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March 21, 2013

Baltic Cousins – The Broken Horn

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Baltic Cousins ::: The Broken Horn

After seeing Baltic Cousins an estimated 14,722 times in-person over the last calendar year, it was nice to get ahold of the recordings of their new stuff. While I can’t decide if I prefer The Broken Horn to some of Baltic Cousins older material (still rocking the heck out of that demo), I can string together some poorly expressed thoughts and give you the opportunity to decide for yourself. Imagine a world in which music writers are the conduit to your own positive/negative critical thinking? What media are you going blame for all your societal ills moving forward?

The Broken Horn isn’t a drastic departure from Baltic Cousins “old stuff.” In fact, “Indianapolis” is making its first “official” appearance since the band’s first demo. The band released their first single for this album a number of months ago (“Never Hold Your Breath,”). It serves as a pretty solid indicator of what awaits the listener on the rest of the album. To me, the funniest thing about the aforementioned track, is one of the lyrics describes how I approached my listening to this record. To close out the song, singer/guitarist Bradley James Lockhart exclaims, “I moved up, I moved on! You got stuck in a song!”

I know he didn’t mean to accuse me of wrong, but the allegations rang true.

In essence, I was stuck in a song. I was glued to Baltic Cousins old songs and not allowing myself to examine these compositions as a separate entity from the band’s past. How many of us are guilty of doing the same thing, but with humans….raise your hands?

The Broken Horn‘s opening track “Bear Traps” has verses that feature no steady ground. It might be the tom  fills or the wavering vocals but the track has a surprisingly sea-faring feel despite its hazardous, woodsy allusion. Once the chorus kicks in, all intentions are brought to light. You finally feel like your stuck in the Northwest, waiting for a non-existant Spring to come. While people in different parts of the country continue to post pictures of cherry-blossoms blooming on Instagram. Baltic Cousins are telling you that you’re not bitter, this cardigan malaise you’re feeling keeps you grounded. Stay level-headed and comfortable in your misery, Seattlite.

First and foremost, I love the title “He Has Smoked Bugs Before.” My reasoning is because you know there’s a good story behind a song title like that. Possible party tricks or drunken campfire behavior aside, this is a prime example of the Baltic Cousins I love. Spirited, loud, somewhat fast and celebratory for the fuck of it. “He Has Smoked Bugs Before” also has one of those moments that, “really make the song” and it happens towards the end of the track. All of the music stops and Lockhart utters the phrase, “Who’s fucking watching us?” before all of the instruments come crashing back in. I am often asking myself the same question (in the third person of course). 

The next two tracks remain mostly stationary but they have polarizing affect on the way I receive them. “Hurricane Able” is my favorite song on this album. Nika Lee’s violin multitasks efficiently by controlling the song and dressing the vocals.

I have a minor complaint to make before I go forward.

Throughout the album thus far, there have been occasions where the violin is very apparent and the listener struggles to hear Rabia Magnusson’s piano. Turn the girl’s keys up! To my own ears, this is first track where I clearly hear both instruments, intermingling in a harmonic fashion. Is this the sole reason why this is my favorite track on this album? No. However, it did not handicap its chances at endearment.

“Hurricane Able” exhibits many of the traits I tend to find attractive in a rock song. It’s short, it’s memorable and the vocals are anthemic at one point or another. I like it just the way it is, I wouldn’t change a thing. Actually, that’s a lie. I wouldn’t mind hearing the beginning guitar intro with the violin accompaniment at the very end of the song as well. I think those few seconds are really pretty and wouldn’t mind hearing it again.

On the other hand, I am not really a fan of “Mark Twain (Was There & He Was Crying).” It’s not a bad song. In fact, for some of you this might be the highlight of the record. For me, this song fails to move me for two reasons. First, it comes across like a promise never fulfilled. When I listen to it, I think something else greater is about to happen but it never does.

This is problematic because it creates a deja vu of the most unsavory variety.

