Throw Me the Statue is one of those bands I've had a massive musical crush upon for what feels like ages, but that the fates keep preventing me from seeing live. I first blogged about the band for KEXP a couple of months back, after hearing sunny sing-along tracks like "Lolita" and "This Is How We Kiss" on the band's MySpace page.
Since then, a series of mishaps and scheduling conflicts have kept me from fulfilling my dream of seeing them live. When I saw they were playing at REVERB, I planned my schedule around their 5p at Bop Street performance.
Apparently, I wasn't the only one; the overflowing landmark record store soon had bodies of expectant music fans in all the available nooks and crannies among the vinyl, awaiting the band.
Throw Me the Statue delighted the crowd, myself most definitely included, with their sonorous, skilled brand of bright indie-pop, replete with Rhodes keyboards, glockenspiel, and gorgeous three-part male harmonies throughout. The band's overall sound was charming yet substantial, melodic with the right splash of earnestness, twinkling without falling toward the fey. My musical crush blossomed with each song in their eight-song set. Pitter patter.
The band also charmed the late afternoon crowd with some entertaining banter and trivia, asking the audience if we had any questions ("What's your favorite color?" one fan yelled; "Red," they immediately answered. How Heathers of them!), wondering who else we were excited to see at REVERB ("Fleet Foxes" I yelled, and they agreed wholeheartedly), and humbly requesting that we vote for them for the Best of REVERB performance (I can't find the link on the Weekly's website, or I'd link it. Got it? Share it!).
They also shared that their debut record (Moonbeams) has the same title as a Bill Evans record from the mid-60s."I'm going to look for it here after the show" quipped frontman Scott Reitherman, "because if they don't have it here, then it really must suck."
While they still feel like a very new Seattle band, according to the Seattle Weekly, they've already been signed to Secretly Canadian records (!!!!!), a rumor substantiated by their forthcoming west coast tour with the amazing Jens Lenkman (They'll be playing in Seattle at the Nectar Lounge on November 6th).
If this rumor proves true, I consider we folks munged into Bop Street as the lucky few who saw them during the proverbial "when."
Oh, and the quirky band name? Apparently, it comes from an old mixtape that Reitherman made for a friend back in the day…