Finally: an alt-country sound with a bit more country than alt. Kinda like a de-Rhetted Old 97's. It's Spanish for 100.
They were almost 70's rock arena sounding…? No, that's not quite it. But somehow when I heard them play, it evoked some sorta Neil Young-esque outdoor festival show, a peaceful easy feeling. But in a good way… I thought, there should be sun, and grass, and, well… grass… and Bud, and cheering chicks in halter tops. And guys with Greg Allman moustaches. But somehow, I felt content, and I liked it. Which makes no sense, really. It's incongruous, and it's all good. I think they should be open up at a Phish show.
I felt as thought the place has taken on an Elk-Lodge-esque power as Spanish for 100 swaggered from song to song. A taste of Clem Snide without the quirk but with double the earnestness. BUT if a hippy place is where you wanted to be, ig Dana…
They're crunchy alt-rock with nice distortion on the guitars. Lead singer Corey Passons has a drawly, sexy voice. And I bet he plays hackeysack.
Nearing their final alloted minutes on the stage, Corey kindly asked the soundman, "How much time do we have?" How thoughtful. Again, with the nice boys at Graceland. Am I making too much of the whole "checking how much time they have left" thing?
No, not at all. Corey even thanked us all for coming out on a Tuesday night. And he was wearing this adorable "Hot Stuff" t-shirt, and had the coolest tattoo of a musical note with a tail on his forearm. Leave it to me to notice the incidentals. Per guitarist Aaron Starkey, they're gonna be recording a full-length album in February with producer Phil Ek (Modest Mouse, Built to Spill, Pretty Girls Make Graves… and Le Savy Fav… and 764-HERO… and Yeek Yak Airforce, and Automaton… et al) soon.
{I almost hestitated to write this, as a little bird told me Phil thinks I'm "weird" because I write about him so often on the site. But then, he produces approximately 67.341% of all the great music that comes out of this town. So how can we NOT write about him? It's not like I write about him because he's tall and gorgeous and has great hair…}
Hrmph.
It's not!
Good for them, recording with Phil. They should be appearing in the Northwest Top 20 soon!
We both got a demo CD at the show, and you can listen to four tracks from it on their web site now. But I would advise waiting… as the recorded stuff we heard doesn't do justice to the energy of their live performance.
And hey, if they're smart enough to get Phil to record them, you should be smart enough to wait to buy that version of the album, right? Aaron also told us the band plans for an east coast tour and back this summer. So maybe we'll get to see that stadium show in the grass after all…