During my teenage years, I got a similar feeling listening to the Fugazi album, “Steady Diet of Nothing.” This is far and away the worst Fugazi album. I’d also nominate this record as one of the worst albums ever put forth by Dischord Records. With the exception of one song, I waited that entire fucking album for something to happen…and it never did. It was audio Groundhog Day. “Never again!” I promised myself…

Secondly, the opening lyrics about symbolized romanticism morph into lines that are elegiacally blue collar. Why is this a problem? Because it reminds of that Americana/Folk explosion we experienced here in Seattle a few years ago. If you know my history with this website, you know how little I thought of that often imitated, localized artistic movement. Oddly enough it spread to record label boardrooms all over the globe. Now I can’t go to the gym without hearing Mumford and Sons over the fucking PA. When will a brother be able to watch a cellphone commercial on television without having to be subjected to the fucking Lumineers!?!

I don’t want to hear anymore songs about white guys with beards talking about being judged by the work they do with their hands. This might have something to do with coming from a household where my mother was the “handy person.” My father would stand around obviously perplexed by whatever my mother was fixing. I was over it in 2009. Give me another couple of years and maybe I’ll come back around. I realize that I am violating the very thread and fabric of American Folklore…but I don’t give a shit. It’s also quite possible that the work Lockhart was referring to wasn’t manual labor at all. If that is the case, I apologize for what your musical antecedents have ruined for you.

Are there any lessons to be learned from listening to “Junk Beach Parts One and Two”? Do I have any volunteers? No? Gentle readers, are you aware of the “Cormac McCarthy Theory of Disturbed Inspiration”? It is stated as follows: If you read a Cormac McCarthy novel at some point in your adult life, your chances of writing a good song based on the events you have read increases by an incredible 37.7% (If you suck at music, then it doesn’t matter what books you read….you suck at music.)  Baltic Cousins were aware of this esoteric theorem and used it to their advantage. They crafted a noteworthy composition and wisely broke it down into two distinct songs.

“Dead Artists” will remind you of the Decemberists immediately. I like the Decemberists so this isn’t a bad thing.  An accordion, a mandolin, a violin, a guitar playing chords that wouldn’t be out of place on Picaresque or The King is Dead. However, it’s not the music that you should be paying attention to here, it’s the realness of the lyrics. You could even argue that this might be one of the “realest” songs Baltic Cousins have ever written. This song is confrontational, honest, angry and urgent. I did not recognize its majesty until the 7th or 8th listen. It’s really a great track. One of my favorite things about listening to music is how a connection isn’t always immediate but it is everlasting. This song is an example of that.

To summarize:

* “Hurricane Able” will probably end up as one of my favorite songs of the year.

* If you’re a white guy with a beard and an acoustic guitar and you want to tell me about working with your hands, go fuck yourself.

* Never, ever remind me of Fugazi’s Steady Diet of Nothing

 * Don’t try too hard to connect with a song, let a song connect with you.

* Don’t get stuck in a song either.

* This is a strong musical effort worth owning and a band worth witnessing.

 

Baltic Cousins are having their Seattle album release show on Friday, March 22nd at the Tractor with Ravenna Woods and Lost Lander. Then the following night they’ll be rocking the Shakedown in Bellingham with Livingston Seagull and Rhombu$.

March 21, 2013

On Repeat: River Giant

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Sometimes when a record kicks you in the gut, you lose your words as if it were an actual kick. Such was the case with River Giant’s debut album, which has left me struggling for breath and words since I first saw the band live a couple months ago. I’d been passed along the record when it was first released in April of last year and it didn’t make much of an impact, but seeing them live I was gobsmacked.

