Horse Jumper of Love by POND Creative
Digging through the Internet I couldn’t find how exactly the Boston-born, Brooklyn-based indie trio Horse Jumper of Love chose their name, but thankfully their sonic output has a deeper digital imprint than their origin story. Over the course of soon to be five albums, they play a mellow, fluid form of rock with slowcore and slacker influences. It’s reminiscent of what you would hear in ’90s college radio from bands like Low, Luna, Granddaddy and Dinosaur Jr. — music that’s kind of mellow but has a bit too much of an edge to qualify as folk.
In the video for their moody single, ”Wink,” released in May, singer-guitarist Dimitri Giannopoulos, bassist John Margaris and drummer Jamie Vadala-Doran play in a beautiful park as a bird of prey flies overhead. It’s a wistful hint of a forthcoming album, Disaster Trick, set for release on August 16. “Wink” also has a literary bent, as it’s based on a Russian short story, “Leaves,” by Moscow-based author Dmitry Bakin. “The story is partly about people leaving their home for something better, but when they return they are back to the same place they started,” Giannapoulous said in a statement announcing the new album. “The story shed some perspective on my own life and the ebb and flow of pushing forward for something better and going back to your old ways.”
Disaster Trick was made in a different circumstance from its predecessors, Giannopoulos went on to say: “This was the first album I’ve ever done where I went into it with a very clear mind. In the past, we would just show up at a studio, drink, and record. Here, everything felt purposeful.”
Fans will be able to hear these new songs and older ones played in a more sober mindset as Horse Jumper of Love, opening for DIIV. Their return follows a Miami show last summer at Gramps, where they went back and forth across the border of being the loudest quiet band and the quietest loud band around.
Horse Jumper of Love perform with DIIV 7pm Sunday, July 21 at Revolution Live. horsejumperoflove.com ~ David Rolland
