Tag Archives: Matthew Gervais

The Skinny on Doe Bay 2013 (Part 2)

Scott Teske and Michael Gervais.
Ken Stringfellow and Matthew Gervais.
Tomten.
Tomten.
Lena Simon of Tomten.
Jake Brady of Tomten.
Animal Eyes.
Animal Eyes
The Torn ACLs.
The Torn ACLs.
La Luz.
La Luz.
Cumulus.
Cumulus.
Quinn Deveaux.
Radiation City.
Radiation City.
Built to Spill.
Built to Spill.

Courtney Marie Andrews on the Otter Cove Stage. (photo: Tony Kay)

Andrew Joslyn of the Passenger String Quartet accompany Courtney Marie Andrews (and darn near everyone else) at Doe Bay 2013. (photo: Tony Kay)

Scott Teske and Michael Gervais rock the cramped confines of the Otter Cove's stage. (photo: Tony Kay)

Ken Stringfellow harmonizes with Matthew Gervais during Mikey and Matty's set. (photo: Tony Kay)

Dillon Sturtevant and Brian Noyeswatkins of Tomten. (photo: Tony Kay)

Brian Noyeswatkins of Tomten. (photo: Tony Kay)

Lena Simon at Doe Bay Fest 2013. (photo: Tony Kay)

Tomten's Jake Brady lays down the backbeat. (photo: Tony Kay)

Figley of Animal Eyes. (photo: Tony Kay)

Sam Tenhoff of Animal Eyes. (photo: Tony Kay)

The Torn ACLs. (photo: Tony Kay)

The Torn ACLs. (photo: Tony Kay)

Alice Sandahl and Shana Cleveland of La Luz. (photo: Tony Kay)

Marian Li Pino, badass backbeat for La Luz. (photo: Tony Kay)

Lance and Alex of Cumulus at the Doe Bay Field Stage. (photo: Tony Kay)

Leah of Cumulus. (photo: Tony Kay)

Quinn Deveaux rocks the house. (photo: Tony Kay)

Lizzy and Matt of Radiation City. (photo: Tony Kay)

Radiation City. (photo: Tony Kay)

Doug Martsch of Built to Spill. (photo: Tony Kay)

Built to Spill: Built to rock. (photo: Tony Kay)

[Part One of Tony’s 2013 Doe Bay Fest coverage can be found here.]

Courtney Marie Andrews is only 22, but she possesses the voice of an old soul–bittersweet, spare, and evocative.  Her somber, lovely songs provided the perfect soundtrack for the overcast but abidingly pretty Doe Bay grounds when she opened up the Otter Cove Stage Saturday morning. The Passenger String Quartet were once more on hand to lend shading to an already-strong batch of songs.

Curtains for You frontmen Michael and Matthew Gervais, officially playing as Mikey and Matty, followed Andrews at Otter Cove. Their winning pop songs received a mini-Pet Sounds treatment by an all-star band comprised of the PSQ, Maldives drummer Faustine Hudson, Seattle Rock Orchestra bass player/mastermind Scott Teske, and Doe Bay headliner Ken Stringfellow. This entire ensemble (including Teske and the Gervais Brothers, three of the tallest guys at the Fest) fit under a tiny awning shielding them from persistent sprinkles, a hat trick that stood as one of Doe Bay ’13’s logistic miracles. Oh, and they sounded great, too.

Dillon Sturtevant and Brian Noyeswatkins of Tomten. (photo: Tony Kay)

Doe Bay’s 2013 programming allowed fans to catch most acts without conflict, but counter-scheduling forced me to miss the very awesome tuba-punk stylings of Orcas Island trio Onodrim in favor of a Field Stage set by Seattle pop band Tomten. Thankfully, I wasn’t disappointed. The latter’s long-player Yesterday’s Children spent an awful lot of time on my earbuds last year, and Tomten’s easygoing, irresistible set went down great as the sun began reappearing. Lead singer/keyboardist/songwriter Brian Noyeswatkins’ playful, charmingly odd songs made subtle nods to musical forebears like Ray Davies and Jarvis Cocker without ever descending to simple imitation, and he and his band of unassuming pros knew how to play the hell out of ‘em.

