THE BAND

Sometimes you just want to make music with your friends. And sometimes those friends are great musicians. “All Your Mountains” is the culmination of good friends and great musicians eating pizza, mythologizing the midwest of their youth, even if the midwest was a midwest of the mind, drinking tall boys, and laughing a lot. Lots of laughter. Sometimes even having fun! 

Intentionally steering clear of overt complexity and making a strong turn into pleasure and nuance, these songs were built to be played. To be examined and experienced anew with every show.  

Echoing the sounds of americana, via pedal steel and 3 part harmonies, or the bombastic crush of 70’s FM radio ala Crazy Horse or Big Star, or sometimes even when the more somber laments of Jason Molina are, if only for a moment touched, Long Dark Moon is interested in telling you their story with both passion and ethos.

With their debut full length “All Your Mountains” we find the band stretching out into topics of loss, mental health, identity, gender, disappointment, and lots of guitar solos. It ends up being a lot of fun, even if it sounds…dire. 

Holly Waits and Aaron Starkey, one half of the Seattle post-punk band Gibraltar, take their ecstatic driving piano and angular guitar playing into more accessible directions in Long Dark Moon. Make no mistake…guitar jams abound and clever melodic piano interplay is foundational, but in Long Dark Moon it hinges on the song to tell the story, not the blistering riff. 

On “All Your Mountains”, Starkey’s vocals offer a more intimate and sensitive repose than heard on earlier records. The songs create a framework for expression and vocal presence that offer connection and meaning to the listener. #feelings.

The substrate that holds it together is from the duo of Jeff Baars on drums and Ross McGilvray on bass, formerly of The Swearengens and Spanish for 100, respectively. Bringing a sensitive and articulate power to the drums, Jeff keeps the guitars and the groove in time, while Ross blends the groove with the harmonic movements of the piano. A finer pairing there never was. 

In the live setting, we welcome Tony Fulgham (guitar) and Christopher Meyer (bass) to the band as our newest members. Expanding on the recorded version of the songs to illuminate new meanings and sounds to this corpus of music that has invigorated the collective to reach new heights on and off stage. 

Jeff ~ Aaron ~ Tony ~ Holly ~ Chris

Jeff, Aaron and Holly