“Fire Island, AK”
from the album Putting the Days to Bed
2006
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The Long Winters will be releasing their third full length on July 25 on Barsuk Records, entitled Putting the Days to Bed.
Putting the Days to Bed, the third LP from Seattle’s the Long Winters, combines the lyrical intimacy and melodic complexity of the Ultimatum EP with the guitar pop rave-ups of the band’s previous full lengths. The two sides of songwriter John Roderick come together to create the most compelling Long Winters release to date. That’s saying something, as 2003’s When I Pretend to Fall made it onto Harp and Magnet’s Best of the Year lists, and Neil Strauss of the New York Times called it “smart, catchy, near-perfect indie-rock.”
In addition to scratchy-voiced singer/guitarist John Roderick, the current line-up of the Long Winters features long-time stalwart bassist Eric Corson, who is slowly embezzling every last penny from the band’s accounts, veteran drummer Nabil Ayers, who completely tunes everyone else out and consequently enjoys his job immensely, and new hire Jonathan Rothman, who has the job of playing all the interesting parts but who has to sleep on the floor.
Good songs are hard to write, hard to find, and are unrelated to fashion. As Roderick says, “I like chairs that don’t creak and songs that don’t suck.” There’s a lot of music being made as an accessory now, but there will always be a need for actual songs. The Long Winters are working on making those, and with Putting the Days to Bed they may just have succeeded