Music

Woods makes music you stumble upon. They released a handful of limited run cassettes and seven-inch vinyl before catching ears with Songs of Shame in 2009.

Plenty of musicians struggle with identity and write songs about how they're trying to find themselves. Some do this well and other times it seems contrived, but on Erin Cole-Baker's new album, Big Sky, we find an artist addressing a fundamental question she's dealt with for most of her life.

Ryan Hayes is about to head out on an 11-day tour with his band, Hurtbird, but he's not spending this particular Thursday morning packing or making sure the Portland band's set list is ready for the road. Sure, that might be on his to-do list, but at the moment, he's in the middle of building a bar. Out of wood – coincidentally – for a live music venue called The Woods, which is partially owned by Loch Lommond front man Ritchie Young, a frequent collaborator and longtime friend of Hayes.
In addition to writing the highly cerebral and poetic lyrics for Hurtbird, a hip-hop-meets-every-other-type-of-music-this-side-of-Yanni band, Hayes is also a carpenter who builds items out of reclaimed wood. Since work building and remodeling houses dried up in recent years, Hayes has refocused his talents, making use of his college fine art education to make creative custom furniture. He likes the autonomy the solo venture allows him, making things like, say, setting out on a tour with your increasingly popular band a hell of a lot easier.

It's a chicken/egg thing with Red Fang. They're a band that, on its Relapse debut, sounds exactly like they do on stage. Exactly. So it makes you wonder, are their live shows exactly like their records, or did they just perfectly capture the energy, fuzz and grit of their live show in the studio?
Whatever it is, at this point, you can tell that Red Fang is just stoked to be getting attention for the music (and hilarious videos) they make – and maybe that's what we're hearing on Murder the Mountains.