Pollyblog: Sudden Weather Change

Pollyblog: 1. When you don’t want to say too much, but 140 characters just won’t cover it. 2. Good ideas that haven’t got their legs yet.

My first experience with Sudden Weather Change was at the Reykjavík Calling show that KEXP put on at Neumo’s in October. The show featured Ásgeir Trausti, Sudden Weather Change, and Apparat Organ Quartet from Iceland; and Redwood Plan from Seattle. There was also this cool thing where the Icelandic bands worked with local writers and the Seattle band worked with an Icelandic writer to create new music for the show, but describing that would turn this into a proper post instead of a pollyblog.

Sudden Weather Change lived up to their name with music that shifted from abrasive punk to melodic indie so suddenly that sometimes they were actually doing both at once. It was angular and unexpected and awesome and I couldn’t wait to see them again at Airwaves a couple weeks later. Except somehow, I didn’t, and Sudden Weather Change became one of the ones who got away.

Eureka!

Recently, I discovered this gem on KEXP, and got a Eureka! moment  when I heard that the band’s first album was straight up garage rock. They weren’t satisfied with it, so they started working to develop a new sound with a producer – Ben Frost at Greenhouse Studios.

I visited Greenhouse Studios to interview Bedroom Community co-founder Valgeir Sigurðsson when I was in Reykjavík. Preparing for the interview, I had listened to music from each of the label’s major members, which is how I became acquainted with Ben Frost. All of the Bedroom Community folks do experimental, primarily electronic music, but each has a different take on the fundamental concept. Frost has a more industrial aesthetic, which makes him more accessible to me than some of the other members of the community.

E = mc²

Garage band + Ben Frost = Sudden Weather Change

Simple equations that tell great stories.

{2018 Update: Sudden Weather Change, like most of the bands listed on this page, have since split up. You can hear some of their members in Oyama.}