Press for BUILDS BRAND NEW
Houston Press Music Feature - 07.31.08
Sharks and Sailors' Slow-Developing Debut Album
Brand New Bag
By Brigitte B. Zabak
Published on July 31, 2008
A short drive down Washington
Avenue, where condos are springing up like crabgrass and local
trio Sharks and Sailors will release debut CD Builds Brand New
at Walter's Friday night, is all it takes to get a taste of what
Houston once was, what it is and what it may yet become.
Like many who have grown up in and around the city, Michael Rollin
(guitar), Phillip Woodward (drums) and Melissa Lonchambon (bass)
have watched Houston change over the years, and Builds Brand
New chronicles their observations. After being away at
school for several years, Rollin recalls coming home to an
almost unfamiliar place.
"When I moved back to Houston — I was away for six years — this
town was completely different," he says. "It was right after
the Enron fallout, and that had a really profound effect on me.
I saw the city in a completely different light."
One of the album's underlying themes is Houston itself, Rollin
says. The title references the frenzied pace of new development
around the Washington corridor and elsewhere. But while the lyrics
may articulate the trio's feelings toward its surroundings, the
music is a resounding representation of how far the group has
come creatively.
Rollin and Woodward met in Corpus Christi,
where the guitarist was attending college, almost a decade
ago. The two shared a deep appreciation for bands like Shiner,
Jawbox, Fugazi and Chavez — groups
that dealt in both punk-rock volume and prog-rock complexity — and
eventually started playing music together.
Unplugged guitar in tow, Rollin strums random
chords as he recounts the past — specifically the first
time he and Woodward met Lonchambon, then playing with well-remembered
local band Panic in Detroit.
"After I graduated, I came back to Houston in 2002 and Phil
eventually followed," he says. "Phil and I started Voltes in
2003; it was just an excuse to play really loud. In fact, [Melissa]
came to see our first show, which was really cool."
As fate would have it, both Panic in Detroit
and Voltes disbanded around the same time, and with the addition
of a fourth member, guitarist Allen Hendrix, Sharks and Sailors
was born. The early days were filled with jagged guitar riffs,
sparse vocals and volume — lots and lots of volume.
A short, self-titled EP was released in January 2006, containing
a few songs the Sailors' dedicated fans had grown to love from
the band's live gigs. Soon after, Hendrix and the other Sharks
parted ways, for reasons the remaining members would prefer to
keep between themselves. Rollin, Woodward and Lonchambon had
to reconnect creatively and didn't struggle when their music
took a different turn.
"We have old stuff that we're thinking about busting out just
because it's still credible, like 'Battle' or 'Topple,'" says
Woodward. "We haven't played either of those songs in a long
time. It's just [that] after we wrote 'Cliffs' and 'Rickshaw,'
the band just kind of took off in another direction, and we're
really happy with it."
Even while going through the lineup change,
the group's instinct was to keep writing. "I think it's an unspoken, rhythmic capability
that we all have," says Woodward.
"When we first started, it was all about volume and busy-ness
and lots of notes — which is cool, but now it's kind of
like that less-is-more type of approach," says Rollin. "We just
wanted more space. Melissa's got really great vocals; they're
very evident on the album. But if you don't leave space for them,
they kind of get lost."
Now it's Lonchambon's turn.
"When we started the band, we didn't know if we were going to
have vocals at all," she admits. "We had to experiment for a
long time. But I think we have a better idea of what we're doing
now, especially when we went to record. Over time, I figured
out that I had to really sing — not fake-sing or half-sing
or whatever. I feel a lot more comfortable with it now."
Builds Brand New finds Sharks and Sailors
settling just fine into its new arrangement. They agree the
changes they made, both musically and otherwise, are doing
wonders for their sound.
"Melissa gave us that melodic balance that we needed," Rollin
says. "Phil and I have a kind of real rhythmic, angular dissonant
approach to writing, but she helped to complement the melodic
part and just filled it out perfectly."
Despite the fact that Sharks
and Sailors' fans have been craving new material for years, the
band opted not to leak any songs before the album was finished
so each track got the attention it deserved. With Builds Brand
New finally complete,
their long-term preparation has yielded an album whose every
song reflects the band's deep connection to its music. The care
Sharks and Sailors invested in the material is readily apparent,
as is the members' deep connection to their hometown.
"The whole concept behind [the album] is kind of loosely based
on the things going on in Houston lately," says Rollin. "It's
really about how things are being torn down just to build it
all new again. Which sometimes is good, but Houston always seems
to be struggling for its own authenticity and identity."
