TopHouse

Fast-paced, high-energy foot stompers. Ballads that’ll make you cry. It’s kind of like a rock band married old-fashioned bluegrass and had a little baby. And names it Tophouse.

Expectations versus reality. Unbridled optimism versus rugged lived experience. Theory versus Practice.
This is the conflict at the center of Tophouse’s dueling new EPs.
Theory, released in May 2024, brims with hope, optimism, and the unshakeable knowledge that hard circumstances and people can change for the better. The new EP, Practice is different. While the band’s intricate arrangements and high-energy performances carry through, the subject matter and outlook of these new songs stands in  stark contrast to the upbeat and hopeful worldview of Theory.
“We didn’t start out writing these songs with a two-part set of EPs in mind,” says lead vocalist Joe Larson. “But when they were written and we were looking at how to  arrange them on an album, the clear delineation of themes became pretty apparent. The idealistic, hopeful worldview that we can all strive for in Theory, up against the  hard reality that life doesn’t always work out the way we want in Practice.”
“I Don’t Wanna Move On” is a stark meditation on coming to terms with separation. The chorus repeats, like a rosary, swelling to a frenetic burst of cathartic acoustic  energy.
“Meteor”, bolstered by lush string arrangements and Western electric guitar, is about crashing and burning from self-sabotage. The Western elements in this song,  themselves a rarer color palette for Tophouse, are contrasted by a vaguely sci-fi string track.