I hate Biology but I love Shapes and Sizes

In grade 11 I thought I wanted to be a biologist, so I took Biology 11, which was sort of a disaster for me. Some biologist a long long time ago thought it would be a fantastic idea to classify, categorzie and order EVERYTHING. Maybe my brain just doesn't think that way. So, when I first ran into a band called Shapes and Sizes, I was slightly worried that all my sixteen year old fears of classification, categorization and order would suddenly be awakened through music. Luckily, I was wrong.

Shapes and Sizes sounds like a musical stew. They mash up and spin around dynamics, tempo, textures and instrumentation. Really, it is a feast for ears with ADHD. Songs off of their first full-length, self-titled album, which was released by Asthmatic Kitty Records (home to Sufjan Stevens), paint a multi-textural West Coast landscape. My favourite song off that album, "Island gone bad," features banjo-like guitar plucking in conversation and ghostly harmonies, before it picks up in tempo to a danceable slightly reggae-influenced beat. Another song, "Wilderness," features whistling, tom tom drums, and the melody split between two octaves.

The band, which consists of Caila Thompson-Hannant on vocals and keyboard, Rory Seydel on vocals and guitar, John Crellin on drums, and Nathan Gage on vocals and bass, started in Victoria, BC, but has now relocated to Montreal. They have shared stages with Frog Eyes, Immaculate Machine, and Chet, and this time they are touring with They Shoot Horses Don't They? Their tour started mid-May in New York, and since then they have been slowly making their way from East to West playing shows almost every night. Their show tonight at The Railway Club will be their first West Coast Canadian spot before they hop over to Victoria, and then make their way back East playing shows until the end of July.

Their newest album, Split Lips, Winning Hips, A Shiner, was released this March under Asthmatic Kitty. Songs that I've heard from that album seem to be more danceable yet seizure-inducing at the same time. "AloneAlive" combines so many surprisingly different textures that your head ends up going, "Woah! What the hell was that?!" But, at the same time, you can't help but want to shake your body to it.

Anyways, if you can't figure out what I'm trying to describe here, head on down to the Railway tonight to experience it for yourself! It seems that the only thing biological about this band is that their sound is purely organic.

Shapes and Sizes with They Shoot Horses Don't They?
The Railway Club (579 Dunsmuir Street)
Friday, June 29th @ 8:30pm
Tix $10 at the door