The Sarathan Blog Has MOVED!

You heard it folks! We migrated over to wordpress a LONG time ago! - http://sarathan.com/blog

Dressed Up in God's Clothing (Feral Children BLVD 10/10/08 show review / preview)

(Sarathan Note: This review is reprinted from the web site "The Pacific Northwest Islander" http://www.inlander.com/ -- LINK HERE)

"Dressed Up in God's Clothing"

by LUKE BAUMGARTEN

Jim Cotton was a bad kid. His press release says so. His mom couldn't handle him, so when he was just a middle-schooler, she shipped him across the country — from South Boston to Washington's Maple Valley — to live with relatives. The first day, he met Jeff Keenan, who recalls playing "grunge on acoustic guitars to the horse on the farm next door."

It's a story the band uses as a form of self-mythology. Too wild for society, the principals were sent into the wilderness — like Christ or, better yet, Romulus and Remus — because they were untamable. They were outcasts, connected to civilization by their troubled childhoods but diverging wildly from it because of everything that followed.

Feral Children, essentially. Can you imagine a better name for a dissonant, temperamental five-piece art-rock band with a bat-shit rad stage presence?

Where most attempts at rock aggrandizement are all hair, clothes and pose, Feral Children's music props up the patina of wild-eyed frenzy. Drumsticks clack on snare rims while two-part harmonies give way to hoots and barks and screams. They don't write songs so much as they shake fists at their gods and chant down rain clouds.

Feral Children are nuts. Not dangerous nuts. Nuts in a my-brain-doesn't-work-like-your-brain sense.

The 2005 film Junebug features the work of David Wark, a fictional outsider artist who lives in isolation in North Carolina. The borderline retarded Wark takes elements from history and Christology and his own scrambled innards to make vast, messianic Civil War murals in which soldiers use their own enormous penises as guns. As he's never seen a black man, Wark notes, he gives all the slaves he paints his own face.

The paintings don't make any sense, and yet they feel oddly brilliant.

Inexplicable free association though it may be, every time I listen to Feral Children — since the first time I heard "Spy/Glass House" more than a year ago — I'm reminded of those paintings. The band's whispery, screamy, cacophonic indie rock bears a karmic resemblance to those carnage-ridden scenes of outsized phalluses used as muskets and sabers. The screaming and ranting and wailing, the feedback and the discord, reminds me of battlefields less reproduced from historical record than from the flashes of some obliquely brilliant, unfettered imagination.

The result is often chill-inducing, as when Keenan draws out the "We" in "We get dressed up in God's clothing" into an expression of both childlike glee and crazed terror. The barking screams that accompany the chorus of "Spy/Glass House" raise hair in the same way.

When "Baby Joseph Stalin," an anachronistic romp around the 12-year-old mind, devolves into a cloying repetition of Russian 101 ("Da. Da. Nyet. Nyet. Da. Da. Nyet. Nyet."), though, it's like nails on a chalkboard.

And not in a good way.

The downsides are few, though. The majority of Feral Children's debut LP Second to Last Frontier mixes several parts remarkable to every part annoying or half-baked. The question, then, is what to make of such raw, diffusely focused talent. The instant reaction to such a band in an overly ironic world is to assume that songs like "Baby Joseph Stalin" are the result of smart assholes having a laugh at one or more of us.

The more tantalizing prospect, though, is to take the press release at its word. Having been weaned on Daria, My So-Called Life and Nirvana, then left to incubate in isolation for a decade or more with a couple of acoustic guitars and a receptive horse, this band of outsiders developed a viscerally stirring, oddly entrenched, naively luminous perspective on the world.

Feral Children with Space Age Fur and MOM at the Blvd on Friday, Oct. 10, at 10 pm. $5. Call 455-7826.