These days, when instant gratification seems
to be society's default setting — whether in music, architecture or anything
else — it's refreshing to see there are still some people
willing to take the time to get things just right. Noting fans
often tell him they still listen to that 2006 EP, Rollin says
he hopes Builds Brand New meets a similar fate.
"It was important for us to make an album that you could put
on in four or five years, or even in a couple of years from now,
and it would still sound somewhat current," he says. "Shelf life
and longevity are things we really strive for." |
Space
City Rock - 07.30.08
Review by Jeremy Hart
These folks are an enigma -- on the one hand, they can be
crushingly heavy, with thundering guitars, surging basslines,
and neck-snapping drums, but even at their heaviest, Sharks and
Sailors remain tranquil, almost serene, with guitarist/vocalist
Mike Rollin and bassist/vocalist Melissa Lonchambon's mostly-detached
vocals drifting over the noisy, jagged musical shoals below.
What Sharks and Sailors do is meld sweeping, atmospheric-yet-heavy
guitars with intricately shifting math-rock, traversing that
heretofore undiscovered middle ground between post-punk bands
like Edsel, Arcwelder, or late-period Jawbox and instro-metallists
like Pelican or Isis.
And what a middle ground it is. The tracks on Builds Brand
New alternately swoon and stomp, guitars roaring and thundering
one second and working a delicate prog-rock pattern the next,
drums sounding like the hand of God smacking down in time,
the whole thing coming off like the turbulent soundtrack to
some deep-sea rescue on The Discovery Channel. Honestly, I
just can't escape the marine metaphors while thinking about
this album, and I swear it's not because Sharks and Sailors
might've gotten their name from a June Of 44 track (you know
how much those folks like nautical crap). The music's
like the aural equivalent of a brooding, angry sea, tumbling
and crashing onto the rocks of some hazy, cold, probably Pacific-facing
coastline.
I should note, by the way, that the June Of
44 thing's not entirely coincidental -- there's a fair resemblance
to that whole Chicago post-rock scene here, with tons of math-y
guitar bits that churn and grind like they were drawn out on
some arcane, musical CAD plotter. The band tempers all that,
thankfully, with a noisy-yet-beautiful aesthetic like the one
that got draped sloppily over most of my favorite Sonic Youth
tracks; the first half of the album, really, is the methodical-sounding,
laid-back, droning, chiming part of the program (see the title
track, "Cliffs," "Terminal
Lesson"), with some nicely drifting/shimmery bits wavering
in and out of view. There's something narcotic about it all,
especially when Lonchambon takes over the vocal duties. This
album really sees her come into her own, vocally -- it's cool
to hear after observing the band over the past few years.
Near the halfway mark of Builds Brand New,
the gloves come off, and the band once again throws me for
a loop. With "Fix
Your Radar," which is hands-down my favorite track, the band
flexes effortlessly and transforms the gentler, more contemplative
band you thought you were listening to into a crushing
juggernaut of post-rock. "Radar" sounds like an outtake from Jawbox (think "Iodine" or "Empire
of One," although "Desert Sea" applies elsewhere on Builds
Brand New, too), lodged halfway between J. Robbins & co.
and The Jonx. It's jagged and confrontational, a flat-out at-your-throat
anti-anthem.
Now, if "Radar" is where Sharks and Sailors drop the glove,
the followup track, "Rickshaw," is where the band wades into
the melee to beat the living crap out of you. They've done this
before, they're saying (and they have, on their debut EP), and
they're still capable of fucking your shit up if and when they
need to -- they just choose not to, preferring to get
all Zen Buddhist and detached like the bulk of the tracks to
this point. It's metal, metal, metal, the kind of thing Page
Hamilton of Helmet would've been proud to claim as his own, even
back in the pre-suckage Meantime days. Although I have
to admit, it's got a much more melodic undertone to it, lurking
just out of hearing, beyond the devastating reach of the guitars.
And it just gets better. To continue the marine
thing from earlier, the seas have become decidedly choppy. "Metes and Bounds" makes
me wonder if The Jonx and the S&S folks have been sharing
a practice space or something, because the song's way math-y,
lurching and noodling like Rush on a heavy-duty psychedelic
bender. Between this track and "Hello Sister," I came to the
weird realization that Sharks and Sailors are actually making
me like prog-rock
once again. I'm reminded of The Dillinger Escape Plan, Dub Trio,
or Between the Buried and Me, in equal measure. I love how the
latter track rolls and tumbles on the waves 'til it finally disintegrates
into wobbly, distant-sounding electronic noise.
