CITY LIGHT

Bringing forth a sound similar to Jawbreaker and the Postal Service with less synthesizers and a bit more ambiance, City Light takes the mellow indie rock so familiar in the early 2000s to the next level in 2010. Combining the simple group arrangement of keyboards, a guitar, and adding live percussion from Sean Doyle for the first time in their 9/24 show, City Light demonstrates their ability to produce a complex sound through their juxtaposition of intricate keyboard licks and simplistic guitar riffs.

From the start of City Light's set to the end, the music never stopped; it ebbed and flowed from the relaxed unification of drum beats, keyboards, and guitars to the syncopated rhythms of songs like "I Want What's Bad for Me" and "Evil Twin." This duality brought together both the stage presence and attitude of City Light and married it with the progressive sound that emanates from the speakers.

The best part of seeing City Light live is just listening to the music. City Light's albums are great and really well put together, but there's a tone in Matthew Shaw's voice that permeates through the amps in their live performance that you don't get on their records. A tone that is soft, harmonized and soothing, like a type of lyrical meditation. By Daniel HIlls - Performer Magazine

"City Light is a long-distance collaboration, a la the Postal Service...The result of their far-flung efforts seems, oddly enough, strongly tied to a particular environment: the urban spaces inhabited by restless, struggling youth. "Hwy 99" is about life on Aurora, "where the Super 8 is a Hilton / and sirens are lullabies." The less-gloomy "Let's Not Speak" reworks the oft-reworked formula of "opposites attract": "You like poets / I like movie stars / I like records / You like hits / We both hate sunny days." It sounds like a sped-up Casiotone for the Painfully Alone record: fragile, longing vocals over gritty guitars and synth-tones, with some bumping electronic beats."
Michael Connelly @ Seattle Sound Magazine - Seattle Sound Magazine

"Initially devised by Seattle-based Matthew Shaw and then developed further by Nick Andre, Andy Fitts, and the well-known indie maestro Denver Dalley (Desaparecidos and Statistics), Down the Pacific is an album that will knock you on your ass"

- Exoduster.com

"Electronic video-game-informed soundscapes underlie a special imprint of young urbanite loneliness, but with a particular kind of upbeat energy: you can definitely hear the fabulous Aqueduct in there, and Her Space Holiday also seems to linger. Expect hooks, melodies and reluctant angst of a highly enjoyable nature."
Jenna Hunphrey @ Noise Pop
- Noise Pop

"I am most interested in the debut of City Light. It is a project from singer-songwriter Matthew Shaw that works with a few artists across the country (a la a more ambitious Postal Service)"
Chris Burlingame @ Three Imaginary Girls - Three Imaginary Girls

The Seattle-to-San-Francisco collaborative project known as City Light no longer has a sole album on its roster. Several musicians (singer-songwriter Matt Shaw, producer Nick Andre, musician/producer Denver Valley, musicians Andy Fitts and Marc Bianchi) have come together to release Burned Out Bright, a collection of sleek and bright electro-rock. The album is available now via Banter Media – check out “Someday Maybe,” available below. - The Bay Bridge