Baltic Cousins
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Baltic Cousins

Bellingham, Washington, United States | Established. Jan 01, 2009

Bellingham, Washington, United States
Established on Jan, 2009
Band Folk Punk

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Music

Press


"The Stranger Sept 2013"

Baltic Cousins sound perfect on an autumn day. They're like an Appalachian version of the Thermals. Their punk-folk songs will appeal to fans of Two Gallants and RVIVR, assuming you're a RVIVR fan who doesn't hate the banjo. And how could you hate the banjo? Banjos can be great. Baltic Cousins prove it. - Megan Selling


"Over Yonder In The Minor Key"

I’m maddeningly in love with Baltic Cousin’s newest album “The Broken Horn” - Editor


"Its A Theory Relax"

If Black Flag were a folk band - Bill


"Seattle Weekly"

This first full-length release delivers more of the deep-fried, foot-stomping folk-punk the band debuted on its EP, For the Hell of Us. It isn’t always full speed ahead, though; with Tannananika Munn on violin and Rabia Magnusson on piano, Horn has plenty of softer moments. - AP


"Scene Point Blank"

Out of Bellingham, WA come Baltic Cousins with their debut full-length. The Broken Horn displays an ominous, punk-y brand of Americana that picks up right where they left off on 2011’s For The Hell Of Us EP. Bradley Lockhart’s lyricism, which is seemingly rooted in honesty and realism, walks the line between optimism and gloomy despair. “Junk Beach, Parts 1 & 2” is the absolute best rock ‘n’ roll song of recent times that nobody will hear. - Nathan


"SSG Music"

Baltic Cousins, from up north, the rag tag cowpunk rockers spawned from established scenesters from projects such as Black Eyes and Neckties crying Alt rock over strings and riffs that just don’t give a folk! Expect a stirring and new craving for fist pumping in cowhide and while wearing your favorite 1990s vintage rock concert tee. This band made me think of the folk side of Zeppelin mixed with an Appalachian listening to an obsessive amount of Johnny Cash and a steady diet of 80s and 90s music inspired from Bat Cave. - Jamison Johnson


"Puget Playlist"

Be sure to come early and check out Baltic Cousins, who sound like they are from Canada instead of Bellingham. Very sparse, with moments of lush noise that build in quite a lovely manner. - Jon Stefan


"The Sun Break"

Not a lot of bands combine the spit of punk rock with the burnished traditionalism of Springsteen-style Americana, and even fewer do it well. Put Seattle quartet Baltic Cousins right at the head of this particular class. - Tony Kay


"Nada Mucho"

Bolstered with noisy violin riffs and battering drums, Bradley Lockhart leads the crew in a twangy take on punk (I'm not hyphenating anything to describe these guys) or a noisy take on Americana, however you want to put it. - Graham Isaac


"Seattle Stranger"

While their bio and other press pays lip service to labels like Americana and Folk-Punk, the truth is that Baltic Cousins are very adept at hiding the fact that they're a rock band. For the Hell of Us starts out with Telecaster twang, rollicking strings, and lyrics about picking up and moving south, but it doesn't take long for the sludge-garage riffs and intense post-punk yelping to bubble just underneath the surface. Even on laid-back, friendly-sounding numbers like The Way I Look, vocalist Bradley Lockhart sings with a focused, cool intensity that is unique among floppy-hatted-shaggy-bearded altbros working in similar idioms. Nika Munn's energetic and melodic playing suggests that she's really a lead guitar player in the vein of Bob Stinson, but she just happens to be holding a violin. Shawn Stahlberger punishes the kit with the same authority he did with criminally underrated Bellingham synth-punks The Russians. - James Burns


"Sound On The Sound"

Their self-titled EP was one of our favorites of 2010 and if “You Are Bound” is any indication of what’s to come from Baltic Cousins in 2011, we’re pretty sure you’ll see them again on this year’s best of lists. Beginning with the laconic tempo of their self-titled EP, “You Are Bound” explodes into a more fully developed brooding sound with a funeral ode on the trumpet, furious drums and guitar shredding which highlights Brad Lockhart’s hardcore past. “You Are Bound” wails and teeters like a leering drunk about the captivity and uncomfortable closeness of small town life and relationships - Abbey Simmons


"Whats Up Magazine"

At its core, here is a release of honest, earnest, country-fried folk punk. Complete with plucky banjos, watery piano backup, blazing guitar riffage, meandering violin and cello, even some tasteful down-tempo accordion thrown in (interested parties skip to track 9, “Dead Artists), The Broken Horn does full justice to its apparent PNW Americana rock roots.

