Secret Mountains Record Release show @ Cameo Gallery 3/2/2013

Secret Mountains at Cameo Gallery

This review is a little late, it's been a long week. But, my memories of the show are still pretty fresh. Cameo Gallery is less a gallery and more a hole behind a restaurant and bar. At least it's a good-sounding hole, though. Beer on tap might cost you as much as the cover charge ($7) but I thought it was worth it for Brooklyn Winter Ale. There was a small merch table set up near the bar, and I got a chance to ask a band member if they have any old tapes left - they're all out of Rejoice, and Kaddish was a CD-R, so if anyone was hoping to pick those up, it's too late. However, Rejoice was recently added to Spotify, along with the new album.

Andrew Cedermark opened, and I was pleasantly surprised. I had seen this band play a few months ago at Union Pool, at what was supposed to be a Secret Mountains show in December, canceled due to illness. Cedermark still played, but poorly. I don't know if they were nervous being the de facto headliners, or if the sound was just off that night, but they were a lot better at Cameo last week. You can check their stuff out on bandcamp. Day Joy, the second opener, had some sound problems initially, but once they were set up, played an enjoyable and competent set. Their stuff can also be found on bandcamp. Both bands play good, if slightly uninspired, shoegazy rock.

Secret Mountains took the stage more or less on time, and they seemed a lot more sure of themselves than when I saw them last summer at Mercury Lounge. They opened with the new album's title track (which I had definitely heard live before, I think most likely at their Mercury Lounge show) and seemed set to play the record straight through - until their bassist snapped his first string on stage in all their four years together as a band, towards the end of Weepy Little Fingers. They didn't have any spare strings and he's a lefty, so there was a lot of downtime while they fixed it, by stealing a string off someone else's bass. At first, they told jokes. After they ran out of jokes, this happened (sorry for the terrible audio quality, it's my phone, not the sound at the venue). When people ask me why I bother seeing the same bands play live over and over, the answer is that it's shit like this that keeps me coming back.



Soon after the end of their improvised version of Rejoice, the bass was back in action, and so was the show, but they were now short on time. Still, they didn't seem too rushed, taking High Horse nice and slow, and jamming out a little on Golden Blue. Most of the live performances that night sounded very close to the versions on the record, which makes a lot of sense, since I imagine they've been rehearsing these songs this way for quite some time to get the record done. Here's hoping these songs will continue to evolve live, and diverge from the studio version in the future. The band was out of time after Golden Blue, but the crowd heckled the staff into allowing one more song. They played Remainder, finishing out the album. It's one of their only songs I haven't heard live or seen live myself, it's my favorite on the new record, and hearing it close the show was pretty much all I could have asked for from their first full-length gig (that both I and the band have had a chance to attend). Here are some more pictures from the gig. I have two more videos, of High Horse and Remainder, but the bass overwhelms my poor phone's mic. If anyone has a recording of this show, please contact me!

 

Kelly Laughlin

Secret Mountains

Secret Mountains

Andrew Cedermark

Day Joy

Kelly Laughlin

Secret Mountains - Rainer [2013]

Rainer is out today, and was available streaming via Stereogum starting last night. The record is short on tracks (only seven of them) but long on riffs - these are long, introspective songs, and the entire record clocks in around 45 minutes, which seems pretty common these days and is definitely pretty hefty for so few tracks. This is their debut LP, and while they have lots of good songs that they've chosen not to record again for it, I don't blame them for playing their hand close to the vest. Better to have fewer strong songs than end up with some filler, and they've managed to create a nice little slice of music in which the parts all make sense together. As much as I want more songs as a fan, I endorse the decision to keep it short.

This isn't a first impression, more like a fifth, but it helps that I have some experience with these tracks already. Only three seem really new, and I feel like I've heard parts of the title track somewhere before, perhaps under a different name, which, after the recent single, would leave only one truly new song on the whole record. However, almost everything about these old songs is new again. Weepy Little Fingers, Make Love Stay, and Golden Blue all retain the same basic shape as their predecessors, but the colors and textures, the pacing and drama - they're all different. There are new riffs, new noises, new shifts in cadence and feeling fleshing these tracks out more completely. They never seemed particularly thin before, but it's now fairly clear that they were basically live takes - and it's really great to see what they were able to do with them in a proper studio. But that's the least of the changes. First, check out the old version of High Horse from their Shaking Through Session:

and then check out the new official video for it below. Worlds apart. The video is nice too. Obvious themes of life and death are obvious.


Secret Mountains - "High Horse" Official Video from Brian Papish on Vimeo.

