The Shy Seasons

Do you love The Strokes? I mean REALLY love The Strokes? If so, you might also really like The Shy Seasons. Vocals on the group’s City of Betrayal CD are consistently similar to those of The Strokes’ singer, Julian Casablancas.

Casablancas will never win any awards for natural vocal skills. He sings flat, if not in an outright monotone, and expresses one emotion over all others: boredom. Listening to “The Girl Is Troubled” is like déjà vu with that The Strokes’ 2001 debut, This Is It, all over again. In addition to the flat, bored and affected lead vocal, there is also an insistent New Wave-y electric guitar part, too.

Okay. It’s probably not fair to compare a group to just one other band. While The Strokes is the primary comparison here, there are other acts that also spring to mind as these six songs play. For instance, BRMC appears to have inspired the bass line that drives “Live like a Dream”. However, the vocal on this one is closer to Lou Reed flat, rather than Julian Casablancas flat. The track has a sweet little “La la la” melodic part in it too, which is a little like the sweetness Lou Reed’s The Velvet Underground used to mix into its special bitter pill. And groove-wise, “Base of Operations” comes off like the long lost cousin to The Seeds’ “Pushin’ Too Hard”. And make no mistake about it, that’s not at all a bad family tree to claim membership in.

The only song that doesn’t seem to fit with the rest is one titled “Still”. It has an upbeat guitar line and a relatively clean mix, and sounds overly perky sitting next to the rest of this disc’s otherwise aural melancholy.

Another trait The Shy Seasons share with The Strokes is intangible coolness. These songs dare you to notice them, much like a middle school student that comes to Ultra Conservative Baptist church with a Mohawk hairdo. You may not get it right away. You might not even immediately fall in love with it. But you’ll pay attention. And that’s something indie bands crave more than just about anything else. Many of these groups would not give a second thought to being the opening act on Katy Perry’s world tour. But what if they get mistaken for a gang of James Dean outsider juvenile delinquents? Heck that would put them in Seventh Heaven, believe you me.

With all that said, “The Shy Seasons” seems like an especially ironic name for this particular band. These guys are attention whores — in the best possible sense of the term. What do you want to bet they all have cool haircuts, hip sunglasses and heavy nicotine habits? They’re the antidote to today’s annoying Glee generation. They don’t want to scrub up their music for teen consumption. Nah, they want to spread germs all over it and infect the world like a tsunami-sized sneeze. If the Arab world ever invented rock terrorism, these musicians would be on the very next flight to the Middle East.

It’s dangerous to make predictions about band successes. However, it’s relatively safe to suggest that The Shy Seasons have a great chance of making a memorable impact upon the music scene. And, perhaps, with a stroke of luck, that just might happen.

Artist: The Shy Seasons
Album: City of Betrayal
Release Date: 3/30/2010
Genre(s): Rock, Alternative
MEMBERS: Keenan Olsen [Guitar, Keyboards, Vocals]Jesse Blair [Guitar, Keyboards, Vocals]Chad Miner [Bass, Vocals]Zach Habbestad [Drums]
Label: Blueberry Hill Records
Location: Portland, Oregon - Indie Music Review