The Depths

The Depths
“City of Blight”
By Dawn Quinn

Tacoma Weekly
dquinn@tacomaweekly.com

Santa Barbara-based atmospheric post-rock group The Depths have a signature dark sound that is hard to fine-tune and come by these days, yet these intentioned musicians make it work for them, and well.

The band is composed of Brian Mathusek on vocals, Adi Tejada and Cabe Fletcher on guitars, Terry Luna - Bautista on bass and Jeff Sullivan at the drums.

Together they created a six-song EP, “From the Depths,” back in 2009, and in January of this year released their first full-length CD, “City of Blight,” to the masses.

With a title like that, some listeners may expect constant hardcore screaming and wailing from start to finish. Throughout the work, The Depths actually call to mind peers in the same vein such as Thursday, Taking Back Sunday and Fugazi instead, while composing tracks teeming with epic breakdowns, slow progressions, multi-faceted and layered clamor and mean guitar work. The band describes the album as “a companion while exploring the world through the mind of the tortured, hopeless and enraged” and that depiction is certainly an apt one upon first listen.

The first track, “Whether We Fall,” is slow going throughout and very atmospheric, with glimmers of metal elements. The drumming begins simply while effects happen in the background, pulling the song at different ends. A breakdown comes in and has Mathusek screaming during the chorus.

“Crisis” comes through with immediate fast guitar strumming, with drums kicking in at the addition of more guitar and bass. The track is more rocking, and gives the impression that it is something to be experienced live. Vocals speak to conforming, consumerism and a revolution that won’t happen on TV, hinting at a punk past: “This is really unfortunate, you were once crazy/ black flags and skeptics vision, post-apocalyptic anarchism.”

The title track is a standout, with guitars that gallop in time with drums and that really conveys the post-apocalyptic aspect the band is trying to get across through the work by portraying an individual seeing their current life up in flames, and wanting desperately to go back. “I’d give my everlasting soul for one last glimpse/ throw it all away/ just to have my life back to the way it was/ with all its maladies/ give it up, throw it all away/ give it all up, just to have today” speaks to someone who wants revenge for what has been done and the whole result is an excellent piece of music. Vocals are spoken toward the end of the track, a sign of the individual’s desperation as a result of his hell on earth.

Like few bands before them, The Depths have created music about desperate situations that somehow appear beautiful and thoughtful through the addition of an atmospheric dream-like tone that makes you question reality, yet still see the beauty of the band’s intent.

The Depths play June 14 at The Funhouse in Seattle and June 15 at Hell’s Kitchen. For more information, visit their website at thedepthsmusic.com or find them on Myspace at http://www.myspace.com/THEDEPTHSSB.
- The Tacoma Weekly

DEEP IMPACT: Also this week, Santa Barbara post-rockers The Depths unveil their latest labor of love, City of Blight, with a CD release show at Muddy Waters Café (508 E. Haley St.) next Thursday. Despite its description (the band have dubbed the disc “a companion while exploring the world through the mind of the tortured, hopeless, and enraged”), Blight is no hardcore screamfest. Slow builds, grinding guitars, and epic percussion mark the majority of this eight-song offering, calling to mind everyone from genre starters Fugazi to contemporaries like Thursday and Poison the Well. Through it all, frontman Brian Mathusek holds down vocals that fluctuate from guttural to haunting with a purpose and rawness that simply is hard to come by. The Depths play Muddy Waters on Thursday, January 28, at 7:30 p.m., with Santa Barbara’s Quiet Giants and San Diegans Boomsnake. For tickets or show info, call 966-9328.

http://www.independent.com/news/2010/jan/21/fruit-bats-move/ - The Santa Barbara Independent

DEEP IMPACT: Also this week, Santa Barbara post-rockers The Depths unveil their latest labor of love, City of Blight, with a CD release show at Muddy Waters Café (508 E. Haley St.) next Thursday. Despite its description (the band have dubbed the disc “a companion while exploring the world through the mind of the tortured, hopeless, and enraged”), Blight is no hardcore screamfest. Slow builds, grinding guitars, and epic percussion mark the majority of this eight-song offering, calling to mind everyone from genre starters Fugazi to contemporaries like Thursday and Poison the Well. Through it all, frontman Brian Mathusek holds down vocals that fluctuate from guttural to haunting with a purpose and rawness that simply is hard to come by. The Depths play Muddy Waters on Thursday, January 28, at 7:30 p.m., with Santa Barbara’s Quiet Giants and San Diegans Boomsnake. For tickets or show info, call 966-9328.

http://www.independent.com/news/2010/jan/21/fruit-bats-move/ - The Santa Barbara Independent

Saturday, November 21, 2009

I am usually ham-stringed as far as blogging about bands playing @ the mud as anything I write is somewhat suspect... if the bands I am blogging about were playing the mud, I am biased right? We do not really book shit I cant stand behind for 1, and it is in my best interest to say what ever we have is FAB U LUS, RIGHT?

