Sound Off! An Underage Battle: A Cozy Kitchen
Congratulations to Candysound for winning last week’s Sound Off! Underage Battle of the Bands first semi-final. The Burlington duo moved into the finals on March 6, and the next two semi-final rounds to be held this Saturday and the next will determine their competition. Seattle’s Sea Fever came in second place at last week’s battle and stands a chance to enter the final round as a wild card.
Looking forward to this Saturday’s semi-final, we’ll bring you tracks from the four competitors each of the next four days. Today’s highlight is A Cozy Kitchen, an impressive young band based out of Tacoma and Bellingham.
The group seems to know how to mine for influences. Their myspace page cites “The Boss,” AA Bondy, Yeasayer, Animal Collective, Cave Singers, Antony & The Johnsons, Beach House, David Bazan, Cut Copy, and Destroyer as factors in their style. That's one hell of a list, but the local trio manages to sound at least a little bit like many of these artists without directly following any of them. We think if they toss The Dodos onto the pile, then they’ve got their sound pretty well summed up.
Their song “I CAN NOT READ” starts off with some pleasant folksy picking and lo-fi wavering vocals that sound like they came straight off the mountain. The lyrics tell the brief story of a boy pulled from cold water and what exactly drew him there. A subdued electric guitar adds shiny texture, and experimental electronics give the tune some modern bite before it ends with a barrage of electronic dissonance, marking an interesting transition from indie folk to early Animal Collective noise.
