The Situation It’s nearing 2 a.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 1, and I’m at the 5-Point with Hounds of the Wild Hunt, who used to be more crudely known as the Whore Moans. Present are singer/guitarists Jonny Henningson and Nikki Anderson, bassist/vocalist Ryan Devlin, and drummer Jason Kilgore.
Intoxication Three of the four Hounds tend bar for a living (Devlin and Henningson at Tutta Bella, Anderson at Café Racer), and they are all good-sized, masculine men who can down pitchers of High Life like it’s ice water after a marathon. I try my best to keep up with a couple of beers and an oversized shot of whiskey, but I’m clearly out of my league.
How He Got Here All four share a house in the U District, although under somewhat sketchy circumstances. “The utility bills are in my ex-girlfriend’s name,” says Devlin. “We are completely off the grid,” confirms Anderson. “I do my taxes under a Guatemalan guy’s name,” adds Henningson.
At least Kilgore is legit. He spends his days working at an STD clinic as a disease-intervention specialist. “If you were really high on crystal,” he posits, “and you’ve been up for a couple days, and you’re at a sex club, and you see a little sign that has a boy and his butt showing, and it says ‘Get Tested, Room 210,’ and I’m, like, ‘You wanna get tested?,’ would you trust me? Because that’s what I do.”
“By the way, we’re getting your blood tonight. That’s what this is all about,” says Henningson.
“And we’re going to a gay sex club,” adds Devlin.
Shop Talk As I said, the Whore Moans are no more. “Ryan [said], ‘I’m sick of this,” recalls Henningson. “‘I don’t want to make songs that I care so much about, and then only have the title the Whore Moans to hang them on.” The new moniker comes from a book called Magickal Mystical Creatures (other name-change candidates were The White Eagle of Zeus, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles, and A Great Many People in Europe). The myth of the Hounds signifies a death omen sent from the gods. “It is fucking doom coming at you,” says Devlin.
BTW: The guys just finished recording a four-song EP to be released sometime in the near future. “OK, we all know how to spell ‘uh-uh’ and ‘uh-huh,'” says Anderson. “But how about [he makes that noise you make when you shrug your shoulders in a fit of uncertainty]? ‘Cause that’s what we want to name the new record.”
I think it’s u-n-h dash u-n-h. “Is there an umlaut?” Anderson asks. Unh-unh?
