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[FOLK ROCK] Greylag's self-titled album is a perfect introduction to Portland's impending rainy season. The debut LP from the local three-piece is heavy on moody vocals and blustery instrumentation, with folk-tinged rock songs focused on failings and relationships. Swaying between bold moments of distortion and gentler acoustic numbers, much of Greylag's instrumentation is doused in a cloudy sheen, aided handily by Andrew Stonestreet's drawling vocals. There's a detectable Band of Horses/Fleet Foxes influence, and it's one the band wears well. The dynamic guitar interplay—acoustic plucks weaving in and out of a hazy, atmospheric electric guitar and dense wails of distortion—make the songs absorbing and often haunting, especially when paired with the group's floating, eerie harmonies. Standout track "Yours to Shake" starts with soft streams of slide guitar and straightforward drums before suddenly storming into treacherous waves of low, fuzzy guitar. Another highlight, "Arms Unknown," follows a similar format, hooking you with the same billowing instrumentation in the chorus, only this time with a bigger folk influence incorporating clear, rounded notes and soaring, sliding twangs. By the second half of the album, the formula has become familiar, and though it never quite regains the momentum it reaches in the first half, the current is strong enough to pull through until the end. There's not much cheer found throughout the nine tracks, despite all of its driving rhythm—but weathering this storm is totally worth it.
SEE IT: Greylag plays Mississippi Studios, 3939 N Mississippi Ave., with the Whigs and Joel Magid, on Friday, Oct. 10. 9 pm. $12. 21+.
WWeek 2015