Lake : You Are Alone

 

We're all familiar with K Records by now, Right? The first time I heard of Olympia, WA, all I knew about it was that it had produced Phil Elverum, front man of The Microphones (now Mount Eerie). At the momentary age of still believing it is possible to plan a whole "life", this meant something to me. Maybe here was the place that people would like my voice because it was off key. Maybe I could also make a record wrapped in a hand painted sleeve that sent people crawling across it touch every leaf and letter as it unfolded over their floor. This curiosity of mine was only further peeked by discovering Mirah, Beat Happening, The Blow, Little Wings and on and on.

Its easy to think that music is more made by some intangible energy in a place than by the artists who just happen to live there. That's the kind of logic that leads you to decide that to escape the memory of one person you have to leave the geographic region. When you finally sit still long enough you realize that there is a lesson to be learned from the emotional, short-sited conclusions you came to when you were young. You were right. Maybe Olympia wasn't reveling in its own weirdness until one weirdie moved there and called his/her friends to say "this is the place!". But music does have this remarkable way of acting as a summons. And when it really speaks to us it doesn't have to invite us in because we've already invited ourselves. We want to introduce it to our friends, to know everyone involved,  and to be a part of it. If you are like me, this is why breakups with partners often lead to breakups with bands; the music is too tied to a memory and you have to let it go. Fortunately for the world, K Records shows no signs of closing its arms to the weirdies who follow it's bleating all the way up to the Northwest. And if you, like me, are still filling the void left by bands you had to say goodbye to long ago, try to find comfort in Lake's latest 7", You Are Alone, (purchase here) while you eagerly await the April 12th release of their newest record Giving and Receiving. You will find Eli Moore's simple solution on Side A: "You are alone", and there's nothing wrong with that.

[Image: "No Title (yellow grass)" by Phil Elverum, print available here.]