Fred Thomas and Ryan Howard, the duo behind City Center, are set to give us their debut full-length, Redeemer. Their slightly reverb-laden dream pop is sometimes electro-infused, sometimes as lo-fi as the band’s K Records brethren. The album is a reflection on youth from one in the throws of growing up, an attempt to understand where they have been and project they are going (but mostly the former). (more…)

Olympia band Lake returns this year with a new album called Giving And Receiving. If you like what you heard from their past few releases, including the phenomenal Let’s Build A Roof from 2009, you’ll dig this one. It has a pleasant mix of upbeat pop songs and chill mellow ones. “Within/Without” finds somewhat of a middle ground, with a slightly funky beat and their nice signature male/female harmony vocals. (more…)

Jeremy Jay debuted on the scene in 2007 with singles for Airwalker and We Were There. I snagged both of those at the time, and I really enjoyed them. His debut LP, A Place Where We Could Go, too, was impressive. He then released a few more LPs and a few more singles, and that leads us to his fourth album, Dream Diary. Born and raised in California, Dream Diary has that state’s sound — it’s sunny, but it irks to get away from the cookie cutter nature rampant in suburbia. (more…)

I instantly fell in love with Lake upon first hearing them open for Microphones and Karl Blau at the final show of Anacortes’s cherished Department Of Safety. That I hadn’t heard them before was the shocking item, being they share a hometown with K Records and also release their albums on the label. Lake’s dreamy psychedelic pop flirts with subtle breezes and forested hills. The harmonies put on display by Eli Moore and Ashley Eriksson mold perfection beyond its previous benchmark. (more…)

Throw Calvin Johnson into the mix, and, no matter what situation presents itself, it’ll always be a little awkward. That might come out wrong, but it shouldn’t. He is, in all aspects of the word, cool. When I saw him front The Hive Dwellers at the Anacortes What The Heck? Fest (the above photo was taken there), I was again thoroughly impressed with just how cool Johnson could be. So seemingly uncool that it’s gone full circle; there’s no one cooler. (more…)

You’re nuts if you pass up a chance to see Microphones perform live. After all, they’re typically billed as Mount Eerie these days. Essentially, they’re the same band and the music they make is, for lack of a better term, eerily similar. For the final performance Department of Safety would ever have, Microphones were the obvious choice of performer to conclude it all. (more…)

LAKE may only have played about 5 or 6 songs, but over that brief period of time they entranced the audience. Blending a lo-fi garage sound with psychedelic pop, the Olympia band was the first to perform at Department of Safety’s farewell show. With various synths and the clash of male/female vocals, LAKE demonstrated versatility in performance with members frequently exchanging instruments. (more…)

Jeremy Jay is an old soul. His young demeanor, as pictured on the cover of this lovely single, is much more mature than his age. Similarly, the music he makes spans an age much greater than his. The songs, while not necessarily theatrical, have a vivid visual element to them that assists in creating a quite expansive library of aesthetic features. Were Jim Morrison to have instead spent his time with the creatives in the Chelsea Hotel, he may have sounded like this. (more…)