The Shout Out Louds/Essex Green
(Double Dooor 9/9/5)
I remember the first time I heard The Essex Green. I was in college teaching a loved one how to drive stick (I swear I don’t even know how to drive an automatic). It was after they had released Everything is Green but way before their fantastic follow up, The Long Goodbye. I remember thinking much as I do now how wonderfully quirky they are. They fit very well on the elephant 6 collective making idiosyncratic pop songsI actually thought they were from Athens, Ga but I guess they are from Brooklyn. The five members of the band use pretty status quo instruments-two guitars, a bass, drums, and keyboard but their sound is definitely missed. Most songs played were off The Long Goodbye with the highlight being the very last song and their absolute best song (imo) called “The Late Great Cassiopia” There are days I have listened to that song on repeat for several hours.
Also, it’s been a couple of years since their last release but they did debut at least one stellar sounding song and alluded to recording a new album. I’d love a new Essex Green album every year but I think we all just need to sigh and accept quality over quantity with this one.
When people talk about their cultural heritage, I always slink back a bit because, truth to be told, I am a little bit of everything really-German, Welsh, Native American, I think even a bit of French on my mom’s side. Being a bit of everything, I feel sort of like my genetic structure is really just a sort of postmordial soup sometimes. But I will say that if I had to pick one nationality that I am probably the most or atleast that culturally I have some semblance of, it would be Swedish. I am not sure exactly why the relatives on my father’s side left Sweden but I still remember Great Grandma Hayes with her fair skin and her long white hair gently talking to me as a child (she passed on when I was pretty young) and giving me combs for my long ragamuffin hair (nothing much has changed). I live near the Swedish cultural section of the city in Andersonville and the Swedes that work in the Swedish specialty shops look a great deal like my grandmother (who is still alive) does, which is comforting to me. I also probably resemble someone from Sweden the most out of them all with my very fair (or deathly pale) complexion and skin with my light freckles. I don’t know Swedish and have never been to Sweden but I must say that I love several bands coming out of there at the moment, The Shout Out Louds being only one of them. Jens Lekman is another one as well as The Concretes and a couple of new ones a very well informed individual turned me onto-The Wannadies and The Moonbabies.
The Shout Out Louds only have one album and an ep out. Their full length, entitled Howl Howl Gaff Gaff is remarkable in one of those more subtle ways that just creeps up on you when you least expect it. You end up getting those insatiable melodies stuck in your head and the lyrics that, even when upbeat are often melancholy. The lead singer, Adam Olenius, has vocals that do remind quite a few people of Robert Smith of the Cure but I would say that the accompanying musical component is much different.
The Shout Out Louds played every song off of Howl Howl Gaff Gaff and had the Essex Green on stage for an encore cover of the Pogues song “Streams of Whiskey” during which they actually were serving and drinking whiskey on stage. They saved my favorite song off Howl Howl Gaff Gaff (“Go Sadness”) for last and played one new song which definitely wasn’t any kind of musical diversion from the songs they have already released. Oh and Adam Olenius invited us all to Stockholm in December. Ah how dreamy that would be…you know, I wonder what a lingonberry pie would taste like….
CLICK TO SEE MORE PICTURES OF BOTH THE ESSEX GREEN AND THE SHOUT OUT LOUDS
THE ESSEX GREEN:
THE SHOUT OUT LOUDS:
pictures of Shout Out Louds/Essex Green Pogues cover encore:
