Three Imaginary Girls - the Apple War

Alarm Bell City

Andrew Boe — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 04:43:45 +0000

7.5

http://cdbaby.com/cd/applewar

The Apple War came into existence when the founding members met in Bellingham in 2007. Upon relocating to Seattle in 2008, they recorded this engaging full-length album. Part funky post-punk, part progressive rock and a large part melancholy ballads, it is an amalgam of interesting sounds and textures.

Alarm Bell City took me by surprise. By the look of the cartoon adorned cover, I thought that this was going to be your standard contemporary Seattle indie rock, but the opening moments of the first song proved my prejudice to be dead wrong. The song, “Alarm Bell City,” is a refreshing exercise in songwriting. With scowling guitars and eerie keyboards layered on top of a fantastic drum performance, it sounds a little bit like OK Computer period Radiohead, but isn’t a shameless reproduction in the least.

“Old Thunder” has a spectral melody that is led by doleful organ notes that ring in reflective tones. The almost whispered vocals fit the mood of the tune and are drenched in late night regret. On the other end of the scale there are songs like “Sailor,” which features a snaky bass line that is augmented by more guitars and less keyboards.

The Apple War is a unique and welcome addition to the local music scene. They certainly don’t sound anything like the majority of bands that have popped up in the last few years and that alone makes them worth checking out. Besides that, Alarm Bell City is a charming debut that deserves some airtime on KEXP if it has not had some already.

Flickr photo of the day: The Apple War

imaginary dana — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 17:01:53 +0000

Photo by sparkrobot.

Speaker Speaker, the Don'ts, and the Apple War

Mike Mess — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 17:25:16 +0000

18 Apr 2008

speakerspeaker08apr.jpg

It was a cold and desperate night on Capitol Hill with Winter’s last gasp hopefully beginning to loosen her cold fingers from our throats as I walked down to the Comet to catch some locals bands and humbly report my findings back to you. I had heard good things about two of the bands playing tonight and the other was from out of town and a shot in the dark that anyone with a passing interest in up-and-coming artists wouldn’t mind taking. Without further ado, here’s the skinny:

This was Seattle band the Apple War’s first performance at the Comet but an innocent showgoer would have never known as the place was a zoo, packed to the gills at 10 PM. The most striking aspect of the Apple War was their remarkably steady rhythm, which created a rock solid base for the style of rock you hear more often from across the pond than around the Sound. Using standard instrumentation along with pedals, xylophone, and organ on nearly every song, the band harkened to the Bends-era Radiohead, Snow Patrol, and even a bit off early-to-middle career U2. The four-piece’s quality progressions created music with the intensity of a band on a ten foot stage rather than on the floor of the Comet. At times the performance seemed a bit flat and not that personable, incongruous with the nature of the music; however, this flaw could certainly be overcome with more time together in front of an audience.

San Francisco’s the Don’ts were extremely outgoing on stage and definitely made the effort to reach out for new fans, but the while the performance was engaging, the music was not. There was a kind of Fishbone feel to the show and their music but that mysterious quality than makes you want to at nod your head vigorously just unfortunately wasn't there. I felt for the band, as it’s kind of hard recovering from watching a venue empty as you're setting up to play and when it’s your first appearance in a city. Hopefully they’ll make the trip back up and get a better and more comparable billing with which to present their rambunctious party music.

The final band for the evening was Speaker Speaker and I was more than pleasantly surprised by their performance. Their vigor and emotion filled the room, despite the late hour and the previous exodus. They have a great sound that filled me with the sense that modern punk-pop isn’t dead, that people still love and create good straight-ahead music that doesn’t need a gimmick or doesn’t require genre-mixing to have depth and quality. Their striking melodies helped make their performance the most powerful of the evening, with Collin McBride seemingly bearing his soul with each scream. The set was thoroughly enjoyable, with the band showing the passion of youthful love and heartbreak while also demonstrating that something special necessary to move an audience with excitement.

All in all not a bad night out. Speaker Speaker were awesome and inspiring and the Apple War is just out of the gate and appear to have a great future in front of them as well. Unfortunate circumstances for the Don’ts, but I hope they don’t give up on Seattle just yet.

Speaker Speaker and the Apple War warmed up an unusually cold late April evening at the Comet.