Hillstomp

This Portland duo is cut from similar cloth as the North Mississippi Allstars and the Black Keys, but they’re just a good ol’ jug band cranking out lo-fi punk blues on homemade instruments and vintage gear. The Woman That Ended the World, Henry Christain and John Johnson’s second self-released album, is flying off the merch table as they tour with Split Lip Rayfield and I Can Lick Any Sonofabitch in the House.


http://harpmagazine.com/articles/detail.cfm?article_id=5089

- HARP magazine

The bandmates balance the primitive drone of the Southern hills with a concentrated postpunk attack that keeps the music moving at a fever pitch. Before rock and roll, people danced to the blues, as Hillstomp reminds us with a thunderous groove. - Miami New Times

Hillstomp actually pulls it off...It's raw and evocative of the music recorded by the late Burnside and Junior Kimbrough…What these guys lack or lose in being closer to the Pacific than the Big Muddy, they more than make up for by raising the kind of racket heard on their sophomore album, The Woman that Ended the World. - MAGNET

The members of Hillstomp raise as much hell as two men sitting down possibly can. Drenched in sweat and possessed by the spirit of the Mississippi Delta, the Portland duo of Henry Kammerer and John Johnson uses a rickety setup of real and found instruments to whip up a raucuous yet trance-inducing racket.” - The Onion

1. Hillstomp, The Woman That Ended the World (self-released)

For The Woman That Ended the World to live up to the promise of its packaging—a gut-wrenching cover by Mona Superstar and a devastating title—the guys in Hillstomp would have to make the best blues album of the 21st century. And that's exactly what they have done. Here, on the band's sophomore release, these guys turn the trance blues of R.L. Burnside into their own. Henry Kammerer's running guitar lines betray his age, John Johnson's booming percussion betrays the physics of his ramshackle kit, and the stomping "Shake It" betrays the genre a bit by introducing a disco beat. But the vocals (delivered mostly by Kammerer) are pure, true blues, the sound of a wronged man breathin' through his teeth. We all owe that woman a drink.

2. The Decemberists, Picaresque (Kill Rock Stars)

3. Sleater-Kinney, The Woods (Sub Pop)

- Willamette Week

Shake loose some particles from punk 'n' roll, sprinkle 'em all over some stompin' Hill Country music rambunctiously played on hot slide guitar and plastic buckets, a handful of cans and sung through vintage mics and what you get is Hillstomp. The Portland, Ore. band returns with its sophomore outing, an intense, hyperkinetic 42-minute ride that expands and improves on the vision the boys (guitarist/vocalist Henry Kammerer and percussionist/vocalist John Johnson) so expertly revealed on their debut outing One Word.
The joyful noise lasts throughout the 11 songs present here but it's impossible not to stomp your feet, claps your hands and dance your way through the album's first half as Kammerer and Johnson tear through "Momma Told Papa," "In The Hole," "Shake It" and even a rip-snortin' version of Muddy Waters' "Can't Be Satisfied" that'll move you into givin' a unbridled hoot or holler on nearly every beat.
Hillstomp pays respect to tradition with that (and with Mississippi Fred McDowell's "You Done Told Everybody") but also writes its own entries in the ongoing story of the blues with "Jackson Parole Board Blues," "Boom Boom Room East Blues" and the simply beautiful "Deep Knee Blues."
In the wide world of the blues there are legends, wanna-bes and those who take the art one more step forward and Hillstomp has proven here that it is firmly entrenched in the latter camp.
- F5

We were as impressed as Hell with the last Hillstomp release. The Woman
That Ended The World picks up where that album left off.
Guitarist/vocalist Henry Kammerer and drummer/vocalist John Johnson record
sparse foot-tapping music that could easily appeal to a lot of people.
Like the Flat Duo Jets, these guys manage to do a lot using only the bare
essentials. Whether they're playing redneck-inspired dance numbers or
softer moody blues, these guys manage to stay squarely focused over the
course of these eleven tunes. If there is one word to describe Hillstomp
that word would probably be...unpretentious. Another thoroughly satisfying
album. Features "Poor Black Mattie," "Can't Be Satisfied," "Jackson Parole
Board Blues," and "N.E. Portland 3 a.m." (Rating: 5) - Baby Sue

For example, the hipster haven Portland, Oregon, spawned Hillstomp, a down-home duo whose minimalist blues tunes make 12-bar shuffles seem like epics. Using a slide guitar, a drum set made out of buckets and grill lids, and two high, lonesome voices, Hillstomp can make any club show feel like a front-porch hootenanny. It pays homage to the pre-amplification era without cowboy-costume gimmickry or stiff, stifling reverence, playing its primitive melodies with punk energy. - The Pitch (KC)

Hillstomp is the duo of Henry Kammerer (vocals, guitars) and John Johnson (percussive stuff, vocals). Together, the two create killer blues infected hillbilly music. The overall sound is sparse yet energetic. Kammerer and Johnson do a lot with a little. The percussion is tight and effective...and the slide guitars sound absolutely great. The duo's original tunes sound like they were written by some of the great black Mississippi blues artists of the 1930s. Kammerer has a great rough vocal style which is perfectly suited for this style of music. This is a great little eleven track album that will cause even the most jaded listeners to start tapping their feet. Instantly addictive, One Word is an instant underground hit. Superb classics include "Graverobber's Blues," "Nope," "Lucy's Lament," and "Landlord Blues." Great stuff... (Rating: 5)
- Baby Sue

...Even for blues nuts, Hillstomp doesn't sound like anything that's come before it. While Johnson bangs out clanking beats on his modified kit -- it now includes tin cans, soup pots and a barbecue-grill lid -- Kammerer slips and slides around his guitar like a kid on a waterslide. Melodies zip and splash about. Mammoth grooves seemingly appear out of nowhere. It's all primitive and natural, like it sprung up from the ground. If it weren't for the fact that Krammerer's vocals are all distorted and his lyrics occasionally touch on modern ideals, the group's debut disc, One Word, would come off like some lost Alan Lomax field recording.
- Las Vegas City Life