Every Monday through Friday, we deliver a different song as part of our Song of the Day podcast subscription. This podcast features exclusive KEXP in-studio performances, unreleased songs, and recordings from independent artists that our DJs think you should hear. Each and every Friday, we offer songs from local artists. Today’s selection, featured on the Morning Show with John Richards is “Out of the Storm” by Crash City Saints from the 2010 album Glow In The Dark Music on Quince Records.
It goes without saying how much shoegaze-identified Crash City Saints derive influence from My Bloody Valentine and The Cocteau Twins from the atmospheric waves of sound to the distored drone of the lead guitar.
Out from the Storm is distorted and fuzzy, with April Morris of Glowfriends providing vocals buried by ambient guitar noise. The imagery is out-of-focus, and the soundscape just as blurry yet glides through the melody with the guitar shakily keeping up the pace. Crash City Saints unapologetically continue the tradition of shoegaze and give us something new to love by way of the ate 80’s/early 90’s genre .
Crash City Saints formed in 2002, and over the years has seen an embarrassing scandal with the original lineup, and an expensive “learning experience” of a recording session in Sarasota. In 2007, armed with pre-recorded drum machine and bass parts, Joshua Garman, the last member of CCS ventured off to college in Michigan where he finally met the right bandmates.
The Kalamazoo group, now a duo of Joshua Garman and Chris Wahamaki signed on to Quince Records out of Japan thanks in part to myspace’s unwavering networking prowess. Their 2010 release Glow in the Dark Music is a compilation of songs written over the ups and downs of the past 7 years, and a solid statement that shoegaze is still alive and well.
Crash City Saints wont be touring any time soon outside of the local Kalamazoo scene, but check out their MySpace page to hear more music, and show them some love. To get a piece of them live, here are Crash City Saints playing at Kalamazoo’s Fire Historical and Cultural Arts Collaborative.
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