Those guys? I remember when they were playing on the patios of taco restaurants! -You, in 10 Years
Those guys? I remember when they were playing on the patios of taco restaurants! -You, in 10 Years

Some records, you know within a minute or two of pressing play that you're in the presence of an extraordinary talent. I don't know how best to characterize the lineage that Sloucher's Certainty EP (out today on Swoon Records) descends from, but if you're a devotee of NW (and NW-adjacent) indie pop of the past, oh, 25 years, I'd be willing to bet that it contains at least a few of your favorite bands. It's not that this wee seven song release is as good as or sounds exactly like the artists I'm hesitating to name for fear of putting undue pressure on a band that's really still emerging***, it's that, for lack of a more elegant term, they're sort of drinking the same water. Breathing the same air? Vaping the same hash oil? Whatever. Metaphors are stupid. I just know that the moment heard this record it sounded deeply familiar. Not because it's derivative, but because the sounds it's made from are the default mode of my musical consciousness, pleasure center, and soul. Whatever that may or may not be worth in the swingin' marketplace of ideas, it means a lot to me. Dusky voiced songwriter Jay Clancy has my melodic number. The lyrics are smart and rhythmic, the playing is nimble and inventive, the scale is humble, even the distortion is pleasing. Also pleasing: They're playing tonight at 6pm. For FREE. On the patio at Rancho Bravo. Actually, the patio at Rancho Bravo is not that pleasing. But maybe with a band on it? (Several bands: Bod are also on the bill, along with one of my all-time favorite local artists: GUESTS.) Next weekend the whole area will be walled off and teeming with people. Next time Sloucher plays, it probably won't be on a patio. You know what that means? Kenny Rogers & Sheena Easton did.

***The Bands I Felt Weird About Using as Points of Comparison, Because It's One EP, and Even Though It's Great, There's Great and There's Great, But Don't Let's Be All Coy When We're on the Stupid Internet, Shall We?

Grandaddy (first album), Elliott Smith (especially on "Dreams" and "Certainty"), Pavement, Built to Spill, Death Cab, Pedro, Shins, Sebadoh, Bedhead/New Year, some Yo La Tengo, et al. More contemporary referents: Telekinesis, Say Hi. There is also a heavy scent of the Globes, the Seattle group that released a brilliant LP and a very good EP before disbanding a few years ago. That stands to reason, since Sloucher guitarist Kyle Musselwhite was in that group, too.