Thursday, September 18, 2008

Fruition String Band - Hawthorne Hoedown (2008)



I am feel kind of bad posting this, but I'll consider it an opportunity for exposure.

Fruition String band it a little quartet of 20-something folks from Portland, Ore, my home city. Last Friday, here in Arcata they played at one of the local coffeeshops to a crowd of jeez, 15 maybe? The 15 of us there had a great time, because Fruition puts on a great show (and have a small dedicated following up in Portland). They're not big, will probably never get big, and can barely book dates on their west coast "tour" that seems more like a vacation for them, but they are a lot a lot of fun.

The music contained on this disc is roughly recorded (they say it was recorded in a treehouse and all the songs are first takes). It sounds distant, like someone just turned on a microphone on a front porch jam and let the band have at it. The band (1 female and 3 male) share songwriting duties as well as singing and also who plays what, except for the bassist who just chugs along back there having a blast. The recording is not the best, the songs are not the best, but the live show and their attitude about just making music to make it really thrilled me. Obviously there are hundreds of bluegrassy/jam bands like this out there playing in college towns every day and Fruition isn't necessarily different. They have the potential, but more than anything, they inspire others like me to just get out there and make some god damn music. Download the record, listen to it once, it's short. If you hate, whatever get rid of it. If you like it, maybe contact the band at Myspace and try and buy it somehow (they don't sell it online) and their asking price is sort of whatever you have.

It's good to feel good sometimes.

Myspace

Download Here

1 comments:

Cooperman said...

I saw Fruition last night at the Belly Up Tavern in San Diego where they opened for Hot Buttered Rum and another band who probably wished they were somewhere else. Fruition totally stole the show. Live, with good acoustics and a good sound board man they are WAY better than on their little disc. I would definitely check them out if you get the chance. They are tireless and have a huge song library of mostly original material, (they played for 3 hours in a gym the night before!). Wouldn't be at all surprised to see them at Telluride one of these days.