Thematically, Baltic Cousins’ latest release covers all the bases a comprehensive rock record should. Though at times angsty (“Junk Beach Part 2”), and at times rueful and questioning (“Junk Beach Part 1,” “Dead Artists”), Brad Lockhart’s songwriting seems grounded in the reveling and ecstatic.

Enter “Never Hold Your Breath.” The Broken Horn’s standout single instantly catches the ear with a simple instrumental intro showcasing Lockhart’s killer guitar tone, and a driving sans-cymbal drum beat featuring a set of powerful toms, no doubt lovingly tuned by producer Jackson Long.

But that’s far from all you get out of the song. Lockhart himself produced an animated music video for it, complete with soaring eagles, rustic pine-covered vistas, a loveably blundering grizzly bear, and some life-saving archery. While the cartoony cuteness of the video might not quite match the powerful earnestness of the song, that’s easily forgivable—it’s still charming as hell.

Bellingham punks, your second go-to track is going to be “Junk Beach Part 2,” a robust, thrashy, break-stuff anthem with a distinct early-2000s hard rock tinge. I might be way off base here, but I get a strong Foo Fighters/Queens of the Stone Age vibe on this one. Give it a listen and see if you agree.

With the release of The Broken Horn, Baltic Cousins demonstrates that they can produce a record with the polished accessibility to keep it long lasting, without losing the woodsy sincerity that PNW music lovers long for. - Brent Cole


"Syffal.com"

The great thing about Baltic Cousins is how they provide weight to the most mundane experiences. Every song is a gigantic anthem. It feels fucking crucial as shit. As if live and death depended on every chord, every kick and snare. Brad Lockhart's vocals sound like they are killing him; like he has to smelt them fuckers in a blacksmith shop contracting all sorts of pulmonary disease for inhaling the iron filings and fumes from the coals. It is music that leaves you emotionally raw but better because of it.

Where For the Hell of Us sounded like an exercise in working through your personal bullshit, The Broken Horn feels like something bigger. Like it might not be the first salvo in the revolution but it is definitely the song that rallies the troops from the brink of a crushing defeat through to an unprecedented victory for the working man.

It's the kind of thing old assholes who were born in America but cling to their Irish heritage bump the shit out of during the late night hours of a Labor Day BBQ. If these assholes lived in Boston they would be fucking huge. Sadly they are from Seattle and might be a bit too aggressive for the coffee and tech nerds that swallow up the landscape.

Dudes named Sully would bump the shit out of Baltic Cousins. shit is heavy as Fuck bro. - Tim Baker


"Pocket Jury"

We’ve been waiting for this band to move to Seattle so we could write about them, since their hometown of Bellingham is reportedly under some sort of media blackout. Formed in 2009, Baltic Cousins are the brainchild of singer-songwriter-guitarist Bradley Lockhart and The Broken Horn is their long awaited debut album. It’s the sort of record which really demands a thorough and careful appraisal but in order to do that we’d have to wait for another year or so before writing about it. Lockhart’s songs are self-contained epics, full of colourful characters and thoughtful musings on Pacific Northwestern existence. The ten songs which make up The Broken Horn features a small orchestra of instruments including guitar, violin, cello, piano, banjo and accordion amongst others. In the hands of the wrong people, that sort of kit could be the makings of another generic indie pop monstrosity but thankfully Lockhart and his band-mates (violinist Tannananika Munn, pianist Rabia Magnusson and drummer Shawn Stalberger) attack the songs like a full blooded punk rock band. Thematically, this could definitely be considered Americana, though there’s also a strong Celtic element which feels sincere enough not to be jarring. They’re one of the few bands to evoke the Pogues in a manner which doesn’t feel blasphemous, which is a genuinely remarkable achievement. The beautiful interplay between Munn’s violin and Magnusson’s piano is a journey in itself, in particular on the meandering ‘Mark Twain Was There & He Was Crying’, which sees Lockhart longing for a faraway land and “to be a man judged by his word”. Throughout, there’s an unabashed sense of naturalistic Northwestern poeticism which encourages repeat listens. Obvious highlights like the sweeping ‘Hurricane Able’ and the stomping ‘Never Hold Your Breath’ have a real sense of depth which belies their modest run-times. If you’re looking for an album that really grows with each listen, this is well worth your time. Stirring stuff. - Tommy Dski


"The Volcano"

The music of Baltic Cousins is defined by balls-out folk instrumentation, with Lockhart's voice shouting above the crazed din. It calls to mind easy comparisons like the Pogues, with its melding of traditional instrumentation and sloppy, emotionally resonant melodies and lyrics. There's nothing involving half-measures even close to the work of Baltic Cousins. Everything has an urgency and unapologetically bombastic energy to it. Though there's nothing new to the idea of introducing punk to the folk world (and nothing, it should be noted, incongruous about it, since folk and punk share the history of bringing voices to the underprivileged revolutionaries of the world), the way that Baltic Cousins combine the sounds has an interesting bent to it.

