NW Noise Reviews
Caught in Motion
MP3 of Blood Still Beats
There is a scene in the local indie film Drama Queens where a main character, discussing the pitfalls of falling in love in Portland, finds a textured analysis from a drinking buddy: “What? Here—in this town?” Implicit in this statement is the sense that love is somehow more complicated in Portland. Cameron Crowe examined this same question in Singles though the complications there, in Seattle, revolved around different socio-economic factors and a healthy assortment of flannel outfits.
One thing central to both films, however, is the role of music in these two cities. I think perhaps there’s something to be said, however tangential, about how a city comes to be defined by its sound. For better or worse, Seattle is always going to be known for the grunge era, though many of the vanguard artists of the movement were from elsewhere. Portland, however, is a different animal. A lot of the better bands making music there right now—and there are a lot—seem a lot more concerned with writing melodic love songs. Love—for better or worse. From Norfolk and Western to King Black Acid to The Decemberists, we get gorgeous pop hooks and tender recriminations.
Portland is what is. The City of Roses. Rip city. The Pearl. Mt Hood, Mt Tabor. The center of any number of quirks, from Pabst Blue Ribbon to Jim Spagg and the ubiqutous Sternwheeler. And now, operating in that tradition, and writing lovely pop hooks in the vein of several of their more notable local antecedents, Caught in Motion’s debut “On the Edge of a Dream” will be unveiled November 20th at the Fez Ballroom.
“On the Edge of a Dream” is, quite simply, a beautiful record. Comparing a band to others seems sort of narcissist and incestuous, so I’ll get that out of the way right away. Think Minus the Bear sleeping with “Kid A” era Radiohead. More texture and depth than Minus the Bear and less angst than Radiohead, but musically this album has that same sort of mastery of tone and movement that both of those wildly different bands share. Banah Graf and Sam Krulewitch approach their craft with a whimsical nature: though there is a great precision to their musicianship, especially on the standout track Drop the Ball Now, there are also moments of subtle reflection, as when in Something’s Gotta Give (I Could’ve Sworn I saw the Light There) they grasp for a moment of solitude, singing “On a good day, I close my eyes…”
There’s something to an image like that. It’s a rain-swept Sunday morning in Portland in March sort of moment. Time comes to a stop and then slides back into motion. These are the kind of indelible moments that are coming to define the Portland scene. It is, I think, an arrogant thing to try to define a “scene.” But that’s where we have come to in the world. Austin has a scene. Atlanta has a scene. And Portland has a scene. I hesitate to brand a band as part of a collective movement; if this were an engine, it would be all too easy to simply placate that desire for descriptive comparison and label Caught in Motion as simply another cog or belt.
Simply put, I dig this album. A lot of the stuff I get sent to review I don’t like. I’m picky when it comes to music. I was intending to review Jeff Ament’s fantastic new solo album Tone. Hell, I still might. But this is a worthy effort and it deserves notice. Sometimes it’s all too easy to turn on the radio, here, in this town, and hear a love song. But sometimes, even in this town, it’s worth it.
Release party Thursday Nov. 20th at the Fez Ballroom, 9:30 pm. Album is available as a pre-release at iTunes.
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