This band, The Curious Mystery, is based out of Seattle and have an awesome female drummer, Marian Li Pino. We love her. We think you will too. Read our short interview with the band.
Tom Tom Magazine: How’d you get signed to K Records?
The Curious Mystery: Our friends in Seattle run a radio station called Hollow Earth Radio and they throw a great festival every year to raise funds. The first year they held it the Curious Mystery and Calvin Johnson were both on the bill for the finale show, Calvin was right up front watching our set and after we played he took our set list and got Nic’s phone number, called the next day, and we recorded our first album with him at Dub Narcotic.
How do you feel your sound has changed over the years?
We play more upbeat songs now than when we started out, although we still like to keep a balance. Most of my favorite bands play to a wide range of tempos and emotions, the Velvet Underground was all over the place! I think our first album is pretty slow and dark, we called it “Rotting Slowly” to sort of make fun of ourselves, although I don’t think most people saw it that way judging from the reviews…I remember Pitchfork questioning whether I was a safe person to be left alone with!
Why the switch in drummers?
Oh, you know, it’s hard to find the right match. We’ve had some amazing drummers but Marian is the best fit for our band. Our sound isn’t as straight forward as a lot of bands so it’s been a journey finding the right people who are able to not just play the songs well but push the band forward creatively.
How has tour been so far?
Man, we love being on tour! Last night stayed with the sound guy from our show in Bloomington and he had this amazing recording studio and we jammed out until 5am. We love playing shows, but one of our favorite things about tour is meeting creative people all over the country. With all the time spent in the van we’ve written tons of new songs for our novelty act Damp Face.
What can we expect from the Ace Hotel shows?
We’ve got some new songs that K will release this summer on two 7″ records. We’ll be playing with intros and solos and working towards making almost seemless, cinematic sets. We’ve got tons of songs and will be playing a different set every night.
The Curious Mystery has a residency every Sunday night in April at Ace Hotel.
Illustrator Kelly Abeln
I remember the night Calvin saw them..My band was recording a record across the street from the venue (in Ballard i believe)..I saw calvin Johnson at Sonic Boom records and randomly asked him to come sing on our record..WE jaywalked treacherously across a busy street and into the studio..He improvised a take in that special way and then he went to the show…It was a special night indeed…