"There's definitely a genre of folk-punk that's been around for a long time, but it's kind of different than what we do," says Lockhart. "Punk songs played acoustic is what I think of when I think of folk-punk bands, like This Bike is a Pipe Bomb and early Against Me!, and stuff like that. With Baltic Cousins, I kind of wanted to do the opposite of that, and play folk songs electric - so, twangy, and pick songs that are loud and heavy, because that's just kind of the only music I really know how to play."

What this translates into is the kind of winsome strumming that goes along with the most righteous folk songs, this time translated into fiery electric riffs. But no matter what I tell you about Baltic Cousins, all I can really say is that it hits my sweet spot. - Adam Mckinney


Discography

"Demo" 2009.

sound on the sound's top 25 Northwest releases of 2010. Airplay on KEXP (Seattle) KUGS (Bellingham)

"For the Hell of Us" EP 2011

sound on the sound's favorite local EP's of 2011. "Album of the Year" nomination, What's Up Magazine. Best of the first quarter Brooklyn based SYFFAL.COM. Airplay on KEXP (seattle), KUGS (bellingham), 107.7 The End (Seattle), The Waiting Room (UK), WTUL (New Orleans)

"The Broken Horn" 2013

"Hurricane Able" featured on John Richard's Music That Matters Podcast KEXP. "Best of the Year So Far" ScenePointBlank.com "Top Albums of the First Quarter" pocketjury.net. "Never Hold Your Breath" single featured by King's 5s Evening Magazine, Lineout Stranger Music Blog, The Seattle Weekly, Sound on the Sound, Whats Up Magazine, Dangerous Abuse Magazine (France). Airplay on KEXP (seattle), KUGS (Bellingham), 107.7 The End (Seattle), The Waiting Room (Wales, UK), WTUL (New Orleans)

Photos

Bio

In their short lifespan Baltic Cousins have never fallen victim to the trappings of languid contemporary folk or Americana. Right out the gate they have been raging ahead both musically and in their tireless work ethic. Born from the ashes of Wooden Wings in Bellingham, Washington in 2009, guitarist, singer, and head songwriter Brad Lockhart, an avid Two Gallants and 16 Horsepower fan, linked up with violinist Nika Munn and drummer Shawn Stalberger to forge a different kind of country inflected rock band. With a set of demos and an impressive ep entitled For the Hell of Us under their belt, the band added Rabia Magnusson on piano to both add bulk and to smooth over some of the rougher edges. After an eventful year of recording, a move to Seattle, and the replacement of Stalberger on drums by Kyle Alumbaugh, the band is ready to unleash their debut full length The Broken Horn.

Once the hushed, slow burning first moments of the album give way to the tumult of the soaring and catchy Never Hold Your Breath, it becomes instantly clear that the new record finally captures their big hearted sound. But make no mistake; The Broken Horn never suffers from a lack of rawness.

With the pounding drums, to the more textural piano work of Magnusson accompanying Munns melodious violin swirls, the bands sound is an unexpected mixture of in-congruent elements. Lockharts guitar playing oscillates between melodic finger picking to violent slashes of distortion that both anchor and urgently drive the songs, allowing the band to jump from a haunting and melancholic dirge to a full on snarl within a single tune. Letting his vocals rest front and center, Lockhart is also able to divulge his shadowy stories with a pained wail. His lyrics throughout The Broken Horn detail the spectrum of existence of all those who inhabit the dark corners of our modern American West, and there are equal parts grandeur and heartache to be found in his characters.

It is these essentials that separate the band from so much of their contemporary ilk. While employing elements of Americana and twang, Baltic Cousins also rely heavily on their shared back grounds in hardcore and punk to conjure something darker on their new record. The Broken Horn is gut punch folk music that is exuberant and lyrically affecting, delivered with the same amount of recklessness and passion that the band consistently exhibits at their shows. Baltic Cousins are more important than ever to our current musical landscape because they dont give in to modern American ennui; they furiously rage against it.

Baltic Cousins' have enjoyed the honor of performing with these fine acts:

Lucero, The Cave Singers, Fruit Bats, Black Breath, Monotonix, Wovenhand, Two Gallants, Pierced Arrows, Jaguar Love, Japanther, Ravenna Woods, Surfer Blood, Helms Alee, RVIVR, Mt St Helens Vietnam Band & Water Liars to name but a few.

Band Members