Song, by Toad

I was fortunate enough to get my hands on a copy of The Cave Singers’ single Thinking of Heaven quite recently, and it’s taken me ages to realise just how good it is.  They are from Seattle and  appear to be pretty much a folk group, but one who approached the genre from a rock ‘n’ roll perspective, not a rinky dinky tin whistle perspective.  Fortunately.

Gothic folk is the standard term, I suppose, for folk music that focuses on the darker side of the canon: rolling, picked guitar undercurrents, dark viola, a slight air of foreboding to the music.  I sometimes get the impression that people also use the term simply to mean ‘folk music that isn’t shit’.  Either use applies here.

Lead vocalist Pete Quirk has an incredibly nasal voice, slightly reminiscent of The Builders & the Butchers.  The music is perhaps more of a type with The Willard Grant Conspiracy, although not quite as grand, and Oregonians Horsefeathers spring to mind as well.

They have a limited edition vinyl single available from Matador here, a single available on emusic and an album due to be officially released in the UK in early February.  A little exhasperatingly with these staggered releases, it came out in the States last year so it is actually already available, which seems to me to slightly defeat the purpose of ‘releasing’ an album, but I guess they need a proper launch over here at some point.

In any case, it’s bloody good, so go and avail yourself of some right away.  And they’re supporting Band of Horses on tour in the UK in February, so make sure you get to these shows early enough to see them.

The Cave Singers – Belmar
The Cave Singers – Seeds of Night
The Cave Singers – Helen

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