popwreckoning

There are a few bands that I take an unnatural pride in, and being a big advocate for local music, I hold the Lonely Forest near and dear to my heart. A band hailing from the Puget Sound town of Anacortes, Wa., The Lonely Forest has come quite a long way since winning the EMP Sound Off! Competition back in 2006. They’ve released two full-length albums with Burning Building Recordings, played countless shows all around the country and around Puget Sound, and gained a huge local following of young indie rock fans.

With their new release Arrows, The Lonely Forest worked with fellow Washingtonian Chris Walla as the first band signed to his Trans Records, and they put together a fantastic album full of hometown love, epic melodies and passionate performances.

Arrows begins softly with “Be Everything,” a lovely ballad that showcases frontman John Van Deusen’s tender vocals more than any other track on the record, and then it jumps right into the catchy and triumphant “Turn Off This Song And Go Outside.” The catchiness of the song is only matched by its irony, seeing that there’s no possible way that I’d want to turn off the song.

The divergent melodies and messages of “(I Am) The Love Skeptic” and “(I Am) The Love Addict)” are a nice addition to Arrows, but in the scheme of the whole thing, they’re nothing special. I prefer the “Love Skeptic” to the “Love Addict,” for the feisty hook and simple message, “We became too good of friends, and the bullshit, it never ends.” I mean, haven’t we all had one of those?

I feel that the strongest points of Arrows lay in the middle, with “Coyote” and “Tunnels.” The former is a dark and moving track with a killer bass line, and again a seemingly simple chorus line, “I wish you’d come back home, I want to hold your hand.” That’s one of the things I really love about the Lonely Forest – their songs are extraordinarily relatable. The lyrics aren’t overwrought, because the emotion behind them comes from the performance, not the pretentious prose that some bands can fall victim to.

Before I delve into the beauty that is “Tunnels,” let’s talk about “I Don’t Want To Live There.” It’s a song I’ve heard before on the EP that the Lonely Forest released earlier this year, but I have to reiterate how nice it is to have a song that’s so obviously rooted in the Pacific Northwest. It makes me feel proud to be a Washingtonian.

I’ve waited until now to talk about “Tunnels,” because I needed to build up to it, just like the song does so well.

Seriously, this song makes me so excited every time I hear it.  The fact that I get to sing along to the lyric, “obvious contradictions, childish self-afflictions,” is already good enough for me, but the every-growing energy of the song and wall of sound – especially the percussion – exemplifies how good each member of the band is at their craft. But the best part of the song comes in the last minute and a half, where it moves smoothly into the outro of “Ramshackle House,” which isn’t a track on its own on Arrows, but it was on the EP. Honestly, hearing the transition from “Tunnels” to “Ramshackle House” for the first time gave me goosebumps. It’s so perfectly done, and it makes so much sense. That was one concern I had when the EP released, “Where is this song going to go?” That concern flew out the window when I heard the entirety of “Tunnels.”

Arrows closes out just as strongly as it opens, with “Woe Is Me…I Am Ruined,” old hit “We Sing In Time” and the title track. “Woe Is Me” is far different than previous live versions, which were more acoustic, but it’s a perfect example of how good a producer Chris Walla is. He is another reason why I’m proud to be a Washingtonian.

Even though some people might find it weird that the Lonely Forest would put “We Sing In Time” on this album seeing that it was on their last release We Sing the Body Electric, I find it refreshing. The Lonely Forest doesn’t need to follow all the rules. The fans love the song. . And it was a completely different version, with deeper, richer recording and mixing.

The closing track, “Arrows” brings the album to a complete circle, with a softer song showcasing Van Deusen’s vocals and piano. It makes for a quiet close, rather than going out with a bang.

But really, Arrows reads more like a book, with the gradual rising action, the epic climax (“Tunnels,” duh), the much quicker falling action, and then finally the resolution.

And this is definitely one I’ll want to read over and over again.

Tour Dates:

For more information on the Lonely Forest, go to http://www.thelonelyforest.com/

North Wales rock band the Joy Formidable brought their energetic set to Washington’s Black Cat Friday night. Opening for them were the Lonely Forest from Washington State and Nashville’s Mona. Both bands proved to be good choices as support, as they showed chutzpah in their respective sets. Coming to this gig, I didn’t know anything about the Lonely Forest. In their short 30-minute set, they rocked out on their guitars and jumped all over the stage. At one point, lead singer / guitarist Jon Van Deusen was completely taken in by the moment, he was on the floor and rolled all the way over backwards, losing his blue Seattle Seahawks cap in the process. After sheepishly retrieved the lost hat, he remarked, “I didn’t mean to do that…but it was fun!” Disarming. The band have just put out their debut record, Arrows, last week on Trans Records.

