The Parson Red Heads and Tommy Keene with The Riffbrokers

The Parson Red Heads

On their new and second full release, Yearling (Arena Rock Recording Company), The Parson Red Heads deliver on the great promise that has been steadily building during their eight years as a band. Yearling was recorded over a series of many months at first in a familiar setting, Red Rockets Glare studio in their former home, Los Angeles, with close friend and sometimes member Raymond Richards producing. Several of the songs on the record were done later on unfamiliar terrain, at Mitch Easter’s Fidelitorium in North Carolina with alternative pop legends Chris Stamey and Mitch Easter producing and engineering, respectively. Stamey mixed the record.

Yearling celebrates appreciating your friends, living thoughtfully and creating an intentional meaningful life, reflecting the heady maturity of a band whose members are in their mid to late 20’s. Evan Way says: “I don’t know if the theme was totally intentional. But all the songs came out about learning the best way to live. There are love songs in there, but it’s more about growing up, your memories and taking everything you’ve learned to make your life better.”

“We came up with the name Yearling” as the title, Evan continues, “which is a horse between one and two years old. That one word captured the idea of something growing up. And the record took us a long time to make and we learned so much making it.” 

Yearling has a timeless quality that continues and expands the classic pop-country-rock lineage stretching from The Byrds and Fleetwood Mac to the Jayhawks and Wilco. Evan hears those reference points, but says the band feels a stronger musical kinship with contemporaries such as Blitzen Trapper, Fleet Foxes, Dawes and The Fruit Bats.

While many of the songs start in a mid-tempo, they tend to go off into a much more loose and rocking instrumental direction near the end of the song (check out “When You Love Somebody”, “Hazy Dream” and “Time is Running Out”). “Kids Hanging Out”, a fast and loud power pop gem that is a highlight of their live shows. The record opens with “Burning Up the Sky”, a perfect introduction to the band’s warm vibe, with their defining big vocal harmonies front and center. “Unemotional” is a particularly affecting and sophisticated highlight of the record.

The band formed in Eugene Oregon in 2003 and has lived in Portland since the fall of 2010. Between 2005-2010, the band lived in Los Angeles where they practiced three hours a night, 2-3 days a week, while taking every live show they could get, often playing four nights a week. That period resulted in dramatic growth for the band, which led to Yearling, a fully realized embodiment of The Parson Red Heads’ masterful songwriting, gracefully finessed guitar lines, precise arrangements, and gorgeous three and four part harmonies.

Co-producer Chris Stamey (founding member of the legendary dBs) came away a big fan: "There's something about this band that lifts your spirits. It's not facepaint, it's all the way down to the grain. In the sixties, we would have said that they are totally 'together,' and they do have an all-for-one and one-for-all ethos, you can hear the musicians' genuine affection for each other in aevery skywriting chorus and every sweeping improvisation.”

Tommy Keene

After nearly 30 years in the music business, you might expect someone like Tommy Keene to start slowing down. If you did, you'd be wrong. Produced by Tommy in his home studio, with able assistance again from R. Walt Vincent (Pete Yorn), Tommy's new Behind The Parade (Second Motion) continues his career-long run of premier, melodic guitar-based rock, following up 2009's stellar In The Late Bright with yet another batch of winning tunes.

Ranging from the proto-Keene jangle of “Already Made Up Your Mind” and the edgy, power pop (no, he doesn't mind that description - much) storytelling of “Running For Your Life” and “His Mother's Son” to the moody, ambient instrumental “La Castana” and the horn-infused opener “Deep Six Saturday”, Behind The Parade finds Tommy ably taking a few risks while managing to play to his considerable strengths. Behind The Parade, along with his recent output, shows Tommy is akin to an athlete rediscovering his prime-only in his case, he never left it.

The Riffbrokers

Formed by now married Nick and Heather Millward in Boise, Id in 1999. Moved to Seattle following year- recruited Dustin Miller. Many personell rotations around this nucleus. Toured the US in 2002- much of the west coast 2003-2006.

Described as powerpop twang- sounds like a midwest band from the '80s trying to sound like a British Invasion band. Many are reminded of Elvis Costello and the Replacements.