The local music scene in Salt Lake City is one of those interests that is very important to me. I would love to see as many local shows as I can but my health is still preventing me from going out as much as I would like. Instead I have decided to highlight a local band every month in this blog and eventually do interviews with the bands and artists. Because the blog is so new I will not be interviewing this months featured artist but I will provide as much detail into their music as I can.
I am pleased to announce that the featured band for January 2015 is the Ska/Alternative band The Anchorage. I am a ska fan from way back in the early 1980s enjoying acts from the late 70s 2tone ska such as The Specials, The English Beat, The Selector and Madness and then moving onto the 3rd wave and Ska Punk acts like The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Operation Ivy, Skankin Pickle, Reel Big Fish, early No Doubt, Save Ferris and Less than Jake plus local Salt Lake Ska acts like Insatiable, Swim Herschel Swim and Sturgeon General (all of which friends of mine performed in). Even now I have spent the last 3 months listening to the entire Streetlight Manifesto and Big D and the Kids Table catalogues.
With that history out of the way, I must say I am impressed with The Anchorage. This band has a very dynamic horn sound with heavy guitar sections and a progressive bass player that manages the ska bass lines with ease and at the same time switching to heavier bass rifts whenever necessary. I also love when the keyboard is accompanying the horns with classic Hammond B3 sounds or just simple fill rifts. The drumming is solid and the vocals are consistent.
While writing this I have been listening to their first full length album from 2011 Bridges. This album is very consistent from Track 1 One of These Days (which is a very good album opener) to Track 12 Bridges. My favorite tracks on the album are Track 1, Track3 Tear Down These Walls (which features that great keyboard horn interaction, Track 8 Not Alone (This song has an awesome horn break that shows off the ensemble skills of the band) Track 12 (which opens with some cool distortion and then has some innovative drumming and guitar interplay plus the most consistent lyric phrasing of the album).
There are 4 more songs available on the band's Bandcamp page (which is very visually pleasing as well) those 4 tracks include a harder cover of Oingo Boingo's Dead Man;s Party and the band's new song Many Minds which actually does a great job showing the growth the band has made in the last 3 years.
To breakdown the musicianship of the band I kind of want to address each section of the band and then talk to some suggestions I would like to see the band consider for future endeavors.
First the horn section of The Anchorage is VERY STRONG. Ben Lambert on Trombone and Erik Vorkink on Trumpet play very well together. They are in tune and have a strong sense of what their instruments should sound like not only for the Ska sound but as a general sound philosophy. They are able to play with dynamic variation and have great musical phrasing together. There are moments that they need to improve on their ensemble entrances so one of them doesn't come in to early and they also need to pay attention to the end of their phrases together but that is minimal criticism.
Next the rhythm section of Jason Bohman on Drums and Dylan Cox on Bass work well as a team. I would like to see the bass drive the tempo more and stay on the top edge of the beat but Dylan plays very strong (he does need to turn up a bit though so that there is a stronger bass presence on the recordings.) Jason is very good at keeping the band together and does good basic rhythms, I would like to see him branch out into more diverse polyrhythms on his fills and intros(like he did on the song Bridges), This would give the band a powerful new tool to innovate and create with.
The harmony and rhythm section of the Guitars and Keyboards played by Derek Harman and Scott Inkley hold the band together, The way the guitars incorporate harder distortions and riffs with standard ska comping is one of the most compelling aspects of The Anchorage. In addition the various keyboard sounds throughout all of the songs help add harmonic diversity that keeps a person interested throughout the whole album. I would like to see more phrase matching between the guitars and the horns so that the ups and downs of each phrase complement each instrument.
Lastly the vocals add a unique timbre to the band and help create the overall sound. Derek is on lead vocals and Scott is on backing vocals. I believe that this area is where the band has an ability to improve in such a way that they can enter into the same status as Streetlight Manifesto or the The Bosstones. If more practice is made on making sure the Melody of each song is emphasized through the vocals then the Harmonies that the band are playing will become stronger. In ska there are two strong melodic forces that need to be present The Horns and The Vocals. If both are as strong as the other then the music itself becomes thicker and richer in sound. Now this is not a criticism of Derek, he has very good phrasing, good breathing and good projection when he sings, it comes more as a recognition that the melodic line needs more attention (or emphasis) than is coming across on the recordings. I think in a way that has to do with the lyrics matching the musical phrasing better. So going forward I would make sure that you spend time with your lyrics and that you are saying your message in such a way that the words match the music so the melody comes across stronger.
Now I love this band as a fan. I subscribe to Spotify paid service and Bridges is available on that service, however, I purchased the album in digital download plus the 4 other songs on Bandcamp. I encourage all of you who read this and appreciate the music to do this as well. The album Bridges is $5.00, plus I paid $2.00 for Speak Your Mind (which has the cover of Dead Man's Party and is not on Spotify) and I paid $.99 for the song Many Minds (which the band is offering for free, but in my mind you should pay what it costs on ITUNES or Amazon for a single song to support the band) I also bought both of their stickers.
Here is the link The Anchorage Bandcamp
Here is their Facebook so Like Them
Here is their Soundcloud
Here is their Twitter
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