To be honest, I didn’t know what to make of Mona when I got a track of theirs in my inbox in April 2010, when no one in Britain knew who they were. When I heard they were from Nashville, my first thought was, oh no, do we really need another Kings of Leon? Turns out the band is originally from Ohio but moved to Nashville to find fame and fortune. Like Kings of Leon, they’re an American band who have been fully embraced by the British: they won the MTV (UK) Brand New for 2011 poll voted by fans and figured in many top 10 lists of bands to watch in 2011. So I was really looking forward to seeing Mona, to judge for myself what all the fuss was about.

Mona look like four toughs and they rock out hard on their instruments, but judging from their sweet smiles from onstage as they realized the audience was loving their sound, I can tell their hearts are in the right place, music-wise. The song that everyone at the Cat seemed to know, “Listen to Your Love,” went down wonderfully, as drums banged and guitars swirled in perfect harmony. “Teenager” was another highlight, with its heavy backbeat and shouted chorus (see video below). Their album comes out in mid-May in the UK. See these guys now in small clubs here in U.S. while you can, because I think it’s only a matter of time before they blow up big.

On this night in March, the Joy Formidable had “graduated” from their Black Cat Backstage appearance last November to the upstairs, larger main stage, accommodating 400 more people. By their appointed set time of 11, the place was packed. Good on Washington. They may only be three people, but these three people – Ritzy Bryan (lead vocals / guitar), Rhydian Dafydd (bass / vocals), and Matt Thomas (drums) – pack enough energy to probably set a jumbo jet into flight. Putting words down on paper (or in this case, on a music blog) to explain what you feel when you see them seems ridiculous because you have to see the band to fully understand how much power they bring when they play. The Joy Formidable live is punk with its raw, hard rocking, devil-may-care attitude but they are also evocative and atmospheric in the way only emo and alt-rock can be. Being up in front with my friends, I could feel the stage vibrating madly as the band thrashed about wildly before, during, and in the outros of many of their numbers. If you’d like to watch their performance at the Parish in Austin at this year’s South by Southwest, NPR has it here.

Reflecting on this show, I considered how great it was to see them on a Friday night, when you could get all your aggressions of the work out, headbanging to their raucousness. Their debut album, The Big Roar, just came out here in the States on March 15, but it was obvious by many audience members singing along and pumping their fists in the air that many had already memorized the songs. The band played songs from their 2010 EP A Balloon Called Moaning and tracks from the new album. When Dafydd started in on the trademark bass line of “Austere” and fans cheered, he asked with a smile, “guess you know this one?” That would be a yes. It’s a great song on recording, but wow, seeing them play it live is 1,000 times better. Before “I Don’t Want to See You Like This” (see video below), Bryan asked the audience who had ever visited Wales. Watching this woman chat with fans was heartwarming, but then she launched into the song and you had to pinch yourself. Is that really the same woman? She may be a cute blonde Welsh girl but can she can sure pack a punch in the lyrics and guitar department. The call and response between Bryan and Dafydd of the gentler number “9669″ was a brief respite from the Joy Formidable three-pronged attack showed their softer side.

“A Heavy Abacus” from the new album was to be their last number, but it was clear the 11-song set just wasn’t enough for some people. One fan begged the guitar tech to ask the band to come out for another encore. The tech, busily trying to unplug equipment, was incredulous: “you mean you want an encore to the encore???” I laughed to myself. Yes, the Joy Formidable have come to America with their Big Roar. I only hope more people here will go see them and witness their majesty for themselves.

The Joy Formidable Set List
The Ever Changing Spectrum of a Lie
The Magnifying Glass
Austere
The Greatest Light is the Greatest Shade
Cradle
Buoy
I Don’t Want to See You Like This
9669
Whirring
//
Greyhounds in the Slips
A Heavy Abacus

Tour Dates
Mar 28 – Met / Providence
Mar 29 – Brighton Music Hall / Allston, MA
Mar 30 – Johnny Brenda’s / Philadelphia
Mar 31 – Terrace Club @ Princeton University / Princeton, NJ
Apr 01 – Abbey / Harrisburg
Apr 02 – Horseshoe Tavern / Toronto
Apr 04 – Basement / Columbus
Apr 05 – Lincoln Hall / Chicago
Apr 06 – 7th Street Entry / Minneapolis
Apr 08 – Larimer Lounge / Denver
Apr 09 – Kilby Court / Salt Lake City
Apr 11 – Mississippi Studios / Portland
Apr 12 – Crocodile / Seattle
Apr 14 – Bottom of the Hill / San Francisco
Apr 16 – Coachella / Indio, CA
Apr 19 – Rhythm Room / Phoenix
Apr 20 – Launchpad / Albuquerque
Apr 22 – Luminary Arts Center / St. Louis
Apr 23 – Riot Room / Kansas City
Apr 26 – Grog Shop / Cleveland
Apr 27 – Smiling Moose / Pittsburgh
Apr 29 – Webster Hall / New York City

