Ark Life

"...the palpable excitement that surrounds this quintet is a touch surprising and may well be a harbinger of big things to come...A deceptively mature and confident sounding band...amidst dense layers of rich swirling harmonies and ringing guitars, Elliott’s brilliantly penned lyrics paint rustic pictures...As his slightly brittle voice spins the tales, the band effortlessly blends elements of Detroit’s Motown and Nashville’s country into driving rock and roll that conjures the feeling of tearing through the dustbowls of the Midwest with the top down and the sun disappearing into a golden haze." - Marquee Magazine

"...Ark Life draws its biggest comparison to the Band...endlessly listenable folk-rock that would even make Bob Dylan proud. Fused with a little bit of soul, the group has a classic rock sensibility, but the taste of modern musicians." - The Denver Post

Ark Life
Let Your Heart Break

“If you don’t think about the things you love you’re gonna lose them someday. If you think too much about the things you love you’re gonna lose them in another way. So you must think just enough about the things you love.”

Ark Life. With just two words the mind wanders into flood and floating reality. When DI’s Grand Poobah was a Catholic Sunday School going lad he once asked, “What did they eat on the ark?” It’s an innocent, logical question, and one to this day no one has ever answered with any satisfaction BUT now we know what the band playing the 40 day, 40 night voyage would sound like with this new Colorado-based outfit spearheaded by These United States singer-songwriter and bohemian gadabout Jesse Elliott. The Impound loves the way these cats ‘n’ kittens watch each other, bodies rolling on some shared wave as they find their musical sea legs, ideas and emotions sloshing around their feet and kick into the crowd with a loose-limb kick spray. Elliott sounds delightful with female songbirds sighing along with his melodically delivered big ideas, and just based on this widdle taste, this band – Elliott, Lindsay Giles, Anna Morsett, Natalie Tate, Ben Desoto & Friends- already gives off the air of a family thang, where the meals and miles are readily shared with any fellow travelers they might encounter. They’ve done a spot of touring in 2013 with a whole lot more ahead including a visit out West in July. Go “like” ‘em on the Facebooks, give a listen to their swell Daytrotter Session, and surely catch a show and break bread – figurative and/or literal – with them when they ramble through your town. - DirtyImpound.com

Ark Life
Let Your Heart Break

“If you don’t think about the things you love you’re gonna lose them someday. If you think too much about the things you love you’re gonna lose them in another way. So you must think just enough about the things you love.”

Ark Life. With just two words the mind wanders into flood and floating reality. When DI’s Grand Poobah was a Catholic Sunday School going lad he once asked, “What did they eat on the ark?” It’s an innocent, logical question, and one to this day no one has ever answered with any satisfaction BUT now we know what the band playing the 40 day, 40 night voyage would sound like with this new Colorado-based outfit spearheaded by These United States singer-songwriter and bohemian gadabout Jesse Elliott. The Impound loves the way these cats ‘n’ kittens watch each other, bodies rolling on some shared wave as they find their musical sea legs, ideas and emotions sloshing around their feet and kick into the crowd with a loose-limb kick spray. Elliott sounds delightful with female songbirds sighing along with his melodically delivered big ideas, and just based on this widdle taste, this band – Elliott, Lindsay Giles, Anna Morsett, Natalie Tate, Ben Desoto & Friends- already gives off the air of a family thang, where the meals and miles are readily shared with any fellow travelers they might encounter. They’ve done a spot of touring in 2013 with a whole lot more ahead including a visit out West in July. Go “like” ‘em on the Facebooks, give a listen to their swell Daytrotter Session, and surely catch a show and break bread – figurative and/or literal – with them when they ramble through your town. - DirtyImpound.com

April 11, 2013

I like the rambly, literate way that Jesse Elliott always lets his heart and words bleed all over everything. For years with (chapel session alums) These United States, and now through his new project Ark Life, it always sounds like his mind is rambling so fast and so pure that the rest of all of us around him can barely keep up. He is one of my favorite kinds of musicmakers.

