The Grand Tour: Hooves

Welcome to The Grand Tour, a regular feature where PHXmusic.com takes you inside practice spaces, tour vans and seedy apartments occupied by Phoenix-area bands. This week we give you a look inside the home of Phoenix rock n' rollers Hooves. If you would like your band featured, tweet @PHXmusicdotcom. Currently seeking grind-core acts, rappers and bands Frankie Muniz is in.

Hooves are a rock 'n' roll band, plain and simple. Acknowledging The Boss and The Band as influences, the band makes loose, swaggering music, complete with horn section. They don't practice much, out of principal: "We don't necessarily have a practice space," says singer Andy Krissburg. "I write a song, and play it for Chris on acoustic, he figures his parts out, I tell Steven the chords, then we drink a lot of beers at the bar by my house. After that we play the song live and I call out the chord changes to the other guitar/piano/trumpet [players] and that's our practice schedule." 

"Yeah," adds drummer Chris Lamb. "When we get up there, we know what we're doing, so we don't really need to practice."

The due pauses for a minute.

Smells like: Andy works at Green, and his vegan lifestyle often means cooking at home.  The house smelled like the kitchen: good. Showing off freeze-dried vegan beef, drummer Chris is quick to point out that Andy's creations don't always turn out so well. "He made some pizza, and it was gross. I wasn't trying to fuck with it." 

Most cherished piece of gear: While the Rickenbacker bass was the center of my lust, the boys were particularly proud of a cheesy painting they nabbed from "some dirtbag, methed-out motel" while hanging with The Necronauts. "I mean, look at it," Chris said, with still- fresh awe. 

Odds n' ends: Aside from the gear and clutter, Andy was quick to point out his signed Leon Redbone photo. "I saw him a couple weeks ago," he says. "It was awesome."  Beyond the tape decks and other recording gear, the boys seem keen on musical inspiration, with LPs scattered about.