Video Premiere: Houndmouth, “Penitentiary”

Kentucky folk-rockers Houndmouth, or, as UK paper The Gaurdian calls them, the “American Mumford & Sons,” released their self-titled, debut EP today on Rough Trade Records. Watch the video for the single “Penitentiary,” a Band-style singalong, below. It’s the perfect song for the dog days of summer.

“Katie [Toupin] and I were roadtripping home from California when we made a pit-stop in Reno,” says Houndmouth’s guitarist/vocalist Matt Meyers about the song’s origins. “Her brother and some friends were going to Texas and we had to split ways after a long trip together.We started chatting with a group of homeless guys outside of truck stop about how they were down on their luck, kind of resembling the character in the song. I started thinking about the unfortunate downturns these guys had seen and got to writing. I liked the Texas setting better, so I went with that. ”

“I wrote a verse that felt comfortable and natural to me, so much so that I didn’t feel like it needed to change for the chorus. So we just stuck with the two-chord structure and built it up from there.”