The Soldier Thread

As industry folks from all over the world are preparing to descend upon 6th Street in a matter of weeks, intent on keeping Austin weird during SXSW, a buzz is already developing down in Bat City over locals The Soldier Thread. The Austinite five-piece was originally formed by songwriter/pianist/guitarist Justin McHugh and guitarist Todd Abels, before recruiting lead singer Patricia Lynn along with drummer Drew Vandiver and Chance Gilmore on bass. The band recently finished a new set of recordings with local producer Dwight Baker, and the tracks are generating serious attention from both record labels and management firms on both coasts. Our intense investigative methods (i.e. Facebook), also reveal that Lynn was recently in the studio providing guest vocals on a few tracks for the new Blue October album… Make sure to put them on your SXSW dance card, but better hope it isn’t be too late. - RM64.com

OK, we'll come clean and admit we're a little late to the game. We heard all the scuttlebutt about The Soldier Thread. We ignored it. Then we read a couple of these blog posts up on Vivogig. We continued to ignore them. Then we saw some of their vids. Ignored them some more. Then one day, giving into the avalanche of positive vibes, we hunted 'em down on Grooveshark, selected "In Spades", and turned that into the soundtrack for our normal cubeland work.

And as time went by, we began to notice that our work ethic had vanished. We were distracted, in an excellently major way, by the new soundtrack.

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That's them, that's the culprits right there. Left to right, we've got guitarist/vocalist/keyboardist Todd Abels, drummer Drew Vandiver, singer/viola-ist/keyboarder Patricia Lynn, bassist Chance Gilmore, and guitarist/keyboardist/vocalist Justin McHugh.

These guys have been doing their distracting thing since 2007, gigging through our better establishments and releasing a string of excellent recordings. In another era, they'd been called A Rock Band, but nowadays it's called indie-pop: The "pop" for their accessible, easy-to-love style; the "indie" for their not-on-a-major-label status.

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Now that "pop" label suggests a simple sugar high, but that's not The Soldier Thread. No, these guys generate unique melodic numbers, laid atop the concrete slab of familiar chord progressions and a solid rhythm section. Check out the excellent "Fractions" to see what we mean:

You might have caught a glimpse of their penchant for drama in that one. Check out the spell-binding "I Won't Stop You" to see how far they'll go to nail that cinematic feel:

Notice the clever use of guitar and keys on top of that viola to conjure up emotion. Here's another dramatic one - Check out the creepy feel the dissonant viola gives the harmonic "So In Love" (be sure to stick around for the build-up about 1:30 in):

Normally, these kinds of compositions would be enough to get you called "good". But what pushes The Soldier Thread into the "great!" category is Lynne's vocal chops; topping off their numbers like the whip cream on your milkshake. (Sorry, it's been a very hot summer.) Check out this clip to see what this girl can belt out:

(Video)

They've just completed an "acoustic" tour with Blue October, and one of their first gigs back in town was a blow-em-away set at Stubb's that folks are still talking about. And their calendar remains active through September, with gigs here (at Frank on 8/26/11), Dallas, and Houston. Maybe this is the month you latch hold of The Soldier Thread?

Everyone loves their latest, "In Spades", and you need to hear it. So pardon our hand-built Grooveshark Widget and the probably-incorrect track order (we couldn't find a pre-existing embed-able player), and enjoy it:

Turns out that, at this point in time (August, 2011) "In Spades" can't be had, not on Amazon, not on iTunes. So let's leave you with their latest attainable release, "Shapes", up on BandCamp:
- Austin Independent Music

"Experimental sounds underlining serious songwriting. Romantic harmonies between the male and female singers. Passionate playing without overly bombastic guitar work. Patient in the arrangement, yet still displaying strong emotions." - Perry Farrell

"When members of the Soldier Thread decided to become a band, they took it very seriously. Spending a full year rehearsing, writing, and recording before introducing themselves to the world, they wanted to make a strong first impression on the cluttered and chaotic Austin scene. And, oh man, did their efforts pay off! Lush instrumentation and powerful builds provide an added buoyancy to the already inspired male/female vocals, in both a live setting and in the recorded version, that belies the band's tender infancy." - Emily Strong

"If you grabbed equal fist-fulls of Explosions in the Sky, The Postal Service and the dreamy melodicism of Homesick For Space and mashed it all up, you’d have the hypnotic and ambient cure-all salve for apathy that is The Soldier Thread. Their sound is as moody and provocative as the title of their first release, a 5-song EP called Fevers and Fireworks released earlier this year, suggests. Mixing these equally evoking words that don’t necessarily fit is a great attention-getter and says, “Lookout! Strong emotions ahead!”" - Austinist.com

"Fevers and Fireworks may not be an earth-shattering release, but is overall an incredibly enjoyable listen. The band definitely has potential to create something amazing, hopefully their next release scheduled for 2008 will get them one step closer to it." - Leanna Simpson

"The Soldier Thread seem to have shot out of nowhere in recent months, forming only this year and having just released their stunning debut EP “Fevers and Fireworks.” The quartet crafts lush ambient tones that swell into beautifully rich and ringing scores, taking cues from bands like Sigur Ros or even Explosions In The Sky. With the twining male and female vocals and ethereal, hypnotic feel, The Soldier Thread seems at times to sound like Low backed by the Album Leaf. They have also garnered a fair bit of attention in Spin Magazine’s Music Nation contest, having made the quarterfinals based on the votes of fans and industry judges. " - Doug Freeman

"As I was entering Emo’s, The Soldier Thread, relative newcomers to the Austin music scene, had just kicked off their set. I’ll admit, I hadn’t heard much about this band at all, aside from the few facts being thrown around on their Sound Off this past week. They’ve made it to the quarterfinals of Spin Magazine’s Music Nation contest, and within the first few minutes of their set, it was obvious why. Their music translated well live, and the dynamic contrast of the male to female vocals played out beautifully (although my eyes fell into a swoon over their keyboardist’s Rhodes)." - Doug Freeman

"Fevers and Fireworks is a CD to put on when you really want to sit back and experience music.

Like reading a good novel, it takes you to another place. This is not an album to put into your player and after a couple of listens reduce it to programming two or three selections. Being mostly instrumental, the individual tracks could be more accurately described as musical pieces, rather than songs, and give you a recording best listened to as a whole.

I was surprised to find this was their debut. The Soldier Thread put together a gracefully inviting and touching piece of work that is both understated and unpredictable. "
- Daisy Riprocks