IMAGE: Zeyneb Akel

[CRAIGSLIST POP] For two years, local guitar-pop band Patterns couldn’t find a consistent lineup. So, looking for a new drummer last month, it resorted to something that rarely works: Craigslist.

“He actually found us,” Patterns singer and guitarist Ricci Swift says about the addition of ex-Book of Maps drummer Ryan Northrop. “You usually turn up a lot of weirdos, but I think we got lucky.”

Northrop is joining the band at just the right time. Though kicking around the local scene since 2007, the group—now a quartet rounded out by multi-instrumentalists Shoki Tanabe and Patrick McBrien—is finally readying its debut record. Recorded in July with Point Juncture, WA’s Skyler Norwood at his Miracle Lake studio, the self-titled album offers 10 songs of eclectic, rushing pop, inspired by everyone from Pavement to Ornette Coleman.

“I always felt that we were a little more rock than a lot of the softer groups and a little more poppy than the weirder groups,” says Swift, 24. “Until recently I’ve always felt self-conscious about that. But now that people are able to see us in a more cohesive manner I think it makes more sense.”

Though the reconfigured lineup just played its first show 10 days ago, Swift, Tanabe and McBrien all attended South Salem High School together. The other thread running through each Patterns song is a strong, unwavering commitment to melody. Whether tackling classic jangle pop in “Wading Through Grass”; a sparse, drum machine-and-organ ballad like “Green Eyes”; or the blistering dual guitar assault of “Springtime Come,” each song is rooted in Swift’s knack for a perfectly catchy pop hook. He sings in a sweet, Anglo-tinted voice, and the band’s sound jumps from decades of rock tradition, taking elements of British groups like the Kinks and Blur and combining it with Northwest staples (Hazel, Pond, Built to Spill) the trio used to commute from Salem to see.

For now, Patterns is trying to build up its local legacy by playing songs written over a year ago. “When we play it’s like we’re doing adaptations of these songs that are only old to us,” Swift says. “It’s fun doing these alterations before anybody has a chance to hear what’s actually been documented. Even our new drummer.”