The way this track has changed with studio production is profound. The amount of restraint they show taking it down a notch, making it as eerie and haunting as it became, is impressive. I had no idea they were capable of sounding like this, and I'm very curious to find out if this was their vision, or their producer's, because I want to know who to thank. On the topic of production, it pays to point out that as far as I'm concerned, all the right decisions have been made. Kelly Laughlin's vocals are buried when they should be buried, and clear when they should be clear. The way the album flows from track to track is better than I could have even hoped for. The ambient sounds and field recordings are lush and just loud enough to be noticed, as they should be. The drums are neat and clean have not lost their characteristic driving (and dramatic) momentum. This album sounds great on speakers with a good low end, but it sounds even better on really nice headphones, so you can hear all the little noises in the background - and there are a lot of them. I had my jaw drop a time or two trying to get my mind to keep up with what I was hearing. It's been a long time since a band have done that for me, and it makes me think they have the potential to become truly great.

After seeing them live once (out of two attempts), hearing the early tracks, and now hearing the record, it's pretty obvious that they're one of those bands who play a song one way live, and another way in the studio, which is GREAT, in my opinion. Gives you a reason to go to the shows, and I'll be going on Saturday (March 2nd) for the record release party at Cameo Gallery in Brooklyn. Those of you in their hometown of Baltimore can catch them at The Bell Foundry on Thursday February 28th.

P.S. - She sounds like another vocalist I like, but I can't place it. If you can think of the answer, please put it in the comments. It's driving me nuts. 

Secret Mountains - Coasting (single)

I'm so impatient for the Secret Mountains debut record (called "Rainer"), I'm going to warm up a little with their first single from it, "Coasting". Edit: it's out, and you can listen here on bandcamp.



First though, a little background. Secret Mountains are a six-piece from Baltimore playing blissed-out psych-rock with a distinct self-indulgent bent, which is a big draw for me. I'm a sucker for "big" music, and their songs seem to tower over me as I listen, getting larger and taller as the layers pile on. Kelly Laughlin's vocals are haunting and forlorn, and just a little bit hesitant sometimes - as if she's not sure she wants to confess such significant thoughts and feelings, but is compelled to anyway. I can't understand what she's singing most of the time, but I can just barely make out words here and there, which really adds to the excitement-of-discovery feeling I get with this band that I haven't had in a long time. Each song feels new for longer than it should - though it's worth mentioning that it also takes awhile to be able to tell their songs apart from one another. That's not necessarily a bad thing, to have such similarity in style between tracks, at least not in this case, for me, because I really eat this shit up. The songs tend to be geometric and climactic, rising and falling with satisfying predictability as layers of noodling guitars stack up with layers of more ambient color coming from the keyboards and extra guitar. The vocals are generally a little buried, melting back into the big picture being painted as you listen, which had an entrancing effect on me. Before now, they've only released a few singles and EPs, mostly sold out, but all well worth tracking down. You can get their Winter Sessions tape on Bandcamp, and their Kaddish EP is on Spotify. You can also hear their Rejoice tape on Bandcamp, and their recent single High Horse is on Bandcamp and Spotify. edit: and there's a new version of the song along with an official video on vimeo.

The new single cuts in a little startlingly - these bongos are clearly leading out from another song on the record. Before actually getting to the song itself, can I just say how excited I am by this? I know production techniques like this are hardly new, but I was really hoping this album would flow like that, because that sort of production decision seemed like it would suit their play style. So i'm delighted to see it's likely going to be the case. The guitar riff kicks in with an immediate ambient accompaniment, creating a dark, foreboding mood that only gets intensified as Ms. Laughlin starts cooing over the top. The ambient backing swirls and rises and drags us into the actual song as the drums kick in and the floaty guitar is replaced by a lower one, at which point the mood becomes a little less muddy and dark, a little more distantly hopeful. That's probably one of my favorite things about this band throughout their earlier releases - how good they are at nailing that feeling of hope or triumph over adversity. This is a band that also does big climaxes well - but this song does not have one. They get a good thing going, and build some really nice tension and mood. Towards the end a building wall of guitars starts to appear, and Kelly comes back for one more line - and then cuts you off abruptly. Normally, this is the kind of thing that would drive me up a wall a little bit (though this is not nearly as bad an example as some others), and I've not really heard this from them before. But I expect it will work really well in the context of the record, as long as it's been produced with an ear to its flow, which seems pretty likely because of how the intro is cut. As a single, I'm not sure of the choice, but it might have simply been the shortest track on the record; their songs tend to run quite long (which is not a complaint, quite the opposite in fact). I really like the song, but it leaves me wanting more desperately - which I suppose might be a reasonable goal to have accomplished with a lead single.

Rainer comes out February 6th, is out now and you can listen to it or buy it here on bandcamp. It is limited to 500 vinyl copies (or digital download) and can also be purchased over here at Friends Records. Stay tuned for a review of the album when I finally receive it, and more after their record release party @ Cameo Gallery in Brooklyn on March 2nd.