Sirens come up to greet me.

If you know me in real life (or IRL for my nerd pals) and I have not made you listen to Longwave before, I have failed you as a friend... until now.


Longwave - State of Mind

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My love affair with this band started as so many great things do, which is to say completely unexpectedly.  Apparently, in the last days of OKC's famous Rainbow Records, I was one of the only frequent customers because I don't see how this possibly could have happened otherwise.  I remember going in between classes at OCU right down the street to browse frequently, often walking out with at least some small item of interest.  On one such occasion, the guy who ran the place (his name escapes me) asked me out of the blue, "Hey, do you like The Donnas at all?"  I of course replied, "Yeah, they're not bad."  He then tells me that he has two free promotional tickets to their show at Cain's Ballroom in Tulsa that week.  "You can have 'em if you want.  I'm not really into that stuff."  I of course accepted and immediately got on the phone to find someone who might want to go.  Reliable as ever, my friend Scott (who I will probably try to convince to write for this blog at some point) said he would go.  Sweet deal!  Last minute road trip to Tulsa just because the concert was free!


Longwave - Tidal Wave

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So the day of the concert arrives and we show up with our friend Alex in tow who was attending university in Tulsa at the time.  This was my first of what would be many concerts at Cain's Ballroom and I was immediately taken with the place.  The wood floor, which has since been replaced, felt like it could cave at any minute and there were pictures of all sorts of country legends on the walls; the kind of country legends Hank III is enamored with.  The lights dimmed (like they do) and out stepped this group fronted by a slightly awkward looking skinny dude with the curliest blonde hair I'd ever seen.  They proceeded to erupt into the brightest most glorious sounds I'd heard at that point in my life, which I later found out was fittingly referred to as "Dream Pop."  Chimey guitar melodies laden with delay, reverb and just the right amount of crunchy tube distortion, with hazy pop melodies laid over the top.  Who WERE these guys?!


Longwave - Underneath You Know the Names

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After they finished their criminally short set, I snapped out of my euphoric delirium, hot-footed it straight to the merch table and purchased a copy of their latest release at the time, the "Day Sleeper" EP.  I about wore it out for a week straight.  (If you're wondering what happened to the rest of the concert at this point, Ok Go was surprisingly not bad and 3/4 of the Donnas were pretty hot.)  A short time after, they released their second full album "The Strangest Things," which brought them REALLY close to dethroning Radiohead as my favorite band of all time.  Come to think of it, I should probably buy another copy of that record before I can't find it anymore.  My copy is looking a bit worse for wear...


Longwave - Sirens in the Deep Sea

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For those of you who haven't listened to the tracks littered throughout this post but have seen fit to read this rambling nonsense through to the end, consider picking up "The Strangest Things" and their latest record "Secrets Are Sinister."  Those are far and away their most solid albums, but they've yet to release something that isn't good.  Then again, you're talking to a guy who has obsessively tracked down physical copies on vinyl and CD of nearly all of this group's recorded output.  If you're the kind who doesn't like paying for music, the kind folks over at Daytrotter recorded a live session with them which you can download for free.


Longwave - Below Bellow

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I promise that's it for now.