No troubles in this ol'
hubble By
Richard Shirk - The Daily
Iowan
The concept of "too much fun"
has never occurred to Troubled Hubble.
The
adopted local faves of Iowa City are returning
once again from Chicago-land with a cheer-inducing
live outing to coincide with the release of the
band's latest powerful dose of rock 'n' roll
antidepressant — an album called
Penturbia.
Penturb-what? The definition
reads " Penturbia has in abundance what suburbia
lacks — beautiful open space, mostly uncongested
rural roads, clean air and water, as well as
friendly communities." Filled with songs about
love, canoes, and airplanes, it's a fitting motif
for an album this honey-coated in PBS-kids-show
imagery.
The four — Chris Otepka (vocals,
guitar), UI student Josh Miller (vocals, guitar),
Andrew Lanthrum (bass), and Nate Lanthrum (drums)
— have been playing together for close to four
years. A group of self-professed outdoor nuts,
Troubled Hubble is famously unwilling to divulge
much more than that the members enjoy rock 'n'
roll, fishing, and eating ice cream on a daily
basis.
"We all met within the particle
acceleration ring at a local institute of science
called FermiLab," Otepka said. "Throughout our
teen years, Josh and I specialized in maintaining
and recording the proton shooter, Andrew equalized
neutron blasters and recovered quarks, and Nate
did janitorial work. Instead of being scientists
of the atomic structure, we focused our research
on playing rock music."
This research has
paid off with Penturbia, the band's most
definitive recording to date. Drummer Lanthrum and
bass player Lanthrum's playing border on a Muppet
level of intensity while the production of Jon
Butcher has Miller and Optepak's blissed-out and
sunbaked guitar tones coming off as bright as they
do live. Like the band's previous LPs, The Sun
Shined Off the Name Maurice, and Broken Airplanes,
Penturbia has no shortage of college-rock picnic
sing-alongs.
"You Stay Here and I'll Go Get
Help," "Nancy," and "What We Do" are expert
examples of the Hubble augmenting the already
water-tight pop songs with backwards guitars,
double-tracked vocals, and the daily recommended
allotment of handclaps. "Paper/Stone" and "Work"
slow things down, only to make up for lost pace
with added attention paid to melody, while guest
musician Al Barosik lends strings to the built-up
texture.
Three tracks from previous albums
are re-recorded, including college radio hit "I
Love My Canoe." While "Canoe," Airplanes," and
"Migraine" are almost note-for-note identical to
the originals, the band's experience of playing
the songs hundreds of times at frequent live stops
adds as much as the studio knobs and
whistles.
The entourage of dancing fans
(Hubblies) is as much a spectacle as the band's
performance on any given night.
"We're not
here to make anybody realize how much whatever
aspect of their life sucks," Nate Lanthum said.
"We're here to remove people away from that train
of thought. People come out to our shows and leave
reality for 40 minutes or however long and let us
take over … it's a real honor to bring some escape
and happiness to anybody on any given
night."
Even on plastic, where most bands
flag, Penturbia is still a pillow fight in the
album machine. Live, Troubled Hubble's All Pez and
Red Bull diet is bound to pull even the most
reluctant of listeners into the legions of
dancing, shoe-pointing, tambourine-shaking
Hubblies.
Troubled Hubble will be joined at
the Green Room Friday night by the Red Hot
Valentines, Beef Wellington, and the Amazing
Killowatts.
E-mail DI reporter Richard
Shirk
at: rshirk@blue.weeg.uiowa.edu
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