Animal Eyes, a Portland-by-way of Alaska combo, followed Tomten with some impeccably-played, galloping pop that sounded like a more upbeat cross between Devotchka and Ravenna Woods. They’re a young band still working out their identity, but they’re damned impressive live, and the raw materials of brilliance–impressive instrumental chops, complex rhythms and harmonies, and imaginative songwriting–were present in spades. I can hardly wait to hear what they’ve got up their sleeves next.

Like Animal Eyes, The Torn ACLs are a band whose youth practically bursts from every note they play, but unlike their mainstage predecessors, The ACLs pound out a more straightforward variety of pop (think Ben Gibbard fronting Weezer or Vampire Weekend, and you’re about there). Unashamedly awkward and energetic as hell, they brought a sense of pogo-inducing energy to the laid-back Field Stage crowd.

Alice Sandahl and Shana Cleveland of La Luz. (photo: Tony Kay)

Seattle quartet La Luz use vintage sounds (in this case, the lo-fi sting and swing of garage rock and surf music) as their starting point, and then like any good rock band, they run with them. The  Seattle quartet provided one of Doe Bay ’13’s most bad-assed sets, tearing through their songs with the concise coolness of a James Dean-era motorcycle gang and even inducing one audience member to do The Worm onstage. Guitarist Shana Cleveland fired out some mean surf licks, and the entire quartet contributed seductive, glacial harmonies.

Cumulus have been netting some serious local buzz lately, thanks to a successful Kickstarter campaign and their recent signing to Chris Walla’s Atlantic subsidiary label Trans- Records. But by the end of their propulsive Field Stage set, all I cared about was hearing them again, and soon. The band presented their winsome, insanely catchy pop with a twist of shoegazing shimmer, and sported just enough tweaks to more than justify all the hype. ‘Tis a foolish mortal who’s not utterly band-crushing on them after their performance.

Sometimes, all you need for a party is some good-time blues and soul, played to perfection. That’s precisely what Quinn Deveaux and the Blue Beat Review delivered, strutting through a smooth and charming set of covers and originals with enough snap to render ‘em much more than just a competent cover band.

The sounds made by Portland quintet Radiation City defy easy categorization (the Andrews Sisters fronting Pet Sounds-era Beach Boys while playing new wave covers, maybe?). Then again, a lot of luminously beautiful things in life can’t be easily pinned down. Graduating from last year’s Otter Cove to this year’s Doe Bay Field Stage, RC made the most of their increased audience, delivering unbridled energy and showmanship to match their songwriting brilliance (then again, that sense of fun shouldn’t surprise anyone who read their interview with Kelsey a few weeks back). Best new-ish band in the Northwest right now? Could be…

Built to Spill: Built to rock. (photo: Tony Kay)

Built to Spill provided an appropriately epic capper to Doe Bay’s official onstage roster. The Northwest indie rock godfathers hauled out a virtual greatest-hits collection culled from their sizable catalog, with band leader/singer/songwriter/guitarist extraordinaire Doug Martsch amply demonstrating why he’s worshiped by peers and acolytes the world over.

Simply put, he’s indie-rock’s Neil Young–a songwriter of clarity and depth who plays his instrument with a combination of technique and restless ferocity that remains a beauty to behold (fellow axe-wielders Brett Nelson and Jim Roth are no slouches, either). Fittingly, the band closed their set with a blistering cover of Young’s “Cowgirl in the Sand,” joined by at least a half-dozen guitarists from other acts who’d shared the Doe Bay Field Stage over the preceding 36 hours.

It wouldn’t be a Doe Bay Fest without unofficial festival house band The Maldives playing a full-fledged set of their own. This year, they tore up the Yoga Studio for a late-night session that once again steamed windows and put the rock in roots-rock.