But I can post about the deps show @ whiskey dicks and not worry about bias.

~~~

So here is the night as I saw it.

Depths started right exactly at 10.

I have the 1st depths record, and have been waiting to hear the 2nd for like ever, un mastered, demo, burnt CD or whatever... hint hint guys, gimmie that shit. It is mastered and comming soon... hopefully sooner to me than you :D

So, like, aside from what new stuff they have played in the mud, my ears are virgin as far as the new material is concerned. So this is basically like a listening party for me, hearing the new stuff live. And I am expectant. The cats from playback studio (who mixed the record and have been telling me it is ace when they stop in for coffee) are in the joint, cats from other bands in sb are up in it... I do not think I am the only one anticipating. The joint had that sort of vibe. Also random state St. peeps. I am checking the randoms just in off State St. for reaction much of the night.

To my ears, the new songs live sounds enough like the old ones, like the bands output has continuity ya know, still dreamy and atmospheric in a sort of Jesus & Mary Chain way... but slightly leaner, less sustain-e, more groove, more hook, and sort of more balls. They also seemed to play effortlessly. Like if Adi just has a tele, Terry just has a jug band washtub bass, Jeff is just banging on something, and Brian has no mike, and Cabe is just brewing shine, they still might jack your horsey. And rock out.

And... just more hook.

I think the random cats who are not sure if they are in the pizza joint next door or in a bar by accident did not have trouble finding something to latch onto in what they were hearing... and groove out to it. I did see that happening, and often that is a better barometer than ANYTHING I might think about a band.

It is great to hear a band saying "we are going to sound like the sum of our parts, we are not going to ignore the last 3 decades of rock, and we are not going to sound like whatever you read about yesterday either"...(assuming you read) I think that IS what they are saying.

http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendId=117903707&blogId=519336302 - Bill, owner of Muddy Waters Cafe

Saturday, November 21, 2009

I am usually ham-stringed as far as blogging about bands playing @ the mud as anything I write is somewhat suspect... if the bands I am blogging about were playing the mud, I am biased right? We do not really book shit I cant stand behind for 1, and it is in my best interest to say what ever we have is FAB U LUS, RIGHT?

But I can post about the deps show @ whiskey dicks and not worry about bias.

~~~

So here is the night as I saw it.

Depths started right exactly at 10.

I have the 1st depths record, and have been waiting to hear the 2nd for like ever, un mastered, demo, burnt CD or whatever... hint hint guys, gimmie that shit. It is mastered and comming soon... hopefully sooner to me than you :D

So, like, aside from what new stuff they have played in the mud, my ears are virgin as far as the new material is concerned. So this is basically like a listening party for me, hearing the new stuff live. And I am expectant. The cats from playback studio (who mixed the record and have been telling me it is ace when they stop in for coffee) are in the joint, cats from other bands in sb are up in it... I do not think I am the only one anticipating. The joint had that sort of vibe. Also random state St. peeps. I am checking the randoms just in off State St. for reaction much of the night.

To my ears, the new songs live sounds enough like the old ones, like the bands output has continuity ya know, still dreamy and atmospheric in a sort of Jesus & Mary Chain way... but slightly leaner, less sustain-e, more groove, more hook, and sort of more balls. They also seemed to play effortlessly. Like if Adi just has a tele, Terry just has a jug band washtub bass, Jeff is just banging on something, and Brian has no mike, and Cabe is just brewing shine, they still might jack your horsey. And rock out.

And... just more hook.

I think the random cats who are not sure if they are in the pizza joint next door or in a bar by accident did not have trouble finding something to latch onto in what they were hearing... and groove out to it. I did see that happening, and often that is a better barometer than ANYTHING I might think about a band.

It is great to hear a band saying "we are going to sound like the sum of our parts, we are not going to ignore the last 3 decades of rock, and we are not going to sound like whatever you read about yesterday either"...(assuming you read) I think that IS what they are saying.

http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendId=117903707&blogId=519336302 - Bill, owner of Muddy Waters Cafe