Fresh Track: Seluah “The Other Side of the Gun”
“The Other Side of the Gun” starts out with the kind of slow roll that you could envision playing alongside the opening credits of a gritty cop flick. The detective’s battered muscle car wheels around the types of corners working class folks avoid after dark, while the movie’s protagonist tosses off knowing glares and cigarette butts. Heavy, serious sounds from Seluah, a Louisville band cutting its first album in 10 years.
Red Parole is due out on April 10th via Karate Body Records. “The Other Side of the Gun” was released last week as the album’s first single. At nearly seven minutes, it’s a bold introduction. The guitar line, though simple, resonates immediately. Seluah creates a dense, driving atmosphere before drummer and vocalist Edward Grimes takes his crew into a jammier, synth heavy bridge. This is not light, easy listening, but it is certainly satisfying.
Seluah formed in 2000 and were immediately regarded as one of Louisville’s best bands by the local press. Their self-titled EP was hailed by LEO Weekly as “One of the best records to ever come out of Louisville.” An astonishing statement considering My Morning Jacket had dropped The Tennessee Fire in 1999 and were well on their way to regional and national acclaim with 2001’s At Dawn. Seluah resurfaced in 2011 after a six-year hiatus that saw its members earning their keep amongst a variety of national touring acts. The local buzz was back in full force after they opened for TV On the Radio last summer. Keep your eyes pealed for Red Parole later this spring.
Connect with Seluah via Facebook | Twitter
Written by Rob Peoni
Band to Watch: Adventure Galley
Adventure Galley is a six piece synth-pop band out of Portland, Oregon. Their sound is very much in the mold of Future Islands and The Killers with a dash of Cold Cave and P.C. (Pre-Congratulations) MGMT in which heavy synths build up danceable pop music. What sticks out most about the band is an almost monotone vocal in each of their songs that somehow strangely still resonates as emotional. Adventure Galley’s first hit track was the infectous pop jam “Addict” which was originally released in 2010 on the band’s first EP entitled The Right Place To Be. A remastered version of the track will be included on an upcoming album scheduled to drop this year along with two new tracks, “Marooned” and “Weekend Lovers”, which were released for preview earlier this month.
Of the two, “Marooned” sticks out the most and speaks to the potential of the band. While “Weekend Lovers” falls more in line with “Addict” in an upbeat, windows down pop music vane, “Marooned” brings a darker, more intriguing vibe to it. Like 95% of pop music, it deals with a relationship that’s gone wrong and reminds me of a recent someone who fleetingly passed through my own life. There is no feeling of wanting to reconcile, only a strong sense of betrayal and anger over something that’s beyond repair for unexplainable reasons. As human beings, we tend to understand absolutes but live our own lives in the ambiguity of our emotions, clinging to past ideas and experiences of what we think we have and deserve. Letting go is just too hard. But when the end arrives and neither believes the face in the mirror to be at fault, someone ultimately has to supply closure, with the most pained usually being the person to do so.
Marooned on an island
In love with a bullet and a gun
She claims that the temperature has nothing to do with it
It’s not her fault
The bullet is mine
Please allow me
Careful what you wish for
Both tracks show a lot of promise and certainly make Adventure Galley a band to keep your eye on in 2012. While no album release date has been scheduled, as of yet, you’ll have to live with the preview of these two new songs, which we have below. Enjoy discovering and please, don’t forget to share.
Connect with Adventure Galley via Facebook | MySpace
“Marooned”
“Weekend Lovers”
Written by Greg Dahman
Thought on Tracks 
Winter is the Season of Love Songs
The dream is over. Winter is here. Not the moderately enjoyable, holiday laden, over imbibing happy days of winter. The fuck me, it’s frigid why the fuck am I driving to work in the dark winter. That special time of year when your back clenches up like the spring of a Chinatown wristwatch, ticking closer to dysfunction with each passing second.
If you’re me, this is not the time to dust off The Beach Boys or Jimmy Buffet, as if the mere strum of the ukulele will teleport your spirit to the beach. No thanks. I would rather listen to a band or artist that articulates the bitter, harsh – often lonely winter months. It should be stark. Fragile. Haunting at times. It should sound like Mountain Man’s Made the Harbor.
Everyone always talks about spring fever, but winter is where the real yearning for love originates. Life is easy in warmth. Navigating a week without sunlight proves tough. It just so happens that spring lies at the end of winter and suddenly the thin, invitation of an April dress is enough to knock a man over. Words like wind chill and frost bite make an intimate evening beneath the covers feel like a necessity more than a want. The outdoors are a lover all their own, it’s the emptiness of a drafty living room or a frosty mattress feels like an unwarranted punishment.
“Boots of Spanish Leather” could never have been written without the jarring winds of a New York City winter. The heartbreak proves more palatable picturing Dylan shuffling through snowy streets while his love sails toward sunny Spain. “My spirit is in shambles and my feet are cold. Send some boots you soulless, selfish hell cat.”
In the same way, Van Morrison seems unlikely to ever have penned the incomparable “And it Stoned Me” without the warmth of summer, when a brief rain proves more opportunity than hassle – a welcome relief and healing. The bouncy piano line and floating acoustic guitar sound destined for nights where mosquitoes swarm the solitary light outside a screen door. Love is less essential on days like this, when an icy beverage can be as satisfying as a lengthy embrace.
Weather constrains and shapes an artist as much as any influence imaginable. The claustrophobic aspect of winter forces us to create for ourselves. The beauty of the outdoors has vanished and the artist is left with a blank, snowy canvas. I’m excited to see what songs winter inspires this year. What will the winds blow our way this time?
Written by Rob Peoni