If I was going to say it simply (which of course, I’m not) I’d just tell you that River Giant is my favorite local discovery in months, if not years. The Everett born and bred trio sound as if they were raised on ‘70s harmonies and early SubPop records, fed only a steady diet of The Eagles and Mudhoney. In a city saturated with dude-harmonies, the only people who come close to matching River Giant are fellow-Everett-kids, The Moondoggies. And the bands have more in common than their hometown. Lead singer Kyle Jacobson’s guitar tone and playing is similarly tuned and expressive as lead ‘Doggie Kevin Murphy’s, adding an unexpected bite to the band’s honey harmonies. But where Murphy offers a whiskey howl, Jacobson soars on a slurred falsetto.

This is my kind of band. Kids who listened and loved their parents records, while searching for their own sound, something that spoke to their generation’s bleak frustration rather than their parents blossoming idealism. And somehow River Giant have married the opposing and complimentary parts to make a sound completely their own. I’m not sure it should work as well as it does: menacingly emotive rock’n’roll, leering and lurching, tumultuous and touching … but damn if I haven’t listened to the record a hundred times already. These are songs I wake up singing. That I want to hear over and over again. That when I’ve tried to sit down and write about, I get so caught up in, I forget to type.

And they are even better live.

You can see for yourself this Saturday when River Giant headlines Chop Suey or this July, when they’ll be performing at the inaugural Timber! Fest in Carnation, WA.

Before you see them, you can take a listen for yourself. If you’re not going to listen all the way through I recommend starting with track three “I Permute this Marriage,” or track two “Pink Flamingos”, or track five “Western” or track six “Feel Like,” or jesus, just listen to the whole record.

March 20, 2013

Letterbox: On The Road With Pickwick (part one)

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All Photos by Letterbox

Editor’s note: The ladies of Letterbox, Ellie Arciaga and Eleanor Lonardo, are on the road with Pickwick this spring chronicling the band’s first national tour and giving fans an intimate glimpse behind the scenes of a travelling band. This summer they’ll be publishing a book of photos from their adventure, but first they’ve agreed to share some shots with Sound on the Sound and all of us who wish we could be in the van with them. This first leg of the tour covers their trek prior to arriving in Austin for SXSW….

Being on the road with the Pickwick dudes has been an incredible ride. We’ve seen them sell out the Independent in San Francisco, and pack out The Echo in LA. We watched them win over first time crowds in Phoenix at the Crescent Ballroom, and the Low Spirits in Albuquerque. And, all this to say, these shows were just a warm-up to their rigorous SXSW run this year. We can’t wait to share those images with you!

See more behind the scenes photos of Pickwick from the ladies of Letterbox… (more…)

March 20, 2013

Sound on the Sound: Then & Now

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“Seattle Music” (date unknown) ::: courtesy of an Edmonds thrift store bin

For as long as Sound on the Sound has been around, seven years this August, we have described ourselves as some variation of your daily source for features, news and exclusive content about Seattle music. “Daily” has lead the charge in our description, but something has changed in the last year or so at SOTS, the least of which is: we don’t post daily.

In fact, most things have changed around SOTS in the last year. Part of it is, yes, we got a little burnt out, because six years is a long time to write something every day. Anything. Even the things you love the most. And part of it is, there was less of a need (or none at all) to post the same news that at least ten other locally focused blogs race to post every day. Covering the same thing as everyone else and serving as a copy & paste clearing house for locally relevant press releases was never our desire or intention for the site. Though from time to time, we’ve done that to try to keep our promise of daily coverage for you. But we understand now, that that’s as much a waste of your time as it is ours.

So, who are we now in 2013? Since our ideas and lives and tastes and city are changing?

Here’s what’s not the same:

We’re not 20-somethings any more. We’ve created lives… there are SOTS babies. (Okay, there’s only one, but he is adorable.) We’re planning weddings and getting married. We’re going back to school and trying to get jobs that do more than pay for bills and booze. We’ve left Seattle and started lives in other cities. We’ve got responsibilities that we can’t limp into, ears ringing, every other morning. We’re not at shows every night anymore and sometimes not even every week. We’re not trying to be the source for everyone about everything. We know that taste is subjective, that this is ours and yours is different. We think there are other local blogs you can read and many of them might have line-ups up before us. We don’t care about who’s first.

