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Who: M. Ryan (guitar, vocals), Tim Nelson (drums, vocals), Glenn Krake (upright bass, percussion, vocals), Daniel Lyons (keyboard, clarinet, vocals), J. Allen (bass)
Sounds Like: The audio companion of your favorite children's book, soundtracked by the Arizona-based chapter of the Elephant 6 Collective.
For Fans Of: The Essex Green, Olivia Tremor Control, Neutral Milk Hotel.
For the Postcards, it all goes back to the Beach Boys.
While discussing the formation of their baroque pop quintet with M. Ryan—its principal songwriter—and drummer Tim Nelson, Brian Wilson's signature sonic elements come up repeatedly.
"I don't know how familiar you are with the Smile project," Ryan says, "but for this project we started talking about that approach of not writing songs, per se, but fragments, and then finding a way to sort of piece them together."
The three founding members of the Postcards first played together in a garage-rock outfit called Vega by Midnite, formed when Ryan was still based in Flagstaff, Ariz. As his interests in emulating the more eclectic vocal arrangements of Wilson and Phil Spector grew, he recruited members of that band to help flesh out the sonic complexities. With Vega a distinctly more raucous endeavor, it was clear to Ryan he'd need to build off a new foundation for his ideas.
"Most of it was demoed by the end of 2014 when Vega was on the wane," he says. "We didn't even start recording until last summer."
While the typical gestation period for a new band is around a year or so, Ryan's first priority was to fine-tune every aspect of his new venture, fleshing them out completely before revealing them to an audience.
The resulting This Green Hill is a joyous hodgepodge of quirky vignettes that recalls the bumbly old-time feel of Van Dyke Parks' Discover America. Brief spurts of musical phrases are stitched together by textured layers of overdubbed vocal harmonies and eclectic melodies, all sourced from a vast array of instruments. The kitchen-sink mentality behind the instrumentation is consistent with a band of gruff, 1960s-obsessed garage rockers pulling their best symphonic interpretation of a makeshift orchestra.
Much like the Athens, Ga.-based Elephant 6 collective that inspired the Postcards' insular production, nothing is outsourced. The band wrote, produced and recorded This Green Hill entirely themselves, and will release it on their own Ania de Sed label. They've delayed any live performances while constructing their home studio. It took nearly three years from the time of writing the core material to the recording of the album, whose release culminates with the first-ever Postcards live performance.
"We've always kept this kind of community themed," Ryan says, "made by ourselves, for ourselves. At-home recording is where I'm in my element, so we're curious to see how this'll go."
SEE IT: The Postcards play Kelly's Olympian, 426 SW Washington St., with Small Field and Body Academics, on Saturday, May 27. 9 pm $5. 21+. NG