Album: Invitation Songs

Song Title

Time

Seeds of Night

Helen

Dancing on Our Graves

Cold Eye

Royal Lawns

Elephant Clouds

New Monuments

Oh Christine

Bricks of Our Home

10)

Called

Album: Invitation Songs

Song Title

Time

Seeds of Night

Helen

Dancing on Our Graves

Cold Eye

Royal Lawns

Elephant Clouds

New Monuments

Oh Christine

Bricks of Our Home

10)

Called

Performer Notes

Personnel: Rob Calder (trumpet); Pietro Sammarco (trombone); Joshua Wells (drums); Amber Webber (background vocals).
Photographer: Jenny Jimenez.
With a voice pitched somewhere between Bob Dylan and the Violent Femmes' Gordon Gano, Pete Quirk leads Seattle trio the Cave Singers through an evocative batch of rural-sounding folk-rock tunes on the band's debut, INVITATION SONGS. While the band's acoustic campfire-songs approach bespeaks a fascination with the Old World, the rawness and urgency of their delivery underlines a backstory that includes previous participation in several indie-rock ensembles (Murder City Devils, Pretty Girls Make Graves). Call it punk folk with a pop twist.

Professional Reviews

Spin (p.96) - 3 stars out of 5 -- "Singer Pete Quirk combines the vigor of Fleetwood Mac's Lindsey Buckingham and the word-slurring flair of a young Michael Stipe, then adds his own neurotic charisma..."

Uncut (p.84) - 3 stars out of 5 -- "[I]t's convincing....The shuffly mountain music is bolstered by some unobtrusive electronics..."

Magnet (p.92) - "The members of the Cave Singers seem intent on scraping away their previous bands' noise and bluster to find a music that's no less nervy and riveting."

Q (Magazine) (p.100) - 3 stars out of 5 -- "[T]heir impressive first album balances a spare, acoustic, folk-based sound with angst-ridden indie edge."

Mojo (Publisher) (p.112) - 3 stars out of 5 -- "A harmonica sounds positively modern here, wafting alongside haunted background moans on sombre highlight 'Royal Lawns'..."