Here’s what is the same:

We’re still moved by local music and musicians. We still think one of the most vibrant and exciting music communities in the world exists right here in our damp corner of the country. We think there are bands and voices and genres to be discovered, some who are making music today and some who have made it in the past. We think you can be proud of the bands that have succeeded from Seattle; we are. We think they, and plenty of bands you haven’t heard of yet, are worth spending your hard earned cash on–that’s still how we spend our money. We think you can engage in conversation about local music without getting involved in the latest Twitter brawl. We think its okay to not live tweet a festival line-up. In fact, we think its okay to miss Block Party or Sasquatch or Doe Bay … or whatever the “big concert of the week” is. We still want to talk about what we love most, whether we talk about it twice or twenty times. Or whether we talk about it once, and never mention it again.

Above all, even if it is not every day, we still think local music and bands are worth talking about. We think some of them are the “next big thing” and some of them will never play a bigger stage than the Blue Moon on a Thursday night. We think as long as we love them, they are equally worth writing about … and that if we don’t, no matter what the buzz is or if everyone else is talking about them, that they’re not.

What Sound on the Sound is about is sharing stories from and about Seattle. About what the songs and the singers mean to us in the context of life in this city as we live it.

We hope that despite how we change and how we stay the same, you’ll check back regularly to see if we’ve discovered something we love. We hope you listen and love it or loathe it. We hope you share with us and others what you can’t get enough of, because we hope you still think Seattle has stories and songs to share.

March 19, 2013

Premiere: Solvents – Ghetto Moon

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Six years ago a hand-bound book and CD showed up in our mailbox postmarked Port Townsend, WA. The return address penned in shaky Sharpie:  Solvents.

The submission was unique not only for the hand-illustrated ghost story that came with it, but the songs themselves. We wrote about bands playing arena rock and sweaty punk at the Blue Moon and basements back then, but Jarrod Bramson must’ve known something about us that we didn’t yet, Solvents were the first local folk band we wrote about. And come the end of 2007, that bare bones folk album was nestled among our loud local favorite releases. I said then,  ”it’s albums like these that last for me… I’ll be listening to Manresa Castle years down the road.”

And I’m glad to say its not just Manresa Castle I’m listening to years later (though I do), but new songs from Solvents too. Since our introduction in 2007 the band’s sound has fluxuated, expanding and contracting in members and amplification, but for their latest release, Ghetto Moon, they have returned to the core duo of Emily Madden and Jarrod Bramson that so enamored us. At the crux of our crush is the intimacy of the music Madden and Bramson make together. Now married and the parents of twin girls, Ghetto Moon is a partnership at play and on display, Madden’s mood-making fiddle and sweet harmonies echo Bramson’s wordy whispers and straight-forward-strumming.

At his best on Ghetto Moon, Bramson sounds positively Moz-esque. “Are You Going to Wait for Love to Leave”, would not be out of place beside songs about girlfriends in comas or charming men. The chorus is a plaintive plea, but one you can’t help but bop your head along to: “I can’t imagine the days that you’ve wasted away. / But are you gonna wait for love to leave? / You’re tired of life and living on your knees. / And I don’t know why you don’t want to try, try. / Said, are you going to wait for love to leave?”  

Ghetto Moon is filled from start to finish with with satisfyingly sad, simple songs that ache in every note, like a fading bruise. And like Manresa Castle and Forgive Yr. Blood, and every other Solvents record we’ve been lucky enough to have listened to, these are songs that last, that cling to your memory like moss.

Ghetto Moon is out today, but you can listen to the album in its entirety right here first.

February 28, 2013

Hey Marseilles Made An Album (And A Wes Anderson Worthy Promo For It)

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We shared this promo video for Hey Marseilles new record on our Facebook — but its just too well done (and adorable) to not share with those of you not on Facebook or who don’t “like” us there.