The Joy Formidable: website | myspace | The Big Roar review
The Lonely Forest: website | myspace | @ Neumo’s
Mona: website | myspace

It was almost a whole year ago when I got my first photo pass. It was November 27, 2009, and it was a Lonely Forest show at the Showbox at the Market. I didn’t know what I was doing with my camera, and I basically knew nothing about the band. A year later, this had been the fourth time I’d seen local darlings the Lonely Forest, this time at Neumo’s, with Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin (SSLYBY) and Us On Roofs opening.

I was up front with a couple friends of mine, and clustered next to me was a small crowd of especially excited teens around my sister’s age, freshmen at Western. I wasn’t sure what they were going on about, and at one point I overheard, “well, does your mom know what Chris Walla looks like?

I didn’t hear the answer, but a few minutes later, one of the boys jumped up on stage and grabbed the bass sitting on the floor.  He – Mikey Farrow, and two other guys-Brian Fisher on guitar and Nick Blodgett on drums, made up Us On Roofs, a local indie pop trio that sounded like they took some inspiration from the Lonely Forest themselves. Farrow took off his shoes almost right off the bat, and the crowd surprisingly didn’t overwhelm the band. But seeing that it was a loving local crowd, they were very perceptive and open to more local talent.

And this was a time when I felt particularly old.

All throughout their set, the young band thanked the Lonely Forest more times than I can count, but it was made evident why when John van Deusen of the Lonely Forest decided to get up on stage and sing with the band into Farrow’s mic, as he looked on like a proud older brother. And before he left the stage at the end of the song, van Deusen gave Farrow a great big hug from behind, also like a proud older brother.

It turns out, after I went home to check out more on Us On Roofs, they are all my sister’s age, and from my hometown of Gig Harbor. Go figure. And it also turns out that Us On Roofs also competed in this year’s Sound Off!, a Seattle battle of the underage bands competition put on by the Experience Music Project – a contest the Lonely Forest won back in 2006. So hopefully you’ll hear more from Us On Roofs in the next year or so.

After their set was over, the guys of Us On Roofs took back their rightful places up front with their friends while SSLYBY set up their gear.

Even though SSLYBY was the odd band out in terms of being non-locals, they put on a great show, with some older tracks from Pershing and Broom, as well as a bunch of new ones from Let It Sway, out in August.

“We’d like to dedicate this song to –“ and guitarist Philip Dickey trailed off after mumbling two names and an awkward pause. I guess you could say that SSLYBY has an awkward charm. Understated personas, generic clothes, but superbly catchy songwriting. A couple of my favorites were “Modern Mystery” off Pershing and “Everlyn” off Let Is Sway, which was produced by of all people – Chris Walla.

So even if SSLYBY aren’t based out of Seattle, they’ve still got some bit of Seattle running through their music. I swear Chris Walla is like the Timbaland of indie rock. He works with everyone.

“We’d like to dedicate this song to the Lonely Forest, or more how we’ll feel once we’re done touring with them,” Dickey announced again, right before they jumped right into “All Hail Dracula!” But the best part of that song is how upbeat and so not-vampirey it sounds. You’d be hard-pressed to find a band whose melodies are more universally feel-good that you picture artfully shot scenes from adorable movies with Michael Cera in your head.

But the retro mixing and harmonies matched with the oftentimes-somber lyrics keep SSLYBY from being kitsch. You sometimes want to skip around, sometimes slow dance, but you always want to dance in some way or another.

Just before 11, the Lonely Forest came out on stage, checking the mics and chatting with the kids in the front row, but not starting their set quite yet.

“We’ve gotta go off stage, because it’ll make us cooler!” John van Deusen said to his tourmates waiting in the stairwell to the right of the stage.

“You’re already cool enough!” A voice came from the crowd, not sure where though. Van Deusen smirked at the remark, but then they did step off stage to be “cooler.” But suddenly before they actually took the stage, local comedian and radio host Luke Burbank got up on stage to introduce the band. I hadn’t seen a proper band introduction in…I don’t even know how long, so that was a nice surprise. Burbank told the crowd that apparently The Lonely Forest had been double booked that night, but they needed a good reason to stay at Neumo’s. With that, a monstrous round of applause and screaming lit up Neumo’s as the band took the stage for real this time.

