In support of a limited edition 7" recorded with the Kentucky rocker Mansions that is to be released on Tuesday, July 26th, Fences are gearing up to play a ten day tour.  The 7" was recorded in April at Avast Studios in Seattle, Washington.  The tour will kick off on July 22nd at the Capitol Hill Block Party.  The 7" will be for sale in select retail shops in Seattle, San Francisco, LA, Chicago, and Louisville, as well as being downloadable digitally through iTunes.  The Fences track on the split is called "Marketplace," and it's a downbeat, self-deprecating, introspective slow-burner Fences have come to be known by and loved for.  

Fences and Mansions Tour:
Friday, July 22 – SEATTLE, WA @ Capitol Hill Block Party Main Stage
Tuesday, July 26 – Split 7″ RELEASE DAY & In-store performance @ Sonic Boom Records in SEATTLE, WA
Friday, July 29 – TACOMA, WA @ Hell’s Kitchen
Saturday, July 30 – SPOKANE, WA @ A Club
Sunday, July 31 – MISSOULA, MT @ Top Hat
Tuesday, August 2 – SIOUX FALLS, SD @ Latitude 44
Wednesday, August 3 – FARGO, ND @ Aquarium
Thursday, August 4 – MINNEAPOLIS, MN @ 7th St Entry
Friday, August 5 – MADISON, WI @ High Noon
Saturday, August 6 – CHICAGO, IL @ Reggie’s Rock Club (Official Lollapalooza After Party) w/Titus Andronicus
Sunday, August 7 – CHICAGO, IL @ Lollapalooza

‪Seapony's debut full length, Go With Me, is out now on Hardly Art. This week they play a pair of shows in NYC and also unveiled a brand new video for "Where We Go." ‬

The music of Seapony is refreshing in its simplicity. Most songs on Go With Me use no more than three chords, with an average running time around two-and-a-half minutes. In lieu of a human drummer, the Seattle trio entrusts time-keeping to a vintage gizmo the size of a desktop calculator. The lyrics to "Dreaming," the track that catapulted them into the spotlight, are just six lines long. Like Young Marble Giants and Beat Happening before them, this young three-piece has generated excitement that belies their music's modest means. And their back story is just as no-nonsense.

Seapony is songwriter Danny Rowland, singer Jen Weidl, and bass player Ian Brewer. Danny and Ian grew up and made music together in Oklahoma. In 2001, they moved to Olympia, WA. In 2004, Danny visited Cincinnati, missed his flight home, and ended up staying in Ohio for four years; he met Jen during his Buckeye State sojourn. After a period of work and study in Lawrence, KS, the happy couple came west in 2010 and were reunited with Ian in Seattle. Seapony was born.

If you were listening to KEXP’s Audioasis last Saturday, you already know about Sports, and you can kindly consider this post a refresher on something that rocks.  Sports has a solid, 80’s-style electro sound. The tempo is relaxed, and the synths are backed up with reverberating guitars and melancholic vocals. Comparisons to bands like Depeche Mode are unfortunate, but inevitable. Sports played a great set on KEXP’s Audioasis last Saturday, which you can listen to at http://www.kexp.org/streamarchive/streamarchive.asp, though it won't be up forever.

I've got this big wool sweater and, on more than one occasion, I've sat back and thought about what I should be listening to when I'm wearing it.  I'd like something cozy, something with banjos, big choruses, and foot stompers.  Comfortably, Campfire OK has fit my musical wardrobe quandary.  They take the acoustic, rootsy sounds of Fleet Foxes and mesh them with the more orchestral elements of Grand Hallway to come up with some strong jams full of elaborate arrangements and woodsy, lonesome imagery.  Check out Campfire OK at the Capitol Hill Block Party July 24th.

Wonderful, the summer-soaked indie pop four-piece is back from a five year hiatus with their new album Wake up to Dreamland.  On first listen, their windswept soundscapes lean heavily on the stylings of Animal Collective guru Panda Bear, but considering the many places indie groups pull/lift/steal from, they could do worse.  To their credit, the songs on Wake up to Dreamland are grandiose, audacious pieces that are extremely catchy, and considering the recent lo-fi, bedroom sounds pervasive in indie scenes today, it's refreshing to hear a band daring to do more with their tunes.