A Weather - Everyday Balloons (Team Love) CD Review / Show at Union Hall on April 23rd

DOWNLOAD: A Weather - "Giant Stairs"
DOWNLOAD: A Weather - "Third of Life"

Portland, Oregon slowcore, indie-folkies A Weather released their sophomore disc Everyday Balloons last month on Team Love Records. The band is current playing shows coast to coast and are stopping at Union Hall on April 23rd. At the Union Hall show, Inlets (CD release show) and Sparrow House are sharing the bill and tickets are $10.

Everyday Balloons is an intimate and delicate record. Aaron Gerber (vocals, guitar) and Sarah Winchester (vocals, drums) combine breathy, often intertwined vocals with gauzy, lush melodies to create a sense of melancholy-tinged comfort over the course of the disc. With the subtle nature of the vocals and instrumentation, lyrical narratives of comfort, fear, vulnerability and spiritual exhaustion rise to the forefront of the consciousness.

This isn't the sort of record that you can pop on and listen to while doing other things - A Weather's subtle, yet complex, music requires careful focus to be fully appreciated. The music doesn't demand your attention but rather invites you in, if you will give it some time and attention. Everyday Balloons is the perfect disc to spend some time with during a rainy morning or a late night.

Links:
A Weather

Trees - Lights Bane CD Review (Crucial Blast)

Lights Bane is the debut release from Portland's Trees. Trees play extreme doom metal and an immediate point of comparison is Khanate. There are only two songs on Lights Bane, "Nothing" and "Black", but both songs clock in at over 10 minutes each.

It is great to see a band step up and take over where Khanate left off. Like Khanate, Trees music doesn't utilize a traditional song structure. Waves of feedback, guitar and electronic noise are combined with vocalist L. Smith's tortured shrieking and murmuring to create a tension and a musical texture that is both disturbing and engaging.

This style of funeral doom/drone isn't for everyone but fans of the genre should find Trees' debut engaging.

Links:
Trees' MySpace profile