Friday, July 25, 2008

Feral Children: Seattle's Gritty Northwestern Escape

Seattle's been having a rough go of it lately. The Supersonics will be playing basketball in Oklahoma City next year, the Mariners have locked themselves in the basement, and former MVP Shaun Alexander has disappeared, along with any Super Bowl hopes for the Seahawks. Bill Gates is no longer at the helm of Microsoft and has decided his first battle as a full-time philanthropist will be against smoking. (Don't get me wrong, the Gates Foundation is doing a lot to fight malaria as well as other things. I just don't understand why he's teaming up with NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg to pool $500 million dollars over the next five years to finance campaigns to curb smoking in the developing world. I'm pretty sure if you made a Family Feud category about global social problems, "Cigarette Smoking" does not make the developing world's big board.) Starbucks has also fallen on hard times and is reportedly closing 600 stores this month. Beware city dwellers; having to walk a couple extra blocks and wait in longer lines is definitely going to annoy people for at least a couple months. Out of the rainy dissapointment have come Bill Cole, Jim Cotton, Josh Gamble, Jeff Keenan and Sergey Posrednikov, collectively known as Feral Children.

Often likened to Modest Mouse, Feral Children's sound is raw, natural and gritty much like the weather covering their home in the Pacific Northwest. Their new LP, Second to the Last Frontier, was produced by Scott Colburn (Animal Collective/Arcade Fire) and you can get your hands on a 4 track EP here. For more information, drop by their MySpace. My favorite track, "SpyGlass House," makes me wish I were listening in a cottage with a bunch of friends during a torrential downpour, with the PBR flowing. The dueling tribal drums drive the rhythm while vocal chanting weaves the energy of the song to a fever pitch. Check out the video below:



The rest of the EP was pretty solid, but more time and touring will certainly benefit Feral Children. I also love the name. I think it fits perfectly with the band's sound and provides fodder for countless jokes/metaphors.

They'll be coming down the West Coast in a few weeks, stopping at Kimo's in San Francisco and The Viper Room in Los Angeles. So go check them out if you can – their schedule is on MySpace. They definitely strike me as a band that would translate much better live.

-Ed

1 comment:

Dianna said...

Very true, they are ridiculously good live, you have to check them out! Anyone who's interested in buying their debut album should look here: http://tinyurl.com/FC-SttLF-Amazon-Music-Store