Publication Date: 10/8/08

Feral Children - profiled in Performer Magazine (West Coast)

LINK HERE (Re-posted from Performer Magazine Online): Feral Children
By Bob Ham
Photo by Anna Knowlden

"It's true. We grew up in Western Washington and practiced in a doublewide trailer for the first couple of years,” says bassist/vocalist Jim Cotton, of the Seattle quintet Feral Children. “It's very much a backwoods thing."

Considering the tales of the band’s members playing grunge songs to cows and horses, and of their youthful pranks often involving other livestock, one would say so. Since the group's emigration to Seattle, however, Feral Children have pursued a dramatic and melodic rock sound that emphasizes emotional atmospherics and misshapen song structures. Their untamed youth and unruly past is still evident in their unbridled energy: the tribal pulse of the band's two drummers Jeff Keenan and Bill Cole, Keenan and Cotton's pained vocals, the wiry assault of Josh Gamble's guitar and Sergey Posrednikov's trilling washes of keyboard and synthesizer. It’s a fresh and invigorating sound, but one that took over a decade to cultivate.

Bonding during their early high school days in Maple Valley, Wash. over their outcast sensibilities and love of grunge rock, the four core members of the group (the current lineup minus Cole) decided to combine their restless teenage energy and form a band.

“It was very generic alt-rock,” says Cotton of their early musical efforts. “It wasn’t good. I’m sure there are some people in bands that are 15 who are amazing and can pull it off. We couldn’t.”

The young band did its best to get gigs in coffee shops and any all-ages venues it could find, but when it did play, the reception was often less than welcoming. "We'd be playing these blue collar towns," recalls Cotton, "and there'd be 15 people there and they hated us. Sergey was almost beaten up a few times."

"I felt like there was this other world that I couldn't see that was just outside of where I grew up," Keenan says of this time. "The music scene seemed like a mystical place that didn’t really exist."

As with most high school garage (or, in their case, trailer) bands, the project didn't last beyond the boys' graduation dates. "I'm kind of glad we failed for so long," Keenan says, "I think it gave us a realistic point of view about things."



More or less starting over from scratch in Seattle, where its members reconvened in 2002, Feral Children has made every effort to, in Cotton's words, "do our own thing and not try to follow any mold." Everyone in the group readily admits that what really helped this process was the period of time they spent away from each other. Most went off to college, but all of them spent the interim years finding new sounds to listen to – Liars, Animal Collective, Arcade Fire and Kate Bush, for example – and honing their own instrumental skills (apart maybe from Posrednikov, who was classically trained in piano). They then accomplished this differentiation by simply emphasizing the strengths of each individual player. “We’ve played with each other long enough to know what each person is good at,” says Keenan. “So we wrote our songs around that rather than any specific style.”

With more appropriate stages to play and the resources of an actual “music scene,” Feral Children quickly made a name for themselves through their unique sound and near legendary live shows – shows that often feature toppling equipment, flailing limbs and the occasional bit of bloodshed. "When we started, we would just stare at our shoes and play this music,” Cotton recalls. “But we decided that we want people to devote 100 percent of their attention to us. I mean, if there's 100 people at a show, chances are 10 of them are paying attention. So we found a way to say, ‘F*** you, pay attention.’ Plus, it's just fun."

It was this live show that caught the attention of local producer and audio engineer Scott Colburn (Animal Collective, Arcade Fire), who helped the band capture this frenetic energy on its debut album, Second to the Last Frontier (re-issued last month on Sarathan Records).

Although Feral Children have gained a foothold in the city, receiving a healthy amount of airplay on KEXP, accolades from local Seattle weeklies and higher profile festival gigs like last month’s Capitol Hill Block Party, they haven’t abandoned their roots days of wild youth, with Cotton and Keenan, the principal songwriters for Feral Children, drawing from those experiences as lyrical material.

"I dug into my childhood for this record," says Keenan. "Especially the frustrations I had back then and how they related to where I'm at now and what I'm doing now, which are kind of the same frustrations."