Maybe it's because the last three times I've seen or heard
these folks, I've been tired to begin with, but I have to say, Builds
Brand New lulls me into this weird soporific trance
state, where I find my head nodding and my eyes focusing
on nothing. So by the time closer tracks "In the Sandbox" and "Condor" come
stomping in, I'm gone, lost somewhere out at sea. The music's
murky and thundering at once, and I'm out in, rolling serenely
with the waves.
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Download Press Card PDF (updated October 2006)
Download Press Card JPG
Envy Magazine article - November 2006
(click to view larger image)
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Voted by Houston Press as the Best Band to Get Together in the Last Year (Oct. 2006)
Live Review: 6/23/2007 Numbers, Houston, TX
Battles / Pony Tail / Sharks and Sailors
"...Local indie rock gods (and goddess) Sharks and Sailors started the night off with one of the best performances since their inception. A quartet of four friends, Sharks and Sailors are the embodiment of the cliché "practice makes perfect." Their sound is spot on. Every guitar stroke and drumbeat has matured into a crisp, clean amalgam of loudness. "Hello, Sister" (a personal favorite) is a melancholy crescendo of beautiful noise. "Battle," from their first EP release, is an intense ride of eardrum-shattering proportions. Phil Woodward's drumming is intense, calculated, and woven neatly into the riotous mood of Al Hendrix and Mike Rollin's guitar melodies and Melissa Lonchambon's bass lines. Sharks and Sailors is leaving its signature bite on a city that is still struggling to find some musical inspiration..." - Bridgette Zabak for Space City Rock
"Taking listeners on a musical ride that has as many ups and downs as a voyage at sea, Sharks and Sailors combines heavy choruses with soft breakdowns. Featuring former members of Panic in Detroit, the group emerged from the Super Unison scene to deliver their sound to Houston. Reminiscent of groups such as Sunny Day Real Estate, Unwound, Drive Like Jehu and Dinosaur Jr. (and that's just from their first EP), the group is staking their sound in the post-hardcore scene and seems to have wasted no time in the "getting their feet wet" stage. Those who have seen at least a handful of their performances can testify to their promise as a mainstay in Houston and beyond. Look for their debut full-length (slated for release in early 2007), which will no doubt garner a few more awards in the year to come."
-- 2006, Houston Press
"Holy fucking shit. I can't believe it's taken me this damn long to put these folks on this little page. Why? To put it bluntly, because they're probably the best indie-rock band in town right now; no offense to the many, many other talented bands doing their thing here in H-town, but Sharks and Sailors are truly something else. They're loud, ferocious, and pummeling, all the while managing to keep things melodic and catchy. The band's probably the closest thing Houston's ever come to matching the precise, controlled-chaos fury of all those math-rock bands that came out of Louisville back in the day, or heck, maybe the nearest we've got to Unwound or Mission of Burma -- think thundering, gonna-kick-your-ass bass, complex, intertwining guitar lines, off-but-it-works melody, and plenty of sung-spoken vocals. Put it all together, and Sharks and Sailors are an amazing thing to see/hear.
All of which makes sense, considering the band's pedigree. I don't know most of the members of the band (Allen Hendrix, guitar/vocals; Melissa Lonchambon, bass/vocals; Michael Rollin, guitar; Phillip Woodward, drums) personally, but they've all been around the scene a while; bassist/vocalist Lonchambon, for one, has been in bands pretty much as long as I've lived here, from way back when with We've Got Airplanes and Pop Deflation up through the much-rockin' Panic in Detroit a few years back. I'm very glad to see she's kept moving on, getting better and better each time.
Unfortunately, despite being around a few years now, S&S don't currently have a whole lot out -- there's only one measly three-song EP which, while damn good, just ain't enough for me, dammit. Luckily, the band's currently working on their full-length, and they've got some interesting demos of the new stuff (which is a bit on the, er, "softer" side of things, but still good) up on their MySpace page. Definitely worth checking out... [3/10/2007]"
- Space City Rock |
"While the band name Sharks and Sailors may seem rather benign to the younger ears of the current generation, to many others it signals something else entirely. To blunt as possible, borrowing the title of what's arguably the best June of ‘44
song ever for your band name, is rather ballsy. It could prove
to be a major pratfall as it ratchets up the expectations for your
band enormously. By selecting such a name, you better be tight
and have your shit together or a hell storm of nasty reviews is
surely to rain down from all corners.
On their self-titled debut EP, Houston's Sharks and Sailors quite
successfully navigates this potential trap door with three tracks
of rock solid post-hardcore. Resembling slightly Unwound, all three
tracks on this disc are fantastic. As this disc is self released,
you have to catch them on the road or visit their website to snag
a copy. Although, this disc feels like a bit of a tease – their
debut full-length won't hit the bricks until early 2007 - it's
still well worth the purchase price."
