A ‘Novel’ Kind of Sound

Okay, I’m also going to post about writing today, but I’ve always been a sucker for great music, and I’m excited about hearing The Novelists for the first time. Those of you following me on Twitter and Facebook will already have read about the concert, but my second blog post yesterday wouldn’t load because it turned out I was over my picture limit, so I’ve gone through and pared things down a little bit. (Thinking about upgrading btw- thoughts on that?)

Back to the concert at SCC, I have a hard time finding music I really enjoy. I like music and books to have elements that are unique or unexpected. I wasn’t expecting to find a new favorite band yesterday. I was just sitting around after math class, messing around on Cakewrecks, and putting together a post on writing prompts (set to air later today.)

“Hey! Did you hear me talking earlier about what’s going on in the auditorium?”

I looked up and saw an unfamilliar girl smiling at me. I hadn’t heard her, and I told her so.

“There’s free food, and free music! It starts at ten. Do you have class?”

“Nope!” What can I say? She had me at ‘free food,’ but I’ve always loved music too.*

“Awesome! Go get all your friends, too! Tell everybody.”

“Sorry, all my friends here would be like two people. And they’re in class…”

I took my best shot at recovering my dignity, “I could Tweet and Facebook it, if you want. I could blog it.”

She looked like I’d offered her free food, “You have a blog?”

“Yeah, it’s about writing, but I’m always happy to support local stuff.”

“One of the bands is local, come on!”

Next thing I knew, I was shaking hands with the bands, and getting a short rundown on both of them. Blisstrz was a blues band from here in Spokane, and The Novelists were a band from Reno, Nevada whose genre I still couldn’t define, although I love their sound.

Then it was ten, and the concert started. The Novelists were up first.  Zack Teran was on the cello! I was shocked and delighted. What other bands use a cello? I can only think of Apocalyptica, and their sound is completely different. For some songs, Megan Slankard or Joel Ackerson played mandolin. Here, again, I can only think of one other example of this- Tegan and Sara- and, again, no resemblance in sound.  Eric Andersen was fantastic on the keyboard. They all have excellent voices.They integrated classical and exotic instruments with a sound that was modern and, I believe, has the potential for big time mainstream popularity.

Quite simply, I fell in love with their music.  My favorite songs they played were Soul Sucker, and I Don’t Want to be Like You. You can listen to them on their website here: http://thenovelists.com. As much as I like them, I still don’t know how to categorize them (Which just makes me like them more.) They don’t seem angry enough to be rock. Their sound is softer than that, more thoughtful, acoustic. More optimisstic. I can say what they aren’t: No hint of country, or pop. I’d say alternative, but that’s not really saying anything, and alot of people think grunge or garage band when they read that, which isn’t the case at all. They’re just… Novel. I hate to put another potential pun into the world, but this band is aptly named.  I haven’t heard anything else like them.

Now, as much I enjoy it, I’m not on the cutting edge of music. It could be that most of you reading this already knowabout this band and what they do, or maybe you have the musical vocabulary to describe what they do better than I can. If that’s the case, please comment. I’m always happy to learn.

They also took a picture with me, which was awesome!

*My sister, my best friend, and I actually had an incredibly short run as a band ourselves. We were called (Surprise!) The Occasional Meatcleavers. (Yes that is where the name for this blog came from. I figured if the whole blogging thing didn’t work out, we’d probably want the domain name anyway.)