Tuesday, 24 June 2025

Namesakes #143: Hourglass

The hourglass has no more grains of sand
My watch has stopped, no more turning hands
The crew have abandoned the ship
The lights are on but no one is in

So sang Squeeze on their 1987 Top 20 hit Hourglass. It's true that the sand is slipping through life's hourglass far too quickly. You certainly shouldn't waste any of the remaining grains... so listening to a bunch of bands named after an egg timer is probably not a wise move. Still, somebody had to do it...


HOUR GLASS #1

We start in 1967, when Gregg and Duane Allman were brothers... but they weren't yet The Allman Brothers. Instead, they were... Hour Glass!

Hour Glass - Power Of Love

HOURGLASS #2


Next, a Canadian Hourglass who started making music in 1972 (I'm guessing the above photo is around then) although they appear to have kept plugging away, with a variety of line-up changes, well into the 90s. A lot of their earlier releases were covers, but this is an original, from later in their career when Jamie Todd was on vocals... I can't quite put a date on it though.

Hourglass - Piece Of My Past

HOUR GLASS #3

Another band from Donald's 51st State, these guys started out in the 70s, but appear to have been still at it many years later. Led by Phil DeMille, they came from Nova Scotia...

Hour Glass - Ocean Harvest

HOURGLASS #4

With a lead singer who looks like a young Jim Carrey, these "chaotic, discordant hardcore" punks from Buffalo made a heck of a racket in the mid-90s, reforming in 2022 once their throats had got better.

Hourglass - Cyl / Divide

HOURGLASS #5


Sometimes I can't find any music, but I still want to feature the band. The above photo of a barber shop quartet from Alabama surely explains why...

HOURGLASS #6

Prog-metal from Utah in 1996... wonder if they were Mormons?

Hourglass - Blameless

HOURGLASS #7

From 2001, "five performers from four continents with a new take on ancient sounds". I don't want to comes across as negative, but if this is what music sounded like before we had the ability to record it for posterity... then that's probably a blessing.

Hourglass - What Do You See?

THE HOURGLASS #8

Ever wondered what Syrian heavy metal sounds like? Here's the answer from 2010...

The Hourglass - Ancient Hope

THE HOURGLASS #9

Ever wondered what Romanian goth-metal sounds like? Here's the answer from 2014...

The Hourglass - Dying Star

HOURGLASS #10

Ever wondered what Israeli groove-metal sounds like? Etc. Etc. Etc.

Hourglass - My Devil

HOURGLASS #11

More sore throats (why do they do this to themselves?) from Wollongong, Australia, in 2016...

Hourglass - Break My Heart

THE HOURGLASS #12

Give your ears a rest with this duo from Virginia...

The Hourglass - Snow In April

HOURGLASS #13

Now we're in Maryland with an HourGlass that differentiate themselves with a mid-word capital letter, and a song dedicated to Tom...

HourGlass - Petty

HOURGLASS #14

Next, a soulful indie band from That London in 2020...

Hourglass - BC

HOURGLASS #15

And a Philippines Hourglass, enjoying a Quarter Life Crisis, also in the year of Covid...

Hourglass - Selfless

HOURGLVSS #16

Welsh alt-pop outfit that will irk the purists, but "create a sound that purposefully lives in the divide between fantasy and reality" and therefore deserve shoe-horning in. Because they make a nicer noise than a lot of the bands on this list.

Hourglvss - Johnny

HOURGLASS #17

And a lady from Atlanta who describes the track below thus: "Playing alt-nik in Atlanta and I needed a way to throw "sossaup" in. Sprinkle it in at the twerkoffs." All you trendy you things will be down with that, I'm sure.

Hourglass - Sossanewbootyup (Hourglass mashup)

HOURGLASS #18

Southern rockers from Indiana, just last year. "Their energetic stage shows and superior songs will melt the fat off your body and raise your loved ones/hated enemies from the dead." Or your money back.

Hourglass - Calling Out

HOURGLASS #19

Bang up to date with "a droned noise project from the firey city of 1920". That's not how I'd spell fiery. This was made in Cork, Ireland, and it may well give you nightmares...

Hourglass - Sporus

Which Hourglass do you have time for? And which are just a waste of time?


4 comments:

  1. I would gladly swap my live Allman Brothers album for one by #1

    ReplyDelete
  2. You know what, I've never wondered what Romanian goth-metal sounds like.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Why wonder when you have all those Romanian goth-metal albums in your collection already?

      Delete
  3. A promising start to #18, but it quickly descended into bobbins-land. I am quite taken with the Romanian goth-metal people of #9, but the Maryland group of #13 is the one to beat. And who in their right mind would spend €3 plus IVA for #19? Then again, what moron would spend 9 minutes 28 seconds of their life listening to it?

    ReplyDelete

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