Cave Singers - Invitation Songs

Seattle’s The Cave Singers debut on Matador Records with a fascinatingly rural blend of homespun mystery.
Already hot in their hometown, this exceptional trio are writing and performing some of the most hypnotising folk music of today. Singer Pete Quirk spent time in Seattle post-punk group Hint Hint, drummer Marty Lund in Cobra High, and guitarist Derek Fudesco as bassist for Pretty Girls Make Graves and the legendary Murder City Devils.
‘Invitation Songs’ is their debut. You might hear bits of Calexico, Iron & Wine, Devendra Banhart or indeed Lindsey Buckingham in their dense and eerie sound. Singer Pete Quirk’s appealingly nasal voice simultaneously echoes Arlo Guthrie and a mosquito’s buzz, while guitarist Derek Fudesco and drummer Marty Lund evoke the sounds of Mississippi John Hurt and a man slapping a newspaper on a kitchen table, respectively.
Recorded in Vancouver, British Columbia by Colin Stewart (PGMG, Black Mountain), the album’s title is appropriate; it is one of the warmest and most welcoming records of recent years. Each track is coated in a dense atmosphere that feels humid, not stifling. The shuffle-stomp rhythms on ‘Seeds Of Night’ and ‘Dancing On Our Graves’ recall Civil War marches, highlighting Lund’s innate abilities. Elsewhere, on ‘Royal Lawns’ harmonicas sigh and echo back like ghosts in abandoned railway cars. The brooding, washboard-driven ‘Called’ is kin to Ugly Casanova’s chain-gang musings, and Quirk’s mid-song yelps don’t sound planned, but rather like the ultimate summoning of his inner turmoil. ‘Helen’, a classic tale of a long lost lover (“Helen, your eyes are frozen in my brain”), employs a wavering synth to create a Martian blues vibe.
The Cave Singers’ music demands attention. Their majesty is there to hear, that is clear, and soon, they’ll be over here playing their first live shows outside the States with a tour coinciding with the album’s release.

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