While Pinecones vocalist and guitarist Bo Orr also plays in the straightedge grindcore band Dead in the Dirt, one best not go into the music of the former group expecting anything like the latter. As LPs like 2013’s The Blind Hole attest, Orr is more than capable of bludgeoning the ears with brutal riffs. By contrast, with Pinecones Orr, along with bandmates Ben Salie (drums), Brain Atoms (guitar), and Ryan Evers (bass), is writing guitar-centric rock that’s far friendlier to the ear canals.
One wouldn’t be wrong in classing Pinecones under the indie rock umbrella, as evinced by the song’s clean-toned guitars and rough-around-the-edges vocals. However, when asked