Few would disagree with the claim that Snowglobe has been one of the most impactful bands of the past 20 years in Memphis. While they may appear in the occasional reunion show, they’re not too active in the city anymore, but one of the band members, Jeff Hulett, has been doggedly pursuing a solo career. This Friday, August 4th, his latest solo effort, The Josh EP (Something Borrowed), goes live on all streaming platforms, and Hulett will celebrate the release at the Memphis Listening Lab.
The sonic palette of the EP echoes Snowglobe’s unique blend of the intimate and the psychedelic, but while there are some grand sonic flourishes here and there, the collection feels rooted in an alt-folk sensibility. Perhaps that derives from the two-man team behind the record.
“The ‘Josh’ in The Josh EP refers to my neighbor and friend Josh Cosby,” Hulett writes in the release notes. “While we’ve collaborated on some songs together, this is a full bore, pedal to the metal, all-in recording with Josh at the helm — mixing, producing, and engineering. I just wrote and performed and let Josh do his thing.”
The instrumentation on the EP’s longest and most ambitious track, “You Can’t Stop It,” gives you some idea of the arrangements at work here. Hulett plays acoustic guitars, vocals, piano, organ, bass, percussion, and harmonica, while Cosby adds vocals, synth, organ, percussion, electric guitar, acoustic, and mellotron, all at the service of unabashedly pop songwriting. If that sounds reminiscent of Snowglobe, the end result is something different altogether, with Hulett’s originals bringing a more disarming vulnerability to the fore.
There’s also a refreshing restraint at work here: The first two tracks clock in at less than two minutes. Yet even these short ventures reveal the craft of a consummate builder of sonic worlds here that should translate well to the state-of-the-art audio system of the Memphis Listening Lab. The event begins at 6 p.m., and Memphis Made Brewing Company will supply the brews. After playing the release in full, Hulett and Cosby will perform a short set of songs live.
