Amoeba Music

American experimental folk band Hiss Golden Messenger was founded in 2007 by MC Taylor and Scott Hirsch. The pair had relocated to Durham, NC after growing up in California and playing in hardcore band Ex-Ignota and indie rock group The Court &...More

American experimental folk band Hiss Golden Messenger was founded in 2007 by MC Taylor and Scott Hirsch. The pair had relocated to Durham, NC after growing up in California and playing in hardcore band Ex-Ignota and indie rock group The Court & Spark. After the dissolution of the latter band, Taylor and Hirsch began releasing work on Taylor's label Heaven & Earth Magic Recording Company. In 2009, Hiss Golden Messenger's debut LP Country Hai East Cotton was released in a limited run of 500. A selection of songs from this first album was rechristened From Country Hai East Cotton and released on the Black Maps label in 2011, following the success of their first international release, 2010's Bad Debt.

Hiss Golden Messenger continued to release a series of works on Taylor's label and North Carolina label Bachelors of Paradise before signing to Merge Records in 2014. They released their first album for Merge, Lateness of Dancers, that same year. Ever prolific, the group wrote and recorded a string of acclaimed LPs for the label over the next few years, including Heart Like a Levee (2016) and Hallelujah Anyhow (2017). Hiss Golden Messenger has recently released work via Aquarium Drunkard and contributed a cover of "Brown-Eyed Women" for the 4AD Grateful Dead comp Day of the Dead.