Further, Feral Children still feel a bit like outsiders to what Cotton refers to as the "mainstream Seattle scene” or the current folk- and roots-based sound that is running through some of the city’s most prominent artists (see Grand Archives, Cave Singers, Fleet Foxes). Keenan echoes these feelings: "The scene that's getting supported really isn't our scene. We fit in with the weirdo arty scene.”

Feral Children don’t have much time these days to fret over their status in the marketplace though, as they are busy rehearsing for their upcoming U.S. tour and furiously writing songs for their next album, to be recorded this coming fall. So far, according to Cotton, this new material promises to be a lot bleaker than their previous work. "It has a dark and creepy feel to it, which I'm really into right now," he says. "We're taking some aspects of the first record with us, but it is a little bit less of a pop album and more of an experimental thing."

Keenan, excited about getting into the studio with his bandmates again, is already looking beyond this album to the third Feral Children album, feeling that they are just a few years away from hitting their stride. “We’re coming up on our prime pretty soon,” he says. “I feel like the album after the next one will be the Feral Children album.”

www.myspace.com/feralchildrenseattle

LA Weekly blog recap of War Tapes 9/24 EP Release party

Last Night: War Tapes Get Deft 'n Dramatic at Club Moscow, September 24

Posted: September 25, 2008 11:22 AM

It's a joy to watch War Tapes' self-esteem and song craft increasingly outshine their CD collections. While the local quartet’s early efforts (like "Supposed Human," aired tonight) might have had Interpol's attorneys reaching for the phones, lately their hefty hooks, deft ‘n dramatic dynamics and road-honed connection (they've toured with The Bravery and Tiger Army and opened for Smashing Pumpkins) are smearing stylistic lines. Last night's show, like the debut EP it celebrated, found War Tapes spreading their emotional spectrum, from Cure-ish cascades of glacial guitars and hands-wringing angst to almost pseudo-show tune sensibilities and dashboard-lit, late night laments.

Youthful front-man Neil Popkin is the best and worst thing about War Tapes: his gentlemanly Sisters Of Mercy baritone and icon antics -- while both in the love-'em-or-hate-'em category -- are the crucial centerpieces of his band's sound and vision, yet his Morrissey-meets-Mussolini gesticulating seems mo re learned than felt and it's that voice, though ever-developing, that keeps the Joy Division/Bravery comparisons coming. His charmingly tireless will to win over – and that of the similarly kinetic, coming-way-out-of-his-shell guitarist Matt Bennett (the only War Tape unrelated to the others) – nonetheless made admirable inroads into a Club Moscow crowd that, though shoulder-to-shoulder, seemed more keen to be seen than to see.
At the end of the night, despite a mix that squashed Popkin's voice like a police scanner and reduced his stylish sister Becca's angelic backing vocals to almost subliminal messages, great pop songs like "Always Falling" and "She Lied" imply that War Tapes are cooking-up a world-class first album. When Popkin enjoyed moments of teen-rock fantasy -- cute gals gyrating around him on stage; brief singing-while-crowd-surfing -- you couldn't begrudge him a bit of it.

By Paul Rogers

Link: http://blogs.laweekly.com/play/last-night-war-tapes-get-deft/

War Tapes LUV!

To: wartapes@hotmail.com
Sent: Sep 23, 2008 7:17 PM
Subject: Awesome

Hay I saw u guys with tiger army at the fillmore I was right in the front middle, anyhow, I was sooo feeling you guys. I was waitng to hate u because most opening bands are dreadful, yet u guys kicked ass! The melodies, lyrics, the beat was really good, I went out and bought the e.p the very next morning! Theres only 7 songs on the cd, and i think u guys did more then that at the show, so when can I hear the rest. Thanks for a great show, I haven't stopped listening to the cd, and my fave tracks are 1 thru5 and 6 is cool.. Thanks for touching my hand lead singer!!! Much success and I will definately see u again. Please don't break up.
Your New Fan,
D.A.