The Wes Anderson inspired promo features Hey Marseilles preparing for the release of their second full length Lines We Trace, out next Tuesday, and the rigors of touring behind it. The promo perfectly matches the bands preppy pop and orchestral twee and succeeds in making me excited to hear and see what’s next from a band who’ve sustained a successful local career on a single record for the past five years. Though, if you want  to get a listen to what Lines We Trace will actually sound like, you’ll have to watch another promo, featuring a brief sneak peek of the band’s literate lyricism.

Hey Marseilles begins a nationwide tour this Friday with a sold out show at the Showbox, our friends in Portland can see them Saturday at the Aladdin Theater and San Francisco can see them on the 5th at The Chapel.

February 28, 2013

Timber! A New Summer Festival From Artist Home

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A new outdoor music festival is coming to the Northwest this July 26th & 27th courtesy of Artist Home, the folks behind a few of our favorite summer traditions: Doe Bay Fest, Slack Fest and the Golden Garden Bonfire series. Timber! will be held in Carnation, Washington at Tolt -MacDonald Park, nestled alongside the Snoqualmie and Tolt Rivers. The 574-acre park will be home to starlit and campfire lit stages and when not watching music, festival goers can float the river, hike the trails, gaze at the stars or snuggle up in tents or yurts.

Sound on the Sound is excited to be a sponsor of Timber! and to see what our friends at Artist Home have in store for their latest vision combining the best of Northwest music and nature. Line-up and ticket information will be announced on March 12th and we’ll share all the details right here.

 

February 20, 2013

Pickathon 2013: Shabazz Palaces, Sharon van Etten & So Much More

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Pickathon just might be the best music festival in the United States. After my introduction to the idyllic, smoothly run, hot as hell festival last year, I have been counting down the days till our return to Pendarvis Farm. And today, we get the first glimpse into who we’ll be hiking into the woods to see during Pickathon’s 15th anniversary on August 2nd, 3rd and 4th.

Balancing big names from blog buzz bands to bluegrass, Pickathon offers a diverse line-up unlike any other major music festival. This year’s big name headliners are Feist and Andrew Bird, bands I’m excited to see for certain, but I’ll be going for the rest of the line-up:  Sharon Van Etten, Shabazz Palaces, Pure Bathing Culture, Sallie Ford and the Sound Outside, Parquet Courts, Kurt Vile & the Violators, Divine Fits …. just to name a few.

Tickets go on sale today, and if you’re looking to drop big bucks on a festival or try out a new one, I can’t recommend Pickathon highly enough. See you at Pendarvis!

February 11, 2013

A New Postal Service Jam – “Tattered Line of String”

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Today brought the first new Postal Service song in a decade with Jenny Lewis on backing vocals. I dig it. Sub Pop offers up some additional details in the youtube comments:

To the best of our knowledge at this time, no, The Postal Service is not currently working on new material. And no, “A Tattered Line of String” is not a Give Up leftover from 2003. For those of you who like details like this, this song was actually begun in 2006 and finished up in 2012.

The Postal Service are headlining the sold-out-in-90-minutes Sasquatch Music Festival.

You can pre-order the 3 LP reissue of Give Up from Sub Pop right now.

February 11, 2013

Nashville’s Wild Cub at the Sunset Tonight

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Over the past year Nashville’s Wild Cub has been building an impressive set of video’s for nearly every song from last year’s debut record Youth (including “Streetlights” featuring photo’s from Seattle’s Eleanor LoNardo) but it was the “Thunder Clatter” living room party video a few months back (above) that really caught my attention and sent me digging into their bandcamp in search of more eminently danceable tracks, which I found in spades with some distinct 80′s textures.  They’re capping a round of west coast dates tonight with a visit the Sunset Tavern, where they’ll be joining Escondido and Prism Tats.