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Ladies and gentlemen, greetings, and welcome back to the 2016 edition of Northwest Music Month, where the sixth month of the year is transformed into the coolest month of the year, thanks to us featuring a different local band or artist for your music discovering pleasure every day this month, to help ring in a killer summer where local music rules all. Some days these artists could be a regional favorite that’s already got a respectable following, and other days they could be a complete unknown that you’ve never heard of. Today’s band is a local supergroup of sorts, the newly-formed Guest Directors!
Originally formed in Seattle as a side project among the members of currently-active local bands The Navins, These People Here, and Mutiny Mutiny (who was a featured band in our 2015 50 Bands in 50 Days), Guest Directors are a easier-going, but more lavish and sound-rich nu gaze, dream pop, and alternative rock outfit. For being a band that pretty clearly takes influence from older acts like Jesus and Mary Chain and My Bloody Valentine, their sonic palette doesn’t completely overplay the noise and effects; their songs leave more positive feelings than they do tinnitus.
Set for release in late August, Guest Directors’ debut EP These Beautiful Things is an immaculately textured and paced debut release for the band. Spread out over a brief four tracks, the Guest Directors do a lot with their somewhat nostalgic sound, with some slow builds, some mid-paced ballad-like tracks, and some interesting noisy detours, particularly on tracks like “Believe It All.” The lead single, “These Beautiful Things,” closes out the EP, and is one of the more cacophonous tracks on the EP, with the most savage drum fills and leads on the release, and some nicely-layered guitars and effects, filling the space with a lot of hazy, colorful noise.
Shoegaze and dream pop fans of the northwest that feel burned on a lot of these modern bands that just take on the aesthetic of shoegaze without any songwriter strength to pull it off, check out Guest Directors. Even though they only have one song currently available for public consumption, the power of that song alone should be enough to build buzz around them.
You can find Guest Directors on Facebook, Bandcamp, and YouTube, and listen to “These Beautiful Things” below. You can preorder the These Beautiful Things EP at guestdirectors.bandcamp.com/album/these-beautiful-things-ep.
If you would like to have your band submitted for a chance to be featured in this segment, consult this link for more information on how you can do so.
