This week on In Pursuit Of Something Interesting we are going to take a step away from the Drag City Records roster. I just could not do another record like last week's Scene Creamers review. However, we will be returning to Drag City for one last album before we move onto something else. The EP we are going to dig into is one that I did not find on my own. Ear Coffee editor Wes Muilenburg mentioned The Northern Hue during this week's podcast and I thought that they would be worth giving a shot.
The Northern Hues was an indie rock band fronted by Dan Avidan. Many of you may know him from the YouTube channel Game Grumps and the comedy rock duo Ninja Sex Party. But before all of that, he wrote for and fronted a couple "serious" bands. The first, which is the focus of today's column, released a single self-titled EP in 2004. The second, the indietronica duo Skyhill, released an album and a single.
From the get go, The Northern Hue EP sounds like a contemporary to the other early 2000s East Coast indie bands. "Arows" has a rawness to it that gives it a certain charm. The guitars sound chintzy and brittle in the best way possible. Every so often there is a stab of distorted guitar that disappears as quickly as it shows up, and Avidan's voice has a quality similar to Ryan Adams. It's oddly soulful and has a tiny rasp to it at times.
This EP has an affinity for synths and quirky sounding organs, much like They Might Be Giants. Tracks like "Shine," "Broken Dark," and "Get a Ride" feature these instruments heavily. The band uses them to create the tone of the song, instead of just filling space unused by the guitars, bass, and drums.
One place where this EP is lacking is the lyrics. Most of the lyrics written by Avidan are easily forgettable and mildly cliché. It feels like he was trying to straddle the line between using words as a sonic texture and telling a story. On the track "Broken Dark," the lyrics fade into the background. In the three or four spins I gave this EP, I can't recite a single line from any of the songs.
The Northern Hues EP is decent first release from the band. It suffers from the issues that a lot of bands have on their musical debut. They lack a sonic focus. While this EP is not as bad as others, they have a slight clash between the their uptempo guitar-rock songs and their mellower synth based songs. If they had a few more to make an album or even split these tracks into three to four separate EPs, The Northern Hues would've had a better chance of solidifying their sound.
I would definitely give this EP a listen because its a release from a band that didn't make it during the golden age of indie rock. The faults that this EP has does not take away from its overall quality. It has something whether you're a fan of the Game Grumps or Ninja Sex Party and want to see where it all started, or you just love this era of music.
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