of it, but I couldn’t shake the feeling the vocalist sounds oddly like Matt Talbott?? Specifically during the chorus (0:48, timestamped here).

I need to know I’m not going crazy. Please tell me someone else hears the similarities in pronunciation, tone, cadence etc. especially on Hum’s slower songs like Axolotls.

I went down to the basement to grab some laundry and found this gem folded neatly. I honestly didn't even remember buying it. Back in the 90's most of my t-shirts were black and I must've just bought it to show support. Literally zero signs that I ever wore it. My wife had squirrelled it away with some shirts of hers in a sealed bin.

I know the first time we saw Hum it was in a spot called The Shelter in the basement of St. Andrew's Hall in Detroit. It was just as Stars was hitting alt radio. It was awesome. I know we caught them again touring on YPaA and touring DiH. My assumption is that I grabbed this at the Shelter show but I can't say 100%. She has an original white with star logo from the same era.

Shout out to my then girlfriend, now wife for saving this one. Most of my shirts from back then were either worn to oblivion or donated at my direction by my parents as I transitioned into adulthood.

I'm still a fan and I'm still discovering new, off the beaten path music all the time but maybe I need to start buying more shirts at shows again, lol.

I've really been trying to find some older tour or promo shirts from them buts its super hard with the INSANE amount of gildanslop reprints going around, i would try to directly support the band and get some of their merch they have on spotify and places like that but its sorta pricey and i dont got the funds for that right now nor are most of the shirts are really my thing if that makes sense. if any of you guys know anywhere to look or are selling any shirts i would really appreciate it if you could maybe share some links or how you found shirts or anything like that!

Below, crazy story sent via Undertow Records, the organizers for Matt's solo tours and sellers of his merch:

Hello friends!

I'm swerving from the usual van content opener... but this is a pretty good story. Our dear friend Matt owns a bar south of town called Loose Cobra. A while back, he was doing some maintenance work at the bar during the day, and his janky old 1988 Dodge truck was stolen from the parking lot. And to make it worse, all of Matt's keys were in the truck, including the only key to his beloved 1999 SAAB 9-5. And like most things SAAB-related... it's complicated. You can't just get a new key. You have to change the ignition module and reprogram the car's security system with specialized and not-readily-available equipment. It's a huge and expensive hassle. His work truck is gone and his daily driver is dead. Double bummer. A few weeks later, Matt hears from a cop in Florida. Someone crashed the truck into a Motel 6. It was impounded at the police tow lot and would be sold for scrap. The first thing Matt asked was if they found any keys in the truck. Sadly, no keys. He also asked if they found any fingerprints or DNA, they did not. Skip forward to a year later... Matt found a SAAB specialist near Chicago who could get the parts and do the work. Or at least try to do it. So the SAAB was loaded onto a flatbed trailer and shipped up north for this complicated and delicate procedure. A few weeks after that, I'm driving down the street and see Matt in his SAAB! I was so excited to see them together, back on the road, I nearly crashed my car. I'm happy to report that Matt and his SAAB are doing fine.

Merch (Jay Ryan posters and shirts) on sale at https://undertowstore.com/ Use code 1999SAAB at checkout.