His new Denver-based band Ark Life blends together a crew of good musicians to make some fine open-air/open-highway music, all tied up with three-part female harmonies. Tomorrow night they are playing a Fuel/Friends House Concert, and if you’re in Colorado, you should be there.

-- Let Your Heart Break (live on Daytrotter) – Ark Life

You can download the rest of their Daytrotter session from last week over here. It’s the first recorded material available anywhere on the internets from Ark Life, so if you want to hear more, well, you’ll just have to come to my house show tomorrow night.

Also playing with Ark Life tomorrow night, I am excited to welcome Denver band Poet’s Row for the first time, maybe named after some cool art deco apartments on Capitol Hill? Either way: it’s a show not be to missed. - I Am Fuel You Are Friends Music Blog

Live Review: ARK LIFE at Hi-Dive, Denver, 3/6/13

It’s pretty simple. We planned on reviewing The Lone Bellow, having a beer or two and getting out of Dodge. When The Lone Bellow bailed, we shifted our attention to the brilliant headliner, Ivan & Alyosha. In the end, we were introduced to Ark Life, the presumed last-minute replacement band, had a beer or two and got out of Dodge. No apologies, no regrets.

Sorry, we’ve got next to no deets on the band, but the street chatter is they’re new to Denver. Seems like they might be from New York. It’s a basic five-piece outfit: three guitars (yes, we consider bass a guitar), electric piano, drums. Frontman Jesse Elliott toured previously in a band opening for The Heartless Bastards. The rest undoubtedly have their own six degrees, too.

So, here’s the deal. With no previous knowledge of the band and absolutely no expectations, we were, about five seconds into the first song, transported to Saved-Era Bob Dylan Land. In a good way. Electric guitarist Natalie Tate, bassist Anna At Play, and pianist Lindsay Giles McWilliams made no secret of their weapon: three-part harmony. Oh, it was deadly. The set was drenched in ooohs and aaahs, but not the shaky, gross kind. The on-point while playing and moving around kind. While Jesse Elliott sang his song-stories, made cute faces and boogied, the lush harmonies filled the room in moments that a lesser band would leave empty. Perhaps the vocal timbre of the gang could be likened to Fleet Foxes but with female dynamism.

Back to my Dylan comment. Jangly slap-slap guitars, piano and drums – the sound (not to force it into a particular age) was very reminiscent of late 70s/early 80s storytelling. It was old fashioned, if you like. An utter lack of pretense permeated the songs. Smiles abounded on stage. Musicians trusting each other and experiencing joy while performing can make the listener’s deepest aches and pains go away if just for a minute. Ark Life has some of that. Tate even told the following joke: “Did you hear about the corduroy pillow? It’s making headlines.” Elliott debuted a song he cowrote with some Dana Falconberry scrawl. This was great. Got to shout out drummer Ben Desoto for a suf rockin’ beat. Friend of the band, Tyler Lee Holter, even hopped onstage with an acoustic guitar for one song to the delight of the Hi-Dive faithful.

This is inception time, people. Think of all the bands you listen to and know. Did you catch them in the earliest days when that electricity was so palpable? That’s what I love about having witnessed Ark Life now. Later might be great, too, but now is NOW. As of the time of this writing, they don’t have any music to hear online (this must change), but you can like ‘em here. - Stubborn Sounds

Live Review: ARK LIFE at Hi-Dive, Denver, 3/6/13

It’s pretty simple. We planned on reviewing The Lone Bellow, having a beer or two and getting out of Dodge. When The Lone Bellow bailed, we shifted our attention to the brilliant headliner, Ivan & Alyosha. In the end, we were introduced to Ark Life, the presumed last-minute replacement band, had a beer or two and got out of Dodge. No apologies, no regrets.

Sorry, we’ve got next to no deets on the band, but the street chatter is they’re new to Denver. Seems like they might be from New York. It’s a basic five-piece outfit: three guitars (yes, we consider bass a guitar), electric piano, drums. Frontman Jesse Elliott toured previously in a band opening for The Heartless Bastards. The rest undoubtedly have their own six degrees, too.

