If the Internet’s turning country-mouse cosmopolitan with its online shopping, blogging heads and unlimited downloads, these four lads could pen the theme music. Like Kings of Leon, Hymns put a velvet rope around the cornfield, injecting a garage-glam strut into Southern-fried country rawk. The band is keyed by guitarists/childhood chums Brian Harding and Jason Roberts, who started Hymns while attending Appalachian State before relocating to Brooklyn. Their 2006 debut Brother/Sister got plenty of attention thanks to a strong batch of songs ranging from slinky downtown rockers to jangly folk-pop, bluesy embraces of The Band and dusty Stones-y throttle. The follow-up Travel in Herds circumnavigates the globe, wandering from New Wave “St. Sebastian” to the piano rag, “LA, or Babette Sange” and harmony-laden country-folk “NYC Nervous Breakdown.” They add horns and more organ-driven arrangements, while catering to the country contingent with a “Train Song” in a scattershot song collection.
Tue., Oct. 28, 9 p.m., 2008
