Written by Fense

My love, how I miss thee. Were I capable of poetry, words would stream onto the page like none other. They would cover it front to back, emphasizing how I hate being away from your side each and every week, away from your scent and away from you arms. It is a curse. A travesty! And I am stricken. Love will make you do crazy things, like miss the Cumulus Music Festival, which debuts on the streets of Seattle tomorrow and features Beast, Please Be Still (MySpace), among other phenomenal artists.

This was going to be a feature on Beast, Please Be Still, but I figured that didn’t do the festival right. I figured I’d make it a list. Yes, a list that drops in several mp3s from several of the artists and talks a whole load of crap about love and clouds and rain and how life blows and all. Well, maybe not that last part.

Beast, Please Be Still features seven eclectic individuals with a plethora of unique instruments, time signatures, musical thoughts, and conceptual notes. This is a band that marries 1800s American folk with 1900s Russian polka, and tosses it through an instrumental, post-rock-y blender. If that’s not enough to make you want to check out this band, you must be a freakin’ idiot.

The Cumulus Festival favors the overcast, rainy January skies of Seattle and, aside from Beast, Please Be Still, features FensePost favorites like Bronze Fawn and Corespondents and Hypatia Lake, as well as newbies like The Luna Moth (yet another of Levi Fuller’s concoctions) and Joy Wants Eternity and Deelay Ceelay. You won’t want to miss Cumulus as it hits three well-known Seattle venues Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Visit the Cumulus Music Festival website for more info on the event, the bands, the tickets and the schedule, and feel sorry for me for not attending due to cupid’s damn arrow in my ass.

It’s list time.

Four New And Exciting Cumulus Festival Discoveries:

1. Beast, Please Be Still

Beast, Please Be Still: Mastodon March Smilodon Smile [mp3]

Beast, Please Be Still: The Guys At The Bar Served Murder For A Nightcap [mp3]

Beast, Please Be Still: Then You Took Over [mp3]

* * * * *

2. The Friendly Skies

The Friendly Skies: Our So Called Career [mp3]

The Friendly Skies: The Camera Likes You [mp3]

* * * * *

3. Joy Wants Eternity

Joy Wants Eternity: Above The Clouds Lies Eternal Sun [mp3]

* * * * *

4. Earth

Earth: The Driver [mp3]

* * * * *

Four FensePost Favorites On The Cumulus Festival Bill:

1. Hypatia Lake

Hypatia Lake: Her Tears Are The Footsteps Of Anges [mp3]

Hypatia Lake: A Plea To Remiel [mp3]

* * * * *

2. Corespondents

Corespondents: Snakeskins [mp3]

* * * * *

3. Snowman Plan

Snowman Plan: Your Toad Roots [mp3]

* * * * *

4. This Is A Process Of A Still Life

This Is A Process Of A Still Life: All My Blessings Are A Curse [mp3]

This Is A Process Of A Still Life: Horizon/Line [mp3]