So, here’s the deal. With no previous knowledge of the band and absolutely no expectations, we were, about five seconds into the first song, transported to Saved-Era Bob Dylan Land. In a good way. Electric guitarist Natalie Tate, bassist Anna At Play, and pianist Lindsay Giles McWilliams made no secret of their weapon: three-part harmony. Oh, it was deadly. The set was drenched in ooohs and aaahs, but not the shaky, gross kind. The on-point while playing and moving around kind. While Jesse Elliott sang his song-stories, made cute faces and boogied, the lush harmonies filled the room in moments that a lesser band would leave empty. Perhaps the vocal timbre of the gang could be likened to Fleet Foxes but with female dynamism.

Back to my Dylan comment. Jangly slap-slap guitars, piano and drums – the sound (not to force it into a particular age) was very reminiscent of late 70s/early 80s storytelling. It was old fashioned, if you like. An utter lack of pretense permeated the songs. Smiles abounded on stage. Musicians trusting each other and experiencing joy while performing can make the listener’s deepest aches and pains go away if just for a minute. Ark Life has some of that. Tate even told the following joke: “Did you hear about the corduroy pillow? It’s making headlines.” Elliott debuted a song he cowrote with some Dana Falconberry scrawl. This was great. Got to shout out drummer Ben Desoto for a suf rockin’ beat. Friend of the band, Tyler Lee Holter, even hopped onstage with an acoustic guitar for one song to the delight of the Hi-Dive faithful.

This is inception time, people. Think of all the bands you listen to and know. Did you catch them in the earliest days when that electricity was so palpable? That’s what I love about having witnessed Ark Life now. Later might be great, too, but now is NOW. As of the time of this writing, they don’t have any music to hear online (this must change), but you can like ‘em here. - Stubborn Sounds

Carrying On To The Blue Dawn

Words by Sean Moeller, Illustration by Johnnie Cluney, Recording engineered by Mike Gentry

Ark Life's Jesse Elliott is well aware of the snags in the road. He's driven over all of the bumps and the holes that have worked themselves into formerly smooth surfaces. He's driven over them at great speeds, banging into their bellies with cringe-inducing knocks. He's aware of the jokers and the mimics. He's found the fakes - or they've found him. He's put himself in the den of temptations and he's been dazzled by the mundane. He's given himself over to the urges that come from some place that never thinks anything through and he's glad to have done so.

On a hiatus from These United States - one of the hardest working bands of recent times, Elliott has relocated to Denver, Colorado, and has cooked up a band to present stories that are more domestic in nature. They're stories that are indebted to years and years of foraging, or drifting around, of sleeping on floors, of missing out, of living it up, of feeling shitty and exhilarated all in the same day/same hour, of wasting time, of finding love, losing love and not recognizing it. They are stories that have come out of him after all of these years of exhausted eyes, all of the dancing on the blade of a knife (as he refers to it), plenty of rainy and wet days (one of them in wine country) and more than enough reasons to do it all over again and more than enough reasons to say to hell with it and stay in forever and for always.

Ark Life songs are what happens when you slap yourself a little bit, when you've come undone and then seen the makings of what might put the seams back in where they need to be. This recognition leads to something that many would recognize as renewal, but there's a recognition that it could lead back to some of those divots and another undoing. Elliott sings, "I gave you so much time to love me/Gonna have to leave you now," on the song, "Have To Leave You Now," thanking the one-to-be-ditched for the "crows' feet marching valleys to my brow," accepting the aged aggravation that's been caused. He continues, singing, "I can't be carrying on to the blue dawn, repeating the same sad sounds," hinting that there's a chance to experience more than what he's been taking.

"Hello L-O-V-E" is the song here that ties it all together, that gives a glimpse of what's going to happen now. With three lovely lady voices (coming from Anna Morsett, Natalie Tate and Lindsay Giles -- along with drums from Ben DeSoto) singing soulful harmonies, we see that depreciation to quality of life is always subjective. It's always about what someone's willing to take or willing to accept. Here, once again, love is a culprit, a real twister, and it turns out that it's what's been desired all along, even when it's a damned mess. - Daytrotter.com