Having seen the band four times this year, the songs are all so darn recognizable that I can’t pinpoint any sort of set list. I was glad to hear all the songs off their latest EP – included “Let It Go,” “Ramshackle House,” “Live There,” and “Turn Off This Song (And go outside).” The latter of which was basically the soundtrack to my summer. “This song is about pretentious guys in bands,” van Deusen said of “Turn Off This Song.”

“Live There” was also a stand out because of the intensely local subject matter, and being in a room full of kids spanning from Anacortes all the way to Gig Harbor, it was a particularly heartwarming song.

As the venue grew hotter and hotter, the crowd grew more and more enveloped in their own mass of energy. Even after playing through plenty of songs off We Sing the Body Electric, guitarist Tony Ruland crowd surfing, and one encore, the crowd wasn’t done yet.

Really, during the encore the band played an especially rousing version of “Blackheart vs. Captain America” that ended with van Deusen swinging his guitar high above his head that I was afraid the strings might break and the Telecaster would be sent into the crowd. Thank goodness the strings didn’t break, but it was surely the way to end the show.

It’s a weird experience going back and looking at the photos I took of this band a year ago, and I think about how far the Lonely Forest has come since then – they released a phenomenal EP, were the first band signed to Chris Walla’s record label Trans, and they’re getting ready to release another LP.

It’s nice to know that we’ve all grown quite a lot in the last year.

And Chris Walla seriously works with everyone.

Almost one year ago: The Lonely Forest, Telekinesis, and The Globes at the Showbox.

Check out more photos from last week’s set at Neumo’s HERE.

“Turn off, turn off this song. You can listen to it later, and go outside.” That’s what the Lonely Forest begs of us listeners on the first track on their new EP. You see, I would – but the thing is, it’s so good that I can’t possibly follow their instructions. Being the inaugural band to be signed to Chris Walla’s new Trans Records, The Lonely Forest will release the first round of new songs this month with a 5-song EP, out September 14^th. In keeping with their passionate pop rock, the Lonely Forest didn’t stray at all from their debut LP We Sing The Body Electric with this new effort. But I wouldn’t have expected anything less with fellow Washingtonian Walla nurturing this budding band.

The one glaring change on this EP is how personal it is. After listening through it several times now, I’ve connected with it on so many levels that it’s kind of crazy. The whole EP reads like a love letter to the Pacific Northwest, or more specifically, Anacortes, WA – where the band is from. “Turn Off This Song” begins the EP in a hook and harmony-driven self-deprecating plea for people to stop sitting around and to get out and do something. It takes all the cliché out of “live your life to the fullest,” and still resonates with anyone – teenagers to 30-somethings.

The next song, “Ramshackle House” almost seems like a 58-second lead-in to the song following it, but I wonder if it’s more of a preview for what’s to come on the full-length album in early 2011. Even so, it’s a short, intriguing track with a incessant humming in the background complimented by lead singer John Van Deusen’s powerful vocals. The most personal song on the EP, and one that hit me so deep that it’s almost brought me to tears several times, “Live There” is a lovely piano-laden ballad proclaiming the band’s fondness of where they live – Western Washington. In the song, we’re told that since LA is too obsessed with money and Nashville is “much too safe,” they always come back to the northwest. “Give to me miles of tall Evergreens, the smell of the ocean and cool mountain breeze, won’t you please?” Having grown up in Puget Sound myself, I can say that the Lonely Forest expressed the beauty of this region with a song equally as beautiful.

The penultimate song on the EP is the heavy “Let It Go.” And I say heavy because no aspect of the band takes a backseat on this song. Employing a much fuller sound, and most likely higher-quality recording equipment, the drums, bass, guitars, and vocals are all strong without competing for your ears’ attention. I also say heavy because “Let It Go” tells the story of a girl “pierced in the heart by a sinister dart thrown by an insecure tongue,” and it’s left to rot for years, pushing the girl further within herself until nothing’s left of her. It’s a familiar story, one that The Lonely Forest’s young fans can definitely relate to, but again – without the cliché. From here, we’re given the acoustic version of “Turn Off This Song,” which some people might find redundant, but considering the song’s message, I think it fits perfectly. We’re kicked at the beginning with Van Deusen telling us to turn off the song and go live our lives, and again as a reminder at the end. But it still doesn’t make the song any less good. We’re still going to listen to it.

Track Listing

1. Turn Off This Song
2. Ramshackle House
3. Live There
4. Let It Go
5. Turn Off This Song (Acoustic)

The Lonely Forest on MySpace