Messes

Los Angeles can be a dirty place sometimes. Making frequent travels throughout our fair city, one can find the abandoned housings of old flower shops, overgrown and infested gas stations, and boarded up windows that, prior, framed an array of the best imported rugs from the middle east. It’s a shame the dreams that have been forgotten behind those plywood windowpanes, and healthy weeds. In all that mess lies the dreams of yesteryear, the seeds planted by working men and women that were never harvested, or a father’s romantic memory that is only held in a dilapidating photograph.

This is how I imagine Messes’ music. The Los Angeles singer-songwriter claims the dirt and dust for his name, only to remind us of the beauty that can lie within if we only choose to see it. With finger picking that would make Sam Beam blush in awkwardness, and a voice that scratches through the throat of David Bazan, Messes is a refreshing and familiar sound in a city that seems to be as alienating as it is intriguing. With only these few songs to go off of, one might have a new song to soundtrack the descending sun touching down over PCH, or a lullaby that could sit in for a mother’s whisper. - RewriteableContent.com

Looking for some pretty, hushed, gentle, folksy acoustic pop? Well, the debut cd-r ep by SF's Messes just might hit the spot. Their six songs are very intimate and sensitive singer/songwriterly along the lines of Elliott Smith. The 19-minute cd-r is lovingly packaged in a sewn paper sleeve festooned with bird imagery. - Aquarius Records

12/05/2006 at The Hemlock Tavern, San Francisco, CA (Curated by Messes)
Nice little local acoustic Tuesday night yesterday at the Hemlock, Sean Smith, Messes, Joseph Childress and St. Ivy all performed, though we came after St. Ivy had finished. Some of the prettiest songs I've heard in a while from all three artists we saw, especially from Messes, who's lyrics were kind of boring and cliche, but guitar work was phenomenal. The mp3 linked below had this amazing instrumental ending when they played it live that sounded like way too many notes for two people to be playing, I was so disappointed when I listened to the song today and it wasn't there. Still a really pretty song though. - The Deli Magazine

lo de myspace daría para hablar un buen rato, un de oca a oca y tiro porque me toca infinito de artista a artista desconocido, en uno de esos saltos terminas en Messes, y no redescubres con ello la pólvora ni la penicilina pero sonríes. Messes es el pseudónimo de Aaron Robinson, un tipo que al abrir la puerta trasera de su casa se enfrenta a 587 acres de bosques y árboles, imaginarán lo que eso significa, o más bien lo envidiarán (yo al menos). y aunque esa vista es inevitable encontrarla en todas las canciones, también es inevitable pensar que ya hemos estado en sitios parecidos a través de los ojos de M. Ward, José González, Elliot Smith o Sam Bean. ¿dónde están las diferencias? pues en los pequeños detalles, uno estaría en el artwork, que no suena pero casi, tanto que mirtamirta lo cambiaría por el in my own town de Karen Dalton con su generoso libreto, y su digipack gofrado. la responsable del imaginario pajarístico no es otra que Emily Prince, la también firmante del the milk-eyed menderde Joanna Newsom.
centrado en las canciones destacaría 'lucky pennies' destilando las mismas dosis de técnica y de corazón ('will you still remember when you're growing old?'), 'light in my eyes' y 'the rain & the hurricane' son preciosas, igual que 'when the notes sound wrong' o 'the hollow' con los cameos de Dave Scher de Beachwood Sparks y All Night Radio. en general la sensación es la de estar ante otro de esos discos que pones cuando después de hacer el amor decides amanecer siamés hasta la hora de la comida de un domingo que adivinas ocre a través de las cortinas. mmmmm!" - Microphones in the Trees