Philadelphia’s Hour bring their DIY chamber music to True/False this weekend

Hour. // photo credit Charlie Boss

The True/False Film Fest takes place in Columbia, beginning Thursday, February 27 and ending Sunday, March 2.

On Saturday, March 1, a stripped-down, four-piece version of the adventurous Philadelphia DIY chamber group Hour—think Rachel’s and other ‘90s bands that blended the ethos of underground rock with orchestral and other non-rock instruments—will play a Sanctuary Showcase concert at the First Baptist Church, opening for forward-looking saxophonist Josh Johnson and Japanese folk legend Sachiko Kanenobu, as well as providing backing for the latter. The group will also appear in a more informal setting throughout the festival, playing introductory music before the beginning of films, as people are walking to their seats.

“It sounds pretty open-ended, so we will likely take those opportunities to do some extended improvising we otherwise wouldn’t do at a regular show,” bandleader and multi-instrumentalist Michael Cormier-O’Leary told the Pitch in an email interview.

A film festival in the middle of Missouri might sound like an odd gig for a Philadelphia band, but as Hour’s recent live album Subminiature, released on Cormier-O’Leary’s own Dear Life label, attests, Hour has a long history with unorthodox venues. The appendices to the track titles tell the tale: “Live at the Loading Dock, Littleton, NH,” “Live at the Hole in the Ground, Cleveland, OH,” “Live at Greenwood Garden, Peaks Island, ME.”

“To date, we’ve played in an old machine shop, a movie theater, outdoors looking over the ocean on a small island in Maine, churches, bars, and venues otherwise reserved for indie rock music,” Cormier-O’Leary recalls.

The unconventional venues match the band’s interest in shaking up old formulas and engaging with the unfamiliar: “I book all the shows myself and choose to book places I want to play. I really believe in bringing this music outside of major urban centers. Last June, we performed seven dates just in the state of Maine alone. It was thrilling to share something I know a lot of people haven’t seen before,” Cormier-O’Leary says.

When it comes to Columbia, Hour secured the booking through some good old-fashioned local connections, Cormier-O’Leary reveals.

“Hour violinist Em Downing lived in Columbia for roughly 10 years and is one of the three music programmers for the festival. I met Em when they were living in Philadelphia. For years, I’ve heard them gush about this festival. Considering both the size of the staff and the town, it’s an amazing feat that they pull off this really serious film festival year after year. They just announced the full music lineup, and I was quite honored to see our name next to some true heavy hitters in experimental music.”

Hour. // photo courtesy Dear Life Records

Cormier-O’Leary also has a deep connection with cinema.

“I’ve loved films for most of my conscious life. A good film is the marriage of every art form I care about in a single package,” he says. He particularly admires several films set in or inspired by his home base of Philly. Among other classics such as Elaine May’s Mikey and Nicky and Peter Weir’s Witness, he cites the lesser-known The Watermelon Woman, directed by Cheryl Dunye, as an “unimpeachable classic of Philly filmmaking,” and describes as “Sort of like if Friends were about artists living paycheck to paycheck in Philly instead of upper-middle class yuppies living (mystically) in New York. It has an unbelievable sense of visual style I consider quite inspirational.”

The live album Subminiature album has a connection to one of the great Philly-inspired films as well – David Lynch’s Eraserhead, filmed in L.A. but very much a reflection of the recently deceased legend’s time in the city: “A long-venerated venue here, PhilaMOCA–where we recorded some of the songs on Subminiature– is located in the heart of a neighborhood known as the ‘Eraserhood,’ which is roughly where Lynch lived during his time at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. I think it’s much different now than when he was here in the ‘60s, but Philly never got a complete makeover the way other cities did, so you can still sense some of what he must have noticed,” Cormier O’Leary says.

At the time of the interview, Cormier-O’Leary wasn’t sure which films Hour would be playing opening music for, but didn’t seem too worried. His compositional approach, which marries strong, occasionally folksy melodies with more abstract and textural passages–with violin, clean guitar, piano and clarinet intertwining in sinuous, brooding figures and blunter, brighter passages–relies on an openness to chance.

“With some exceptions, the music is about 60% composed and 40% improvised. Some sections are intentionally left to be improvised and expanded upon with each performance. I normally start by bringing the main melodic idea and structure to the group. Sometimes I’ve demoed out extensive arrangements, and other times we find those parts together in real time,” Cormier-O’Leary says.

There’s also the unpredictability of the live setting itself, some of which manifests on Subminiature. As the last lilting notes of “Tiny House” fade into the seaside Maine air, you can hear off in the distance, after the modest rumble of applause, the faint, unmistakable notes of a crowd of people singing “Happy Birthday.” The clear yet atmospheric soundboard recording of Lucas Knapp, also the Hour pianist, deserves special mention here as, at another point, the band amiably engages with an appreciative, possibly somewhat inebriated, audience member. It’s all part of the flexible Hour approach, which extends even to personnel matters.

“The lineup of the group is constantly rotating based on people’s availability, so the arrangements shift accordingly based on who is playing,” Cormier-O’Leary says. “We are playing True/False as a seven-piece, which is about half the number of people on Ease the Work, the record we released last year. On Subminiature, the smallest group performing is a four-piece. It all works, it’s just different. I think the live album gives a great overview of how this group functions and adapts with every performance.”

The central looseness works in Hour’s favor, bringing a sound that deftly balances the intricate structure of orchestrated music and the nimble emotional directness of rock and folk. Some songs, like “Your New Apartment,” have a definite pulse that gives direction to the wistful orchestration, in this case, a string section, which prepares the way for an introspective guitar motif offset by twittering synth.

Other tracks, such as the intimate “Something I’ve Been Meaning to Tell You,” dwell on delicacy and nuance, the drums engaging in close conversation with the guitar and reeds, with little fanfare to sweep things along. (It’s after this song draws to a close when the voluble audience member announces his presence.) Even the instrumental formula isn’t set in stone, as, with the help of vocalist Jacob Augustine, the band turns in an admirably rough-edged rendition of Patsy Cline’s “I Fall to Pieces.”

Though the band won’t be stopping in KC this time around, Subminiature includes a nod to one of the city’s pillars. The lush but compact “Hallmark” pays tribute to the local greeting card company, specifically the entertainment wing, which, presumably, will not be represented at the underground-leaning True/False. “I am specifically enamored with Hallmark movies, which have such a distinct production value and no ambiguity as to what they are about. They’re all BIG EMOTIONS all the time. I was also thinking about the dictionary definition of the word, of being a distinctive feature of excellence (which I selfishly chose thinking this to be quite a good song),” Cormier-O’Leary says.

He hasn’t seen the Chiefs romance Holiday Touchdown yet (“I only really see Hallmark movies when I’m in hotel rooms.”) but perhaps that will change by the next time he brings Hour to Missouri.

The True/False Film Fest runs Thursday, February 27, through Sunday, March 2. Hour performs Saturday, March 1, as part of the Sanctuary Showcase. More details available at the festival’s website.