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Hello all, welcome back to the 2016 outing of Northwest Music Month, where we’re ushering in a summer of great local music by spending each day in June turning you onto a new band or artist who’s required listening. Some days they could be an already established local that’s amassed a modest fan-base, and other days they could be a complete unknown that you’ve never heard of. Today’s tragically under-the-radar act comes to us from the City of Trees, the in-your-face Western Daughter.
Coming straight out of Boise, Western Daughter is an up-and-coming local whose sound is heavily indebted to the worlds of noise rock, post-punk and some of the more abrasive names in grunge. Comprised of Taylor Raymond, Cameron Brizzee, Jess Hope, Zach Sherwood, and Taylor Robert Hawkins, this band is straight-up down and dirty grit-rock. While their aesthetic may be distorted, compressed, and anything but hi-fi, the band’s approach to songwriting gives them an accessible edge. Their songs are mid-paced and don’t demand a lot of physical reaction from the audience; it’s stuff you can really nod your head to and take in the band’s delectable guitar tone and assaulting drum fills.
The band has a pretty short release catalog up to this point, but their latest endeavor was the well-received and bar-setting As the Sun Went Down, which really cemented the band’s status as a modern rock auteur that can’t be ignored. In our own review of the EP, we declared that the band is “resurrecting a bit of the punkier side of the grunge sound” on this EP, later concluding that, “If you long for punk-laden grungy garage rock, this is the EP for you.” The band’s raw delivery and poppy song structures are the sort of thing that benefit from repeat listens, especially to read deeper into the lyrics the band lays down.
Those of you who feel cheated by a lot of the musically anemic rock music forced on you by commercial rock radio are implored to check out Western Daughter. Nothing about their sound feels overly polished or slick for mass consumption, but the band definitely knows how to write a catchy song. Like the best bands of the grunge era, Western Daughter are bigger than the sum of their parts, and know just which knobs to twist in order to completely rock out.
You can follow Western Daughter on Facebook, Twitter, and Bandcamp, and sample their music below. All their music is available via a name-your-price option on Bandcamp, so be sure to pick up their two solid EPs at whatever price you so desire. Stream “The Road Is Laced with Something Dangerous” below.
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.