(THANK YOU D.A.!!!!)

War Tapes: OFFICIAL EP RELEASE PARTY! 09.24.08

War Tapes' EP was released last week!!!

OFFICIAL EP RELEASE PARTY! -- They will be playing this Wednesday September 24, 2008 @ 10:45 PM

Club Moscow @ Boardner's
1652 North Cherokee Ave.
Hollywood, CA
18+

Peter Bradley Adams performance on NPR’s Mountain Stage

Peter Bradley Adams performed on NPR’s Mountain Stage last July. It will be broadcast this week- (week of September 26)!

Further information available here: http://www.mountainstage.org

MOUNTAIN STAGE: Live Performance Radio

Each two-hour program features four or five guests and is recorded with a live audience. Each guest performs a three- to six-song segment. Each show weaves the program regulars and local station ID opportunities into transitions around the guests. Mountain Stage® blends studio quality with live performance before a theater maudience.

--------------------------
Playlist (Sept. 26th rebroadcast)
Original Show Date - July 27, 2008

Performers were:

Amos Lee
SteelDrivers
Sharon Little
Peter Bradley Adams
Don Dixon

Peter Bradley Adams set was:
One Foot Down
Keep Us
I’ll Forget You
Under My Skin
Los Angeles

09.08.08 Brooklyn Vegan: Bumbershoot 2008 round up: fantastic photos of Feral Children

===========================================================================
Today's post is from the Brooklyn Vegan's Bumbershoot 2008 roundup:
"Brooklyn Vegan: Posted in music | pictures on September 8, 2008; Bumbershoot 2008 - more pix, less Monotonix & republicansphotos by Chris Graham"


(Sarathan note: THANKS for taking these great photos, Chris Graham!) And here's the full URL for this posting:
http://www.brooklynvegan.com/archives/2008/09/bumbershoot_200_1.html

Dreaming of Great Rock Bands... Sarathan and War Tapes musings on fensepost.com

(Excerpt from Sept. 8th, 2008 posting on http://www.fensepost.com)
==================================================================
"Written by Fense -- author of fensepost.com

Woah. Where the hell did Sarathan Records come from!? One moment I’m hanging out, minding my own damn business and dreaming of great rock bands and the next moment they’re signing them! First to catch my attention was Seattle’s very own Feral Children, giving SXSeattle one hell of a great performance at SXSW this year. Now there’s War Tapes.

War Tapes is a bit heavier than my usual rock taste (they’re very much on par with local favorites Feral Children and The Pharmacy, so I’m coming around to some of the louder stuff), but boy is it catchy! Take note of “Start Again” and “Dreaming Of You”; these tunes could easily find their way onto mix tapes with The Shackeltons, The Mae Shi, and even some No Age or Oxford Collapse.

God! And check out “Mutiny”, where Neil’s deep and darkly sensual vocals are occasionally backed by Becca’s shouts in the repeated I don’t know / I don’t know / I don’t know… Superb!

Dubbed as referencing subgenres like 80s new wave, post-punk and a more recent post-hardcore, the vocalist certainly has a voice that conjures Interpol and The Cure and the instrumentation follows suit with hefty, distortion-infused guitar riffs. Their self-titled EP (also dubbed Tour EP drops via Sarathan Records on tomorrow."
==================================================================

Thanks for the nice write-up, Fense!! - Sarathan

PETER BRADLEY ADAMS, FAN VIDEO OF "LOS ANGELES" PERFORMANCE

Charlottesville’s The Hook posted a show preview for Peter which included a live fan-created video of Peter performing “Los Angeles” off his new release leavetaking.

