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.

We had a terrific time on tour with Ever-so-Android and we’ll be playing our first local show since January this Sat. Apr. 26th at the High Dive.

We’ve got a few new songs to play for you and we’ve got a new t-shirt too!

Sat. Apr. 26th, 2014 – High Dive @ 8PM
The West, Jupe Jupe, & The Jesus Rehab
513 N 36th St. Seattle, WA 98103
$8; 21+
Facebook Event Page

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.

Next up, we’re playing the High Dive for NYE (Tues. Dec. 31st) with Ever-so-Android and Dead Ship Sailing.

Some very kind words from Crystal Collins about the SOLD OUT High Dive show on Sat. Oct. 19, 2013:

‘The West is a band I’ve seen before in this very same space, many moons ago when there were 10 or 20 people at their show. These guys have graduated. When I first saw The West I thought, “That was fun.” Now, they inspire so much more than that. Their driving snare kick dance beats and unique we’re-here-we’re-nerds-and-you’re-gonna-effing-dance charisma on the stage gets beer spilling and butts moving. They turned the whole place into a dance party, vivacious and alive. This is entertainment, a well spoken rebut to the DJ take over. I finally feel at home in the era I was born. I dance as the music commands and the set flies by.’

Photo credit Hobbes Ginsberg Photography.

*****

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

“…Their follow up, In Low Light, finds a band comfortable in their experimentation. The West has a Party-Indie vibe, remiscent at turns of LCD Soundsystem, New Order and even Bowie. To their credit and my great listening satisfaction, the band has carefully avoided the rampant clichés of the genre and established a sense of arrangement that isn’t easily accessed on Clear Channel World Fucking Radio…”

“…In Low Light is an album Kurt Vonnegut could appreciate. The thought of well-funded college hipsters dancing the night away to the exorcism of a person’s soul is just the kind of twisted irony he found so amusing. I’m inclined to agree. The West have documented the dance floor and all its internal politics as well as anyone I can remember…”

Read the full in-depth review here.