The West is in residence at The Crocodile Back Bar in the month of August. The best part is…THE SHOWS ARE FREE. On three separate nights we’re hosting some of our favorite local bands, playing new songs, and maybe even a cover or two.

Doors are @ 6:30. Music starts @ 7PM.

Sun. Aug. 9th
Hell Mary
TBA

We’re happy to announce that Never The Place is available now! The best place to purchase and stream our new album is on Bandcamp. Download it in MP3 320, FLAC, and more! Also available on  iTunes, and Amazon.

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Official music video for “Never The Place” by The West
Directed by Big Time Hype
Featuring Dan Davison as Sparkle Leigh
July 22nd, 2014

The West in Denver, CO; April 2014

We got an early review from Nada Mucho for our upcoming album Never The Place and they really enjoyed it:

“…Never The Place is a damn good time. Each of the tracks are dance-oriented indie rock gems that push the party further and further until finally the 34 minute album finishes and you want to play it again.”

“…setting the album’s dancey foundation with a funky opening instrumental before highlighting the band’s excellent guy/girl vocals was a smart and tactical choice for The West.”

“…it’s refreshing that the songs on The West’s new album, Never The Place, don’t make you wanna throw punches so much as they make you wanna throw parties.”

The album will be available everywhere on Tues. Aug. 5th! We’ll see you at our album release show at The Crocodile on Sat. Aug. 9th.

The album will be available online on Tues. Aug. 5th, 2014 and we’ll see you at The Crocodile on Sat. Aug. 9th, 2014 for our album release show!

Join the Facebook Event Page for more details.

Sat. Aug. 9th – The Crocodile @ 8PM (ALBUM RELEASE)
The West, Ever-so-Android, The Hoot Hoots, and Ayo Dot & The Uppercuts
2200 2nd Ave Seattle WA 98121
$10 Adv. $12 Dos.
21+
TICKETS

Spring 2014 Tour :: The West & Ever-so-Android

We’re excited to hit the road with Ever-So-Android! For full show details click here.

4/9 – The Viking – Spokane, WA
4/10 – Neurolux – Boise, ID
4/11 – Burt’s Tiki Lounge – Salt Lake City, UT
4/12 – The Marquis Theater – Denver, CO
4/15 – The Hive – Flagstaff, AZ
4/16 – The Sail Inn – Phoenix, AZ
4/17 – Ham and Eggs Tavern – Los Angeles, CA
4/18 – The Red Room – Oakland, CA
4/19 – Club 66 – Ashland, OR

The West will be back in Seattle on Sat. 4/26 at the High Dive w/ Jupe Jupe (CD Release) and The Jesus Rehab.

Originally published on Jan. 4, 2014 on “No Goddamn Dancing.”

The most obvious explanation is that The West were put here to save us. Of course there is the alternative, that a kick-ass dance punk band somehow coalesced and sprouted in the middle of Seattle, but it just doesn’t seem possible that anything other than divine-intervention could be responsible for making Seattleites move like this.

Regardless of how it happened, the 5 piece released their full-length debut, ‘In Low Light’, back in February and they’ve been gaining notoriety ever since, even prompting Sean Jewell at The Stranger to write, “I don’t care what era or city you’re from, you’ll have to be dead or just plain dumb not to want to dance to In Low Light”. Not buying it? Take a listen to “Call Me A Liar”, or “Slightest Touch”, or better yet just start at the beginning of ‘In Low Light’ and see if the resulting 40 minutes don’t beg to soundtrack your next house party. From frosty, cold wave infused tracks like “Another Story” and “You Won’t”, to bright, new wave inspired head-bobbers like “Danger”, there is more than enough sonic nuance here to transform your gaggle of awkward, angular friends into a sweaty mess. The short list of influences that I hear include LCD Soundsystem, Modern English, Human League, Gang of Four, and DEVO just to name a few, but suffice to say that this band clearly knows how to craft an interesting pop record.

This alone would have been enough, but the band decided to sneak one more release into 2013 in the form of a 3-track EP titled “Clock is Ticking”. All three tracks are pretty killer, but for this post we decided to focus on the second track, “Out of Sync”. Despite being just over 3 minutes in length, The West pack in quite a few twist and turns, and I love how the vocals have a really sharp ‘Freedom of Choice’ era DEVO quality that works super well with the slick minimalism of the guitars and synth.

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Download “In Low Light” on Bandcamp

*****

The West’s In Low Light opens with “It was Disco and it’s Over,” a song that’s built on a signature Peter Hook high-toned bass riff, complete with lead singer and guitarist Anthony Darnell doing his best Ian Curtis impression. During the song they play a Joy Division-esque eulogy to the death of disco resolving only to move ahead, like it’s the early ’80s and they’re back in Manchester.

Their EP moves on down the timeline of pop just so, synthesizing the rest of the ’80s in their own way. Their brand of nouveau-disco follows lead bass lines all the way down to club maximalist. The West slides into step somewhere between the saccharine sweet Roxette and the angrily romantic the Whip—their steely synths make them a freakishly dance-y band to have evolved in this region of the country, a notoriously dance-less, shoegaze-y Sodom of people who love to fuck with music but not be seen loving it in public. That may be the reason they’ve been noticed by blogeratti in Sweden, and France, and then over at KEXP before they got to me, but it may also be just because their sound (despite having been perfected decades ago) is so period unique.

When In Low Light starts to hit its stride—right after their awkwardly rock-pop single you may have heard on the 90.3 called “Slightest Touch”—Darnell is shouting out negatives on “You Won’t,” and sharing the microphone with synth player Adrienne Clark, who is allowed to go it alone late in the album on just one song “Call Me A Liar,” but provides an interesting relief when she does. Darnell, Clark, and bass player Jon Swihart encapsulate so much of the 80s they’re hard to not appreciate, and by the end of the album they’ve gone full swing from New Order to INXS, and Darnell is in a full on Michael Hutchence wail.

Heads will bob and hips will roll at their live shows, especially at the point when the set reaches their best song “Hustler.” With an absolutely evil bass line, vibrato guitar ringing in the back, roiling snare, and Darnell hollering at the hot thing next to him on the dance floor, I don’t care what era or city you’re from you’ll have to be dead or just plain dumb to not want to dance to In Low Light.

*****

In Low Light is available on Bandcamp, iTunes, and Amazon! Only $10.

Bandcamp iTunes Amazon