In an age of digital music and at a time when so many listeners seem to be cherry picking bits of albums from streaming sites as opposed to viewing a piece of work as an artistic whole, the long player format sometimes seems to be floundering. This fact hasn’t escaped Seattle’s Devils Hunt Me Down, who’ve chosen to release their 2017 album ‘In Medias Res’ as three four track EPs as opposed to saving it up and putting it out as a whole. Sometimes this approach can be interesting (see Joshua Ketchmark’s trilogy of releases in 2012, where the singer songwriter used each one to explore a different style), but sometimes, it just leaves the listener wanting more with works that seem fractured.
Tag Archives: seattle
MIND VICE – Humanimality EP
In the mid-90s, lo-fi producer Conrad Uno was a busy man. He put his name to various Mudhoney projects, produced the Supersuckers, Fastbacks, Zeke, The Groovie Ghoulies and countless other bands. He founded the PopLlama record label. In terms of commercial success, however, he’s probably best known as the man who produced the debut album by novelty rock band The Presidents of the United States of America, a record that spawned sizeable hits in ‘Peaches’ and ‘Lump’.
New video from Fox And The Law
Seattle-based blues rock band Fox and The Law have recently released their third album ‘Stoned To Death’ via Failure By Design Records. To tie in with the release, they’ve also issued a new video for ‘Cheap Talk’ which you can see in full below.
Some press materials can be read below the embedded YouTube box.
RANSOM AND THE SUBSET – No Time To Lose
Hailing from Seattle, Ransom and the Subset borrow from a variety of bands to create their musical canvas. Rather than sounding overtly plagiaristic, their debut release ‘No Time To Lose’ merely celebrates many different pop and rock styles, creating an eleven track musical journey that’s sure to connect with lovers of post nineties power pop at some place along the way. The fact that it borrows so heavily from classic influences is no surprise when taking into consideration that singer songwriter RanDair Porter has called upon Ducky Carlisle (The Major Labels) and Brian E. King (Oranjuly/Parks) to bring these songs to life. Neither producer/multi-instrumentalist is exactly shy of tapping into the past for key inspirations and King’s Oranjuly project, especially, proved a fantastic exercise in celebrating pop’s golden years, resulting perhaps even one of the finest one-album bands ever. All the studio help/arranging in the world would be of no use, of course, if the band weren’t up to scratch…
THE MOTHERSHIP – Bright Side Of Dim
The Mothership’s debut album (‘Ten Miles Wide’, released in 2011) was a promising first effort. Although some of the material was generic, it was passionately played and its four stand-out cuts were strong enough alone to recommend listening. The band showed off a very solid approach to a retro riff, but with the woozy acoustic track ‘Ugly Love’ nestled at the end of the record [free mp3 here], the band showed they had more potential than merely being grungy revivalists. The “desert sessions” style of their quieter moments set high hopes for their sophomore release.