UPCOMING DATES FOR PETER BRADLEY ADAMS:

Thu 9/4, Chicago, IL (Schubas);
Thur 9/11, Nashville, TN (Next Big Nashville);
Thu 9/18, Columbus, MS (Rosenzweig Arts Center)
Fri 9/19, Nashville, TN (Showcasing Americana Music Convention);
Sat 11/1, Dickson, TN (American Folk Festival)

WAR TAPES PLAY F-YEAH FEST 2008!

War Tapes prepared for their forthcoming release with a show during the F Yeah Fest last Sat Aug 30th at the Annex. The F Yeah Fest included No Age, Matt & Kim, Two Gallants, and more awesome bands!

The LA Weekly previewed the show and Prefix Magazine has two photos up.


Live the dream: UPCOMING DATES --

Fri 9/12, Tempe, AZ (Marquee Theater);
Sat 9/13, San Diego, CA (Beauty Bar)
Sun 9/21, San Francisco, CA (The Fillmore)
Wed 9/24, Hollywood, CA (Club Moscow) CD Release!
Thu 10/23, Anaheim, CA (OCtoberflame Festival)

FERAL CHILDREN ROCKED BUMBERSHOOT!

Feral Children got home from a short West Coast tour (see below) just in time to rock the EMP Sky Church last Labor Day weekend.

They played Mon Sept 1 at 6 pm as a part of Seattle’s annual Bumbershoot Music & Arts Festival. Their highly successful performance for 700 fans left 400 poor souls outside due to capacity limitations. Glowing post-show reviews include one from the Stranger, "On to the EMP Sky Church to catch a glimpse of Seattle quintet Feral Children. They packed the place and their surging, sinewy rock, with its memorable hooks and vocal quirks, triggered thoughts of Mission of Burma and Pixies. Feral Children—keep an ear on them."– Dave Segel, the Stranger

Us sentimental Sarathaners grabbed a pic of them loading the van and leaving two weeks ago.
















See for yourself: UPCOMING SHOWS:

Thu 9/11 Seattle, WA (Neumos);
Thu 10/9 Seattle, WA (The Comet);
Sat 10/11 Missoula, MT (The Badlander);
Tue 10/14 Minneapolis, MN (The Uptown);
Fri 10/17 Detroit, MI (Painted Lady Lounge).

Feral Children interviewed by John Richards on "The Local Music Show" (Seattle)

KEXP's John Richards interviews Feral Children on his cable / online tv-show "The Local Music Show"

8/28/2008: The Local Music Show at on location at Liberty on Capitol Hill. John Richards interviews members of Feral Children and features videos from Heavy Hearts, Helio Sequence and Fleet Foxes.

Watch it online! Link to video: http://www.seattlechannel.org/videos/video.asp?ID=3290805

Peter Bradley Adams new album "Leavetaking" is available now!

Here at Sarathan Records, we are all celebrating the August 5th release of Peter Bradley Adams "Leavetaking".  Joining the celebration are numerous reviewers including the snippets below:

Ink19.com says - Singer / songwriters in Nashville are ten a penny, but Leavetaking deserves to elevate Peter Bradley Adams to a level above the majority of his contemporaries in Music City.  A captivating blend of folk, Americana and pop, it's undoubtedly one of the best albums of 2008.  ...Recorded with co-producer Lex Price in Nashville, Leavetaking is an unbelievably high quality album with a surprise around every corner.

HybridMagazine.com says - The songs on Adams' newest album Leavetaking... are reverential and honest, thick with emotion and stories of life, creating an almost alternative gospel music.  After the grace of Gather Up, I had high expectations from Adams' next release; but he has gone far beyond what I had hoped for, and I simply can't say enough about the greatness of this record.  

also: 

Peter Bradley Adams performed live on The Music Row Show, on July 20th, 2008 in Nashville, TN.  You can listen to this show online at:  TheMusicRowShow.com

Feral Children - West Coast Tour!

HELLO!

Feral Children start their mini-West Coast tour this Thursday at the Doug Fir in Portland. They’ll return in time to rock the EMP during the Bumbershoot Music and Arts festival. See you at one of the venues below!