– David Lichius (2006, The Daily Copper)
Sharks and Sailors
S/T
"In this city of short-lived, incestuous local bands with little drive to move beyond their practice spaces, Sharks and Sailors are a refreshing shot in the arm. They work hard, they love playing together and they don't phone it in when it comes to the dynamics in their songs. Thankfully, that also translates to tape. Mind you, these aren't pop songs they're writing – S&S are a platform for strong, swinging drumbeats, thick basslines to carry the bulk of the melody and screeching, beautifully dissonant guitars tuned to god-knows-what. The dueling voices of bassist Melissa Lonchambon and guitar player Al Hendrix also illustrate (intentionally or not) the very dichotomy the band's name implies. While Lonchambon's voice cuts through the noise with the purity of a kindergartner addressing a crowd of angry townsfolk, Hendrix sounds like two guys shouting into the wind during a thunderstorm. They drive it all home with a handful of time changes in nearly every song, which are turned into sweeping movements by the band's attention to revisiting the same heavy, dark themes within each song – making every one of those bridges seamless, almost unnoticeable. Sounds a lot more mature than a debut."
Lance Scott Walker, 002 Magazine
"The music of Houston-based indie rock quartet Sharks and Sailors navigates you through turbulent melodies, crashing rhythms and gusty harmonies before finally setting you down like a lost ship after a storm. The vocals of guitarist Al Hendrix and bassist Melissa Lonchambon - who served time in the power pop band Panic in Detroit -recall the emotional weight of Sunny Day Real Estate, while heavy riffage, thick textures and odd time signatures are reminiscent of Polvo. With a stellar lineup rounded out by Mike Rollin on rhythm guitar and Phil Woodward on drums, their new eponymous EP and live show will take you on a Titanic-style voyage without all the messy iceberg stuff."
Travis Ritter, Houston Press
Live Review
"In downtown Houston, I¹ve lately spotted a number of music fans sporting t-shirts celebrating the local band Sharks and Sailors . Intrigued, I was able to catch their live show one night at The Proletariat (on Richmond near Montrose). The show I attended was just one day in their media-publicized, four-day mini tour, where four different bands from four different cities in our fair state (Houston, Ft. Worth, Denton and Austin) all joined together to play in one another¹s home towns.
Sharks and Sailors is doing much more, though. As of the end of May, they've taken off to travel out of Texas and into the Midwest, going cross-country. It'll be their first large tour and after hearing their solid and unique sound, I have no doubt they they'll be able to make a name for themselves countrywide.
Live, Sharks and Sailors has a combined vocal effort between band members. Allen Hendrix and Michael Rollin are the guitar players, while Melissa Longchambon plays bass and Phillip Woodward plays the drums. I was blown away by the power and skill of Lonchambon, in particular, as she belted out lyrics while keeping a tight bass performance going, all the while making it appear as though it was the easiest thing in the world for her to do. Besides, I refuse to go without mentioning that most everyone loves seeing a chick in a band -- her natural beauty is amplified by her clear talent in this male-dominated, hard rock forum.
Woodward, for his part of the rhythm section, was solid and powerful, with unique timing that I saw catch the audience¹s ear, bringing them a little closer to the stage to feel more involved in this attention-grabbing performance. His energy level and showmanship was remarkable. For an added bang of entertainment at the finale, Phil toppled his drum kit over onto the stage at the closing moment of the final song. Of course, I have to mention that his studly stage presence is already gaining groupie support...
I always enjoy watching the hands of guitarists as their fingers connect in a beautiful dance with the strings of their instruments and was very impressed with the skillful collaboration between guitarists Hendrix and Rollin. Their alluring riffs resonated through the Proletariat that night, enriching the vibe of the club. These guys (and girl) are going to be the "big boys" (and girl) of whatever show they play. " Alicia Crowder, Space City Rock (Online Music Reviews)
Sharks and Sailors
S/T
"The first release from this Houston quartet reveals a startlingly well-developed
sound. This bold, forceful, thought-provoking EP recalls a whole lineage of
loud indie rock, from Mission of Burma and Dinosaur Jr. to Fugazi and Sonic
Youth to Jawbox and Hum to Drive Like Jehu and Sunny Day Real Estate, with
dashes of something like Kyuss or Helmet thrown in, all while defying direct
comparison to anyone in particular. Sharks and Sailors have a little ways to
go still -- veteran bassist Melissa Lonchambon and guitarist Allen Hendrix
haven't mastered their voices yet, and guitarist Mike Rollin hasn't recorded
any vocals here at all -- but to see a band so far down the road at this early
stage is simply wonderful."
Daniel Joseph Mee // 04/27/06,
Space City Rock
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