Seattle Subsonic

You Should Check Out The Curious Mystery

May 19th, 2009

I don’t quite remember the first time I heard about The Curious Mystery. I think maybe what happened, as is common with nerdy types who ingest an inordinate amount of music materials from local sources (blogs, zines, radio, telephone poles, etc.), is their presence and apparition slowly burrowed their way into my cognizance without me ever really participating. Seeped into my cerebrum, if you will. Yet somehow I managed to retain a functional role in this mental modification—it is my brain, after all—listening for clues, keeping tabs and digging in. This is the best way I can introduce you to their music. Rotting Slowly, their debut on K Records, is a crawling, creeping panoramic desert-rock vista that intently blazes your brain, parches your senses, and allows you to quench with sweaty vocals and twist-heavy garage psychedelia dirges. Gothic Americana layered thick with ramblin’ hippie blues.

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Shana Cleveland and Nicolas Gonzalez, a couple of Midwest transplants who formed the Seattle band in 2005, have crafted a formidable batch of textured songs, full of wandering slide guitar solos, droning stops and jangly starts, protracted song structure and absolutely no regard for sober song listening. Ok, so I haven’t gobbled a handful of mushrooms and spun the record, but you catch my drift. Gonzalez and Cleveland, joined on the drums by Faustine Hudson and Bradford Button on bass, show no restraint in utilizing whatever soundmakers they have handy (autoharp, keys, banjo, dinner bells, “whathaveyou”).

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My favorite so far is “Nicaragua”, a cinematic soundscape that earnestly plods through the grass fields, palms outstretched, searching for that familiar country home. Gonzalez masters his strings like a snake charmer, and the final flourish from a hypnotized Hudson really delivers. On “It’s Tough”, Cleveland amiably shifts between lovelorn tavern poetess and sultry lounge singer (there’s also some high pitched whining in there from god knows who), while the rest of the band improvises around her, jazz band-style. A militant drum and Cleveland’s autoharp buoy “Black Sand”, a pick-me-up song that illuminates their affinity for legendary blues-jammers the Doors.

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The Curious Mystery is currently on tour and will be back in Seattle June 12th at the Crocodile Cafe with Grand Archives and See Me River as part of the Noise for the Needy festival. Count me in. Rotting Slowly came out today. You should check it out.

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