Thu Aug 14 Doug Fir Lounge - Portland, Oregon

Fri Aug 15 Lil Red Lion - Eureka, California

Sat Aug 16 Tonic Bar - Reno, Nevada 

Sun Aug 17 Kimos - San Francisco, California

Tue Aug 19 The Scene Bar - Los Angeles, California

Wed Aug 20 The Viper Room - West Hollywood, California

Fri Aug 22 Jillians - Las Vegas, Nevada 

Sat Aug 23 Murray Theatre - Salt Lake City, Utah

Mon Sep 1 Bumbershoot - EMP Sky Church Seattle, Washington

Thu Sept. 11 Neumos - Seattle, WA w/ Common Market (CD Release Party), The Tall Boys and Thee Emergency

Thu Oct 9 The Comet Tavern - Seattle, Washington

Sat Oct 11 The Badlander - Missoula, Montana

Feral Children's album: reviewed in Drowned in Sound

Feral Children: Second To The Last Frontier
14 votes by Tom Milway
Type: Album
Release date: 08/07/2008
Label: Sarathan Records
Info: Available on iTunes and Amazon now

The Pacific-Northwest city of Seattle, USA has for many years, been home to a vast array of quality and diverse music. However, the unrelenting force of mid-‘80s grunge left much of the city's endeavours overshadowed following its death in the ‘90s. Then, around the turn of the millennium, the city found itself in a state of flux, and began to shift grunge’s rotting legacy from around its neck. Global media recognised its other efforts. Local boys done good, did in fact do very well: Modest Mouse, Death Cab For Cutie and The Shins (to name just a few) are platinum-selling artists across the globe. But in recent years the next wave has been steadily breaking through on local labels such as Sub Pop, Barsuk and Suicide Squeeze. And there are many more waiting in the ranks, just ready to step up. However, on this evidence, the wait for Feral Children won’t be much longer.

With the help of producer Scott Colburn (Animal Collective, Arcade Fire), five-piece Feral Children have crafted a debut album brimming with great melodies and hooks in abundance. However, couple this with interesting and experimental percussive elements (making use of their two drummers), not to mention bouts of raw noise and inventive lyrics, and you have a debut that will stick. There's a clear resemblance to early Sung Tongs/Feels-era Animal Collective here, but Feral Children use these cosy pleasantries merely as a base to build upon. Every track spirals upwards, shifting gears, layers of jangly guitars, weird and wonderful energetic explosions of percussion building. 'Spy/Glass House' kicks the album off with the band’s trademark echoing-beer-keg percussion. However, it ends in another place altogether, with swathes of noise detonating off in every direction. A sample of what’s to come.

If you were to stick Modest Mouse, Wolf Parade, Murder City Devils, TV On The Radio, Animal Collective and even fellow Seattleite newcomers Jaguar Love, into an industrial strength blender - you know, like those ones on YouTube that can liquidise a golf club - out would slip Feral Children. Like a smoking mixture of boiling treacle, whiskey and thick congealed mud. The vocal pairing of Jeff Keenan and bass-player Jim Cotton energetically spit vocals as if the illegitimate love-children of Hot Hot Heat’s Steve Bays and Modest Mouse’s Issac Brock on tracks such as ‘Me, Me, Just Me’, an electronically raucous sing-along (“Don’t, don’t think too hard, ‘cos your brain won’t eat your heart...”) that changes tact midway into clean reverberated guitars. In a similar vein, ‘Billionaires Vs Millionaires’ begins as if it’s straight from Interpol's own paranoid New York cutting room floor. Its skinny Pixies-esque surf guitar lines, pulsating bass and despairing vocals (about love, condos in the city and isolation) lay the foundations for what builds, this time, into shoegazy chants and disorientated whispers.

