Hounshell released a solo album, "Sometime, Somewhere" in 1981 on vinyl. The 45rpm single he put out ("So Right"/"Krazy Kind of Luv") was featured in the regular rotation on the local FM radio stations. The album received generous airplay. Since the digital age, it has been made available for download in a bit torrent on many web sites by fans of the record. The vinyl album is now a rare collectible. A copy sold in an online auction for $354. **In June of 2020 Mike signed a reissue/publishing deal with The Numero Group record label for "Sometime Somewhere" and his two tracks from the 1979 album "Plateau".
Hounshell's band "Ten Below" made it to the final's of "DC101's Battle of the Bands". Out of hundreds of entries they were selected to compete in one of four of the semi final competitions at the Bayou (long gone now) in DC. They won their semi final round. They then went on to the finals to compete with 3 other bands at the Sylvan Theater in front of the Washington Monument in front of a crowd of 20 thousand people.
Ten Below came in fourth in the contest out of over 250 original entries.
In 1984 Hounshell had been interviewed on a TV show called "The Green Room" (Channel 56 WNVC, Fairfax, VA) and was asked during the interview to record a theme for the show.
Mike and Third Heaven opened for Henry Lee Summerwho was on CBS Records at the time, and played regularly at the Bayou in Washington, DC. Hounshell also received three Mid-Atlantic Songwriting Contest awards.
In 1991 He joined a progressive rock band "Cathedral"(a registered U.S. Trademark 1991). This band is not to be confused with the Death Metal band from the U.K. by the same name. Cathedral entered a song in Musician Magazine's 4th "Best Unsigned Band Contest". Cathedral made it to the finals and had their band name listed in the magazine for being in the top 100 best unsigned bands. Later that year they signed a recording contract with Kinesis, a progressive rock label. Their first CD, "Kingdom of Ends" was the first original CD the Kinesis label ever released. It was well received in the progressive rock world. In Jerry Lucky's book, "The Progressive Rock Files", Jerry referred to Cathedral "Pioneers of neo-progressive rock".
After Cathedral released their second CD, "There in the Shadows" on Kinesis in 1993, the band split up. Ironically after the broke up the intro of one of their songs received daily FM airplay when the nationally syndicated "Don and Mike Show" on WJFK used it during the shows "Cavalcade of Hits" montage of sound bites.
The band once opened for "Dream Theater" and later Brian Jack ("Child's Play) at the Bayou. Cathedral was booked by "Cellar Door Productions" around the DC area.
A few of the band members formed a group called "Hip Omelette" that recorded and performed around DC, Maryland, and Virginia until 1995.
In 1997 Hounshell recorded bass during a session at Sountrax with Roger Fisher, legendary guitarist of the band Heart.at his studio Sountrax, in VA.
Mike engineered and produced the doom epic album "Review Your Choices" (Black Widow Records) with Joe Hasslevander and Bobby Leibling of Pentagram in 1999.
Cathedral released a remastered CD "Kingdom of Ends 2012 Remaster" in July of 2012. It made the Amazon top 100 CD list for 10 weeks.
In 2013 Hounshell released a four song EP on iTunes titled "Sometime Somewhere 2" (no longer available). The following years Mike released a series of online singles while performing live. Then in 2016 Hounshell signed a distribution deal for a single with Galactic Worldwide. Also in 2016 Mike recorded and released his second solo album and first solo CD "Hound Dog". Hounshell is recording bass tracks for Ad infinitum's 2nd album with Cathedral band mate Todd Braverman and working with Cathedral drummer Mark Copney on some tracks. In 2017 Mike has released some old analog recordings from the 90's.
In 2019 Mike remastered Cathedral's first album "Kingdom of Ends" for streaming, available on Pandora.
In June of 2020 Mike signed a reissue/publishing deal with The Numero Group record label for his first solo album "Sometime Somewhere" 1981 and two tracks from the FSC "Plateau" album! "Sometime Somewhere" was released for download and streaming on the Numero Group Label on November 1st, 2021.
Mike Hounshell started playing bass guitar professionally at 15. After five days of practicing with the band, the other members of his first band invited some guys from one of the other local bands in the area to evaluate his playing. The drummer/vocalist from the other band happened to be none other than a young undiscovered Steve Whiteman, who became the lead singer of the legendary band "Kix". After that Hounshell began constantly playing clubs and concerts in cover bands along the east coast.
In high school, Mike played trombone in the marching and concert band, bass in the jazz ensemble, sang in the chorus, the "Ensemble" chorus. He was asked to join the yearbook staff in 1977 to work on a floppy record disk for the 1978 yearbook in his junior and senior year. The record was titled "Sounds Of Beall High School" and was an insert in back of the yearbook.
During his senior year in high school Hounshell was selected for the Maryland All-State Chorus. He graduated from high school with the "Outstanding Music Student Award" and an accompanying music scholarship ($25).
While attending Frostburg State University Mike majored in music. There He played bass in the jazz ensemble, trombone in the marching band, and performed in many vocal ensembles. He engineered and was an artist on both student talent association albums, "Believe It", and "Plateau" (Producer).
