Freak Scene #91: Winterpills Return With 'This Is How We Dance'
Plus, Western Mass. trio Our Three debut with the EP 'Never Fall in Love'
A Guide to Music in Western Mass. (and sometimes Connecticut)
This week in Freak Scene, Northampton band Winterpills release their first album since Love Songs in 2016, while Western Mass. trio Our Three release their first EP ever.
Here’s a neat bit of symmetry: Winterpills’ new album This Is How We Dance arrives today, almost exactly 20 years after the Northampton folk-pop band released its self-titled debut in 2005 (the sold-out album-release show Saturday, Nov. 8, at the Iron Horse marks the actual anniversary).
I remember at the time feeling spellbound by the quietly elegant songs that seemed like “a mesmerizing flash of warmth among the turned-down lamps and cold hardwood floors of a wintry night,” which is how I wrapped up a review in the old No Depression magazine. There’s a different tone on This Is How We Dance, the group’s first album in nine years, which makes it compelling in a different way.
These 12 new songs comprise the band’s biggest and most expansive-sounding music so far, as if Winterpills are breaking out of their lengthy silence with a spirited yell. Dennis Crommett’s lead guitar parts play a more prominent role on many of these tracks, while singers Philip B. Price and Flora Reed raise their voices above the hushed, murmuring harmonies that have characterized much of Winterpills’ music. If most of the band’s earlier output fit Winterpills’ own “chamber-pop” description, these songs have a more robust sensibility: pop for a bigger space.
Crommett opens the album on “Wild” with swirls of effects-treated electric guitar, and Price’s voice builds from quiet to ringing as Reed locks in with him over the distant, reverberating crack of a drum from Dave Hower. Strong guitars launch “Lean in the Wind,” too, before piano and Max Germer’s melodious bassline join in on a song that Price started years ago and Reed (who sings lead) finished as a wistful longing for the connection with friends and family that was so often absent during the darkest months of the pandemic.
Later, “Hi” hews more closely to the band’s chamber-pop aesthetic, with Price singing softly over fingerpicked acoustic guitar as Crommett adds electric-guitar textures in the background. Reed’s harmonies follow Price like an adventurous shadow, cleaving close to him here and flitting away there in a vocal part that represents some of her best-ever singing. The song is an evocation of encroaching despair, and the strength and effort it takes to keep it at bay, rendered with equal parts resistance and resignation. Reed is out front again on “Cherry Blossoms,” which opens quietly and expands into a rich tapestry of sound, with layers of guitars and cymbals that ring subtly before Crommett peels into an overdriven guitar solo. Germer’s pulsing bassline drives “Small Dreams,” which has a sweeping indie-pop feel, while rivulets of eerie guitar fall through “I Am the Defect.”
The variety of sounds and approaches on This Is How We Dance make it the band’s most exploratory album, but at this point in Winterpills’ 20-year trajectory, there’s no reason not to push the musical boundaries that the band has traditionally observed — especially when the results are as consistently engaging as they are here.
Our Three Make Classic Power Pop on ‘Never Fall in Love’
It’s a classic format: jangly pop songs with rich vocal harmonies, and it’s what Western Mass. trio Our Three are doing on Never Fall in Love, their debut EP. The band runs through variations on power pop on six crisp songs that emphasize melody and are generous with catchy hooks.
Core trio George Lanides on vocals and guitar, Bill Howard on vocals and bass and Kaci Ruh on vocals tilt toward an effervescent late-’60s sound with cascading guitars and interlocking vocals on the title track, dig into a surfy slow-jam on “Desert Rose” and lean just a bit in a rootsy direction with pedal steel licks from Bob Hennessey on the fast-paced “Hey Sharon,” a longing look back at carefree youth. Jason Smith plays drums on the EP, which also features organ from Paul McNamara. (Lanides and Howard also play together in the Give.)
Matt Hebert produced Never Fall in Love, and Our Three opens for Herbert & the Lonesome Brothers Saturday, Nov. 8, at the Parlor Room (tickets).
Upcoming Concerts
The Iron Horse in Northampton hosts the Gaslight Tinkers Dec. 28 (tickets), local funk outfit Soul Magnets Jan. 16 (tickets), the James Montgomery Band Jan. 23 (tickets), alt-country singer Robbie Fulks March 19 (tickets) and Brazilian psych band Sessa May 10 (tickets).
The Drake in Amherst hosts Minneapolis indie-rockers Bad Bad Hats Jan. 28 (tickets) and L.A.-via-Kansas bedroom pop singer Jordana March 21 (tickets).
The Space Ballroom in Hamden brings in Pool Kids Jan. 31 (tickets), Meet Me @ the Altar Feb. 1 (tickets), Cass McCombs March 20, and Jordana March 23 (tickets) and London psychobilly band the Meteors April 4 (tickets).
That’s it for this week — thank you for reading! If you like what you’ve seen, please share. Also, I’m always open to submissions. You can send music for coverage consideration to erdanton at gmail or reply to this email. Check out these guidelines first.
Freak Scene is free, but donations help make this happen, and are gratefully accepted. Previous issues are available in the online archive.