‘Jundice Giraffe’ is packed with TV On The Radio-style ethereal floating vocals and raw electronics before Cotton’s pained shouts and eerie tones - “They love your skin, they love your yellow skin, they do” - take the song straight into spooksville. Later, the fantastic seven-minute journey ‘Lost In The Woods’ begins in strong Modest Mouse melodic territory before, at its peak, morphing into a druggy disorientated and paranoid world - as if wandering, well, lost in the woods on mushrooms. On the wonderful ‘Ex-Blindman’, the vivid and humorous lyrics - “It was almost love at first sight, but then some blind man stole your eyes, and gave them to his ex-wife for a birthday surprise” - form a catchy and accessibly melodic hook. But adding more contrast to an already varied release, post-apocalyptic drone skronk is used to build suspense (‘Space Face’) for the rockin' post-punk number 'The Beast = Goldmine' and angular chorus-led closer 'Zyghost'.

Second To The Last Frontier is an eclectic and varied debut, amongst the cream of current sounds emanating from the Pacific-Northwest. Feral Children have succeeded in creating an accessibly melodic album that lacks none of the ambition many of their better-known peers have demonstrated to a commercially successful level.

On the couch at Sarathan HQ

3 Forthcoming Releases on Sarathan Records...

LINKS HERE:
Feral Children: Free MP3.
Peter Bradley Adams: Free MP3.
War Tapes: Free MP3.
Enjoy! - Sarathan Records

FERAL CHILDREN GIVES AWAY DIGITAL FOUR-TRACK EP IN ADVANCE OF DEBUT FULL-LENGTH; BAND ADDED TO SEATTLE’S BLOCK PARTY FEST

Feral Children free EP featured on influential industry zine the Tripwire! LINK HERE

photo credit: Feral Children, Audioasis @ High Dive 3/1/08photo by Rustee Pace 

LOS ANGELES, June 4, 2008 — Feral Children’s debut full-length is still five weeks away from seeing the light of day, but the Seattleites are chomping at the bit to give a glimpse into their dark, frenetic indie rock. They will offer a free digital four-track EP, beginning today via Sarathan Records: sarathan.com/free/feralchildren_ep

The eponymous, abbreviated collection contains the songs – "Spy/Glass House," "Jaundice Giraffe," "Saint" and "Zyghost" – culled from the band’s forthcoming album, Second to the Last Frontier, produced by Arcade Fire and Animal Collective audio wizard Scott Colburn, due July 8 on Sarathan.

Revered throughout the Pacific Northwest for their wild and sometimes reckless live shows, which typically end with something broken and someone bloodied, Feral Children is an appropriate name for this group of backwoods musicians who relocated to Seattle from the small Washington town of Maple Valley. It’s this caustically wild performance that earned them an invite to perform at the Capitol Hill Block Party, July 26 in Seattle, joining Vampire Weekend, Darker My Love and Les Savy Fav. Prior to that, the fivesome will perform at the Noise for the Needy Benefit alongside Matt and Kim and YACHT at Seattle’s Neumos on June 14.

Feral Children caught the attention of influential Seattle-based radio station KEXP who has championed the band with major airplay and a high-profile slot on their holiday show alongside Yeasayer and Dead Confederate. Over the past several months EP track "Jaundice Giraffe" has become a staple on the station and has been singled out as their "Song of the Day." " The vocal ranting will bring to mind early Modest Mouse, but the jangly guitars and go-for-the-throat attitude will make you forget anything but Feral Children," they exclaimed.

There’s been no shortage of local love with The Stranger describing their music as "convulsive, percussive, skuzzed-out rock, as primal as a caveman fertility ritual" and Seattle Weekly gushing: "a gleaming, dark, and angsty effort that combines rock and roll with pop elements, stringing them out into complex, sometimes linear, song structures with yelps, screams, buzzing guitars, intense keys, and an underlying tone of conflict and rage."

Two Loons for Tea: Playing at Seattle's Nectar Lounge with Tina Dico 05/18/08