LAKE / Blue Ranger

Pacific Northwest and Los Angeles-based group LAKE has been an indie rock institution since their formation in 2005, bringing endlessly curious musical exploration to their distinctive brand of soft rock.

Today, the trio of multi-instrumentalists Ashley Eriksson, Eli Moore, and Andrew Dorsett continue a singular path with their most recent LP Roundelay on Seattle label OFF TEMPO, adding Balkan and British folk rock influences, odd time signatures, and an adult contemporary aesthetic to their already singular sound: whispered lead vocals, gentle romanticism and sly funk. 

It was fellow Northwest recording artist Karl Blau who became the band's first producer - and champion through his subscription-based underground music series KELP. In 2010, the band found a wider audience when Eriksson contributed "Island Song (Come Along With Me)" to the end credits of hit Cartoon Network show Adventure Time. In their now almost 20-year-long career, they have released a series of consistently classic albums, including four LPs on seminal Olympia-based label K Records.

Eriksson and Moore have always written songs from a sophisticated pop perspective. Conspicuously idiosyncratic, the "LAKE sound" has slipped through a handful of genre designations even as it has evolved from early influences, ranging from avant-garde and indie-pop to "experimental pop" and "elevator punk" (an invented genre based on a joke from a friend of the band.) Their influences, crossing continents and generations, include Prefab Sprout, the Blue Nile, Fleetwood Mac, Yo La Tengo, REM, and The Beach Boys.

“The songwriting has never been less than wonderful, the singing never less than honest, and the albums never less than worthy of adding to collections," wrote AlIMusic's Tim Sendra.
https://laketheband.bandcamp.com/

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"The moments when we stop, close our eyes, and strive to process the minutiae that makes up our lives, peripheral images come into sharp focus. The ripple of memory, and the quietude of reflection urges a blossoming of connection––with ourselves and the people around us––that oscillates between who we are and who we hope to be. Blue Ranger captures these small moments on their new album Close Your Eyes, their first LP in five years and their most collaborative to date. The stomach of Blue Ranger is derived from their live shows, which can be felt in the intentional nature of Close Your Eyes, but also in the band’s sonic curiosity. Bridging electronica, soft-folk, and ambient rock, Blue Ranger’s details lie in playing with negative space, and of the kismet that brings them together."
- Sammy Maine (Goldflake Paint)
https://blueranger.bandcamp.com/album/close-your-eyes-2