duggup

I heard the almost tribal toms that introduced me to Colonies and was immediately drawn into their brand of indie rock. They are unsigned outfit located in the U.S but do have an online CD “Sleep Patterns” for sale.

Songs about people, places and historical events overlaid with atmospheric guitar riffs and keyboard fills. Their drummer/percussionist hits everything and would not be out of place in a metal outfit. The bass playing is sometimes sparse, sometimes over the top and the guitars and keyboard provide the melodic counterpoint which is largely missing from the songs themselves.

As a live band I think they all need to pay more attention to each other. It makes their live work loose, while the studio stuff sounds great. I am favourably impressed by these guys none the less. The song that started it for me was “La Batalla De San Miguel”. Travis Shumate their frontman is originally from Argentina and many of their songs reflect the historical influence of that country on him. This is one such.

Seattle/Tacoma-based Colonies plays the kind of intellectual, experimental indie rock you’d expect from a band made up of music scene veterans.But the four-piece group (Adam Meeks on bass, Christian Powers on guitar, Travis Shumate on vocals and guitar, Adrian Centoni on drums) has been together only since the summer of 2006. Since then, they’ve played a slew of shows around the Puget Sound region and have released one full-length album, “Sleep Patterns.” Citing groups like Sigur Ros, Radiohead and Arcade Fire as its biggest musical influences, Colonies combines intelligence and ambience. Gentle keys and samples flavor heavy, bombastic percussion courtesy of Centoni, while Shumate’s ethereal vocals float above the band’s instrumentals. Crystal-clear guitar work cuts through the haunting, atmospheric quality of Colonies’ songs, and the band somehow remains sonically captivating even in tense moments of quiet noise. — Sena Kim, The News Tribune

Listen to the songs on MySpace as they really are quite good, but as an alternative here is Colonies with a live version of their song “Tundra” which is about a city in Idaho that inspired it.

jools is a graphic designer who used to front a band on vocals and bass. All evidence of which have mercifully been obliterated or otherwise lost.
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