Island artists Eli Moore and Ashley Eriksson have been very busy bees and have the honey to prove it.
Singer-songwriters Moore and Eriksson wrote most of the songs on their second K Records release, “Let’s Build a Roof,” which they produced with their band LAKE. The CD releases Tuesday, followed by a kickoff tour and release party at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 10 at Whidbey Children’s Theater in Langley.
LAKE is not your run-of-the-mill top-40 remix band. The band’s first K Records release, “Oh, the Places We’ll Go,” is a happy homage to Dr. Seuss and is chock full of pleasant melodic surprises.
This new disc maintains the same honey-themed voices accompanied by a variety of keyboard sounds, satisfying drumbeats, psychedelic guitar, ever-reverberating bass lines and their trademark choir of voices smoothing out songs with lots of “la-las” and “na-nas.”
But the lyrics on “Let’s Build a Roof” venture into darker territory and present an interesting juxtaposition of sweet-voiced harmonies and tortured-soul lyricism. LAKE takes the best of satire, without being sardonic, and the result puts a smile on your face.
On their Web site, they are described as “a group of cloudy individuals brought together through lines drawn along Interstate 5, intersecting in Olympia on or around 2005. Since forming, they have both gained and lost members, recorded 12 full-length albums (only three of which have seen proper release), played across the world supporting such talented acts as Adrian Orange and Her Band, Half Handed Cloud, Laura Veirs, and Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy.
“The sounds they craft are straight from the playbook of the good parts of Billy Joel, Fleetwood Mac and Turkish psychedelic music. Caressing the Rhodes piano, endearing drum fills, guitars that don’t sound like guitars, and some slamming bass lines. Listening to LAKE is like pouring sugar in your ears. They’ll turn your brain into chocolate, 67 percent cacao.”
No matter how you spread your honey, LAKE is a highly skilled group of musicians who can promise a singular style that whispers sweet somethings without missing any of the exciting, rockish beats.
Band members include Lindsay Schief, Markly Morrison, Andrew Dorsett, Adam Oelsner, Erikkson and Moore.
To hear a track review on www.pitchfork.com of the song “Madagascar” from “Let’s Build a Roof,” click here.
See LAKE’s Web site, click here.
Also appearing with LAKE will be a Langley newcomer, the puppet Nymbol, along with his puppeteer and creator Bill Cass of Nymbol’s Secret Garden, a new puppet shop in downtown Langley. Nymbol will perform an all-ages show between LAKE sets.
Admission is pay-what-you-can from $6 to $10.
