We all have those bands that we listen to when we are feeling down, or feeling good, or just feeling anything. Those bands that we turn off the lights, light some incense and lay star-fished out on the floor of our rooms and space out to, as well. Bands that sound like the world is both beginning and ending, bands that that sound like love being born, or love dying. This week’s band is all of these things, a band that has a sound you almost can’t describe as anything other then climatic.
Sodium Channel is a local group that has a sound that meshes and mangles the sounds of bands like Radiohead and The Mars Volta, and makes it all their own. Now don’t be surprised that you haven’t heard of Sodium Channel before, because they are a local unsigned band that just came out with their first EP, “Reverse Obvious,” just this past June, and it was even recorded at B.S. Studio in Millbrae. That gives you an idea of just how local they are.
Their sound is one that will fill your mind with different images depending on what mood you are in. As you are listening to them, you can feel the emotion building up inside of you, and depending on what kind of mood you are in, you will want to do one of two things: lay down and let the emotion and feel of the music wash over you, brake things made of glass with a baseball bat in a very slow-motion, poetic fashion, or drive off into an endless night with nothing but the lights of the highway flashing in your eyes. Their music makes me feel at peace with the way things in my life are going for me, but at the same it makes me want to change everything and go off on some crazy adventure.
My favorite track off the EP would have to be the song “Manhattan.” The feel of the song is incredible; it doesn’t feel like you are listening to it, it feels more like you are experiencing it and that’s just what music should be: an experience. The song almost washes over you, and it can have the mood of a love song, or a song about depression all depending on what kind of space you are in when you are listening to it. Which is just what good music does: it alters the place you are, enhances the feelings you have at that moment, and it has the power to make you feel better or worse about the place you are at with your life, which is why I really dig Sodium Channel, and which is why I think you should check them out.
Now you might be wondering where you can find this CD, since they are unsigned artists. Well it just so happens that you can pick up their EP at the Amoeba on Haight Street in San Francisco, or go to the band’s web site (www.sodiumchannel.com) to listen to the entire thing before you decide to buy it.
