“Loud songs for good and bad days” is the sole biographical information available on Planet Manhood’s (a.k.a. Sam Houdek’s) social media accounts, and though it’s one of the briefer bios you might run across, it’s also the most accurate. If you’re on the hunt for a meditative-yet-grungy record to accompany you through the long, hot nights (both those bad and those good), look no further than Planet Manhood’s most recent endeavor, the EP Mistake House.’
Drawing influences from Superchunk, Pavement, and Built to Spill, Planet Manhood falls somewhere between grunge and classic rock, while never quite becoming either. The mysterious cover art for Mistake House was done by Boston-based artist Kelly Kikcio, a feminist artist whom Houdek came across from a stick-n’-poke tattoo she gave to a friend, an image that Houdek gravitated towards because it seemed so incompatible with the hyper-masculine name of Planet Manhood.
Though each of the five songs on Mistake House is dispatched with a heavy dose of guitar distortion and lumbering drums, underneath the fuzziness lies remarkably gentle snapshots of the subtleties in human relationships, as Houdek sings quiveringly, “I like your backpack, is it burlap? Are you feeling like an outcast?” After attending UT and bouncing between multiple jobs, including booking shows, cleaning pools, guitar teching and working in multiple bands, the artist seems to have genuinely hit his stride with Planet Manhood, including departing for a tour of the Southeast a couple of days after dropping Mistake House on June 10.
If you’re in the midst of a bad (or good) day, hit play below for a loud song that might also make you feel a little bit more understood.
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Katy Kirby