Down the Lees: Press

Electronic Press Kit: Click on any image to view and save the HIGH RES version for print. Photos by Pardeep Singh.

Review of "Alone on a Thursday"

Okay, so I love furtive, plaintive, pleading, emotionally wrought love songs. I love tortured orchestras of emotion: violins climbing a twisted vine, reaching for the high, daunting piano notes flaking off just above them. Instruments struggling to burst through the thicket, hoping to be the first to reach the sunlight. A dark, dusky, rich voice followed by a caterwauling Kate-Bush strangle. The singer says "Say you're mine, and I'll give you life". Taken as a straight plea for love, we could think she's talking to a would-be lover. Taken as a song about someone conflicted with her own wants, though, and we wonder if she's talking to herself. She could be promising freedom to her own emotions: If she could get control of her own emotions, she could cut through the thicket herself. "Each time you say goodbye, a little part of me dies and wants to stay alive". Is she telling a lover that their absence is painful? Or is she telling herself that each time she steps further away, she becomes a little more faded, a little more withered?

Lee’s debut full-length, 360 ¼ Degrees has received rave reviews from concertgoers and journalists alike and for fans of Degrees, next effort The Guest Room, surely won’t disappoint……. The Guest Room is a 10-track album with that indie rock and atmospheric vibe that brings about comparisons to fellow Canadian band The Dears…. The rest of the album encompasses some stellar guitar and musical accompaniment… Ending with six-and-a-half minute instrumental track, “The Lullaby” The Guest Room slowly fades to a close after a fusion of electric guitars, quite possibly the highlight of the entire album.

On most of the album her clear vocals are overtop of some fairly broody, building chords with dynamic drumbeats backing it up. These guitar and drum based tracks come across like shorter Slint songs... ? Do Slint fans like PJ Harvey and the Postal Service, or vice versa?

…if a gal wants to rock out and sounds pretty genuine about it, more power to her. Go forth and conquer.

"...instrumentation on this recording is what keeps these nine songs interesting for me...adding acoustic guitar, piano and even drum machine - provides the guitar-centric sound with contract and dynamic..."Boy or girl" - a passionate piano ballad that confronts vs. identity - poetics [that] are earnest and heartfelt. The best thing about this solo effort, like those from Sunny day's Jeremy Enigk and BtS's Doug Martsch, is that it has the potential to dually impress fans of LL's past and present bands, as well as non-fans and unfamiliars alike (both of whom will likely be converts before to long)"

"...I went to see their CD release show last weekend, it wasn't totally on purpose as I was mostly there to see the two other bands on the bill and felt as though I was in one of those win/win situations with Down The Lees... if they were good; great... if they weren't so good, at least I could use their set to step outside for a smoke, buy some beer, go to the bathroom and yak with my fellow concert goers in my usual self absorbed too cool for school hipster way. Let me say that I didn't smoke, pee or talk during their set. Well, that's not entirely true, I did talk to my buddy... and we were saying stuff like, "this band is fucking great". If you like where Slint was coming from, you're gonna really like Down The Lees."

"... good for sitting around, drinking coffee, and watching the food channel on mute. I really like this one, like ninety-percent of my being, like."