After a week away, it was nice to be back in the studio. This week I played several folk-related tunes, a few garage-based ones, and a small handful of indie pop tracks. With the amount of indie-folk I’ve played of late, I’m thinking we’re in store for another dreamy mix and maybe even a garage rock mix in the near future.

It’s hard to imagine that just a few short months ago we were enjoying sunny summer days. 2011 was my best year yet, having achieved a few milestones: four and a half years running FensePost, riding my bike from Seattle to Portland and logging over 1,000 total on those two wheels between January and December, enjoying life with the love of my life (Andi), and a few defining mindset changes that put the two of us on a path to minimalism and frugality.

I entered the studio at about 9:35pm, meeting up with Stuarto, who has the time slot before mine. A quick interview about 15 minutes before my show, another few songs, and I was up. It was requested that I attempt a transition, and as indie music is my theme, and world music is his, I figured I’d kick things off with an oldie, but goodie: “The Gulag Orkestar” by Beirut.

It’s been a while since we’ve heard from Seattle’s Charles Leo Gebhardt IV. Well, that’s not entirely true, as last year we got a debut full length from Unnatural Helpers. But his solo project under his own name has been quiet since the release of Unfaithful, the delightfully raw and fun EP from 2008. Begin Again is the new release and it maintains much of what we heard from that previous EP, albeit with a tiny bit more production.

Fronted by Dean Whitmore, Unnatural Helpers‘ percussionist and lead vocalist, the band released their LP Cracked Love & Other Drugs this week on Hardly Art. This band of musical misfits have a pretty impressive past and present, having performed in local Seattle acts as Idle Times (Brian Standeford), Charles Leo Gebhardt IV and Catheters (Leo Gebhardt), Intelligence (Whitmore himself), and Hardly Arts very own The Dutchess & The Duke (Kimberly Morrison). Collectively, they go by Unnatural Helpers, and frankly, they rock!

So this is it, the first FensePost Podcast. A few weeks ago I sat down and compiled a mix of various songs; some new, some old, most finding some relation to garage rock or garage pop. Hence the title, From The Garage. The theme is loose, so some bands fit and some don’t. There are sixteen songs total here, stemming from local Seattle and Portland acts on across the world. New Zealand, Sweden, Canada… you get the picture. Enough banter — listen to the FenseCast …

Not surprisingly, this list is filled with EPs by quite a few bands you know and quite a few you probably don’t. Of the ones you don’t know, many are likely from Washington; a quick count leaves me with five bands, or 1/4 of this list. Many of these bands I consider among the most promising artists to surface in 2009. All are worth checking out, and you’ll want to keep an eye on them as we head into 2010.

In defining folk rock, one rarely sees an association made with rockabilly. But it’s a pertinent inclusion in the music Charles Leo Gebhardt IV makes. On his recent GGNZLA Records EP, Unfaithful, it’s the jangle in his guitar – that almost country sound that definitely fits the rock genre (as opposed to jangle pop). “Look Out, Look In” and “Better At Love” have that old-time 50s rock feel, which fits the rockabilly persona, but it’s not nearly as rockin’ as some of those artists tend to be, …