Saturday night segued into Sunday morning with several secret shows popping up hither and yon at the resort. Sadly, I missed Doug Martsch fronting the Passenger String Quartet. But a late-night acoustic set from Star Anna, Quinn Deveaux, Bobby Bare Jr., Ken Stringfellow, and Seattle singer/songwriter Vikesh Kapoor more than made up for it.   Star Anna’s astonishing, mournful cover of Chris Isaak’s “Wicked Game” just might’ve stood as the most transcendental three minutes of Doe Bay 2013.

Doe Bay Fest doesn’t so much end as coast away on a mellow vibe of sunshine and relaxed, off-the-cuff music sessions throughout Sunday. This year’s festival was no exception, with several acts bringing their A-game to the modest environs of the Doe Bay Yoga studio. Before heading back to the mainland, I caught stirring sets by Kapoor (whose eerily Dylanesque delivery and strong songs sorta induced chills) and OK Sweetheart mastermind Erin Austin (whose soulful singing sent her set of addictive Brill-Building flavored pop songs into the stratosphere). If you had to return to the mundane necessity of the real world, you couldn’t have asked for a better send-off.

Curtains for You Members Take Solo Flight on Saturday

There’s something quintessentially Seattle about the new recording by Michael and Matthew Gervais, better known as two-fifths of Seattle pop band Curtains for You — especially the way it charms without ever seeming like it’s trying.

The Gervais brothers, wearing the rather ungainly moniker of Mikey and Matty, have just unveiled Harbor Island, their first effort outside the Curtains for You umbrella. Don’t expect the seamless pop craft of a typical Curtains for You record here: Harbor Island isn’t meant to be that. It’s a treasure chest of rough diamonds, delivered with such loose-limbed ease that the beauty of the songs almost takes you by surprise.

Mikey and Matty get a little bit of help on Harbor Island – The Head and the Heart’s Charity Rose Thielen contributes some lovely violin on “Greyscale,” and “Sheryl’s Bane” gets an assist from vocalists Melissa and Stephanie Reese and Curtains bassist Nick Holman on trumpet — but by and large, it’s hand-crafted solely by both Gervais brothers. The tunes play like looser, stripped-down offshoots of Curtains’ winning pop mini-symphonies: There are luminescent melodies galore, but most of the percussion is gently-brushed drums or tambourine, and songs often amble to a close like a daydreaming kid wandering into a forest. Spare acoustic guitars and piano anchor the lion’s share of the melodies alongside Matt and Mike’s harmonies.

Those harmonies are what infuse these unpretentiously great songs with real magic. Few singers this side of Jonathan Auer and Ken Stringfellow harmonize with the telepathic effortlessness of the Gervais brothers, and their voices intertwine magnificently throughout Harbor Island. One of the unexpected joys of the record is hearing Michael (usually a background vocalist on Curtains’ releases) take the lead on several tracks with a limber, rootsy tenor that contrasts and blends with his brother’s pure-pop croon sublimely.

Harbor Island flows so wonderfully it makes singling out individual tracks almost moot, but there are plenty of moments that’ll take your breath away. “Aurora Borealis” fuses the earthy loveliness of a Fleet Foxes song with back-masked Beatles instrumentation, and a rolling piano and snare drum offset the exquisite melancholy of Michael’s and Matthew’s duetting on “Of All The Limbs to Cling To.” The track that’ll likely occupy the most repeat time, though, is the album’s opener, “Floor Underneath Us.” With its autumnal lyrical imagery, stately piano melody, and harmonies so subtly beautiful they ache, it meets romance squarely at the intersection of sunny warmth and bittersweetness. And like any great pop song, it refuses to leave your head.

Mikey and Matty celebrate the release of Harbor Island with a show at the Fremont Abbey Arts Center (Saturday night at 8 p.m.; tickets: $10 advance/$13 at the door). The strong bill includes preceding sets by Big Sur, Ghosts I’ve Met, and Not Amy, and with the headliners joined by members of the Seattle Rock Orchestra, those rough-cut pop jewels should be just a little bit more polished onstage.