Seekonk For Barbara Lee CD

Seekonk's debut album, For Barbara Lee, introduces the band's bewitching fusion of slowcore, dream pop, and post-rock. While Seekonk most resembles Things We Lost in the Fire-era Low, some of the quieter moments of Godspeed You Black Emperor! and Mogwai pop up in this album's meticulously layered arrangements. Meanwhile, Shana Barry's vocals suggest the hazy, honeyed delivery of Hope Sandoval as well as the whispery beauty of Lisa Germano and Tanya Donelly. But just because Seekonk's influences loom large in the group's sound doesn't mean that this is a Frankenstein-like cut-and-paste job of bits and pieces of different sounds and styles; on For Barbara Lee, the group creates a presence all its own. Songs like "Move" and "Swim Again" drift along on gentle guitars, keyboards, and buried drums before swelling into triumphant crescendos, buoyed along by French horns, flutes, and insistently chanted vocals. This approach could be considered formulaic if the results weren't so pretty and, at times, moving. For Barbara Lee's middle section is also its high point, as Seekonk stretches out a bit, adding some spaghetti Western drama to the creepily lovely "Hate the Sun," on which Barry intones "Still life, still life" like a medium in a trance. "The Delivery" is a seven-minute epic that spans a whispering wind, strings, birds chirping, and delicately plucked guitars with an effortless flow; "20 Degrees" moves from desolate alt-country to a surprisingly bright finale with sleigh bells and pretty harmonies that sound like a cozy December evening. These three songs are so beautiful that they tend to eclipse the rest of For Barbara Lee, although the relatively brisk, crisp "You Got What Was Coming to You" finds the band compressing its sound into a charming pop song. Still, For Barbara Lee is an atmospheric, strangely nostalgic debut, the best moments of which hint that Seekonk is on its way to creating even more striking music. ~ Heather Phares

-----Full-length CDNov 2003KC029 Seekonk makes music that is sad and warm and wise.It is music designed for the listening room, particularly the inner one you always carry around with you, bustling with that ever-present dialogue. It helps quiet things down in there.Seekonk is five players from Portland, Maine who like to try different instruments on for size, including a cello, trombone, xylophone, and bowed amplified birdcage.The band began as a result of two guys getting dumped hard by their sweethearts within weeks of each other. Songs happened. Then they asked a girl who lived on an island to sing these songs for them. Makes sense somehow.Some have said Seekonk reminds them of other bands like Pink Floyd, Low, The Velvet Underground, and Neil Young. Seekonk is not averse to being called a "head" band.Seekonk's debut album For Barbara Lee sounds particularly lovely in the here and now. And yet it has an ageless quality. That's a pretty neat trick.Here indeed is music as inviting as any you might hold dear.Seekonk played its first show as a 3-piece in March 2002 at lead singer Shana's art opening, having been together for less than two months. They had only five originals and two covers (by Neil Young and Low) in their repertoire. The five-piece consolidated that summer and began committing some songs to tape in the fall, recording "For Barbara Lee" in March 2003 at Big Sound with Jonathan Wyman engineering.

Audio Mixer: Jonathan Wyman.

Recording information: Big Sound (03/2003).

Photographers: Eddie Black; Garry Bowcott.

Seekonk includes: Dave Noyes (vocals, guitar, cello, trombone, Fender Rhodes piano, keyboards); Patrick Corrigan (vocals, electric & acoustic guitars, keyboards, vibraphone, drums, sound effects); Todd Hutcheson (vocals, acoustic & electric guitars, Fender Rhodes piano); Shana Barry (vocals, keyboards, Theremin); The Maine Man Choir (vocals); Jason Ingalls (xylophone, drums, percussion).

Personnel: Todd Hutchisen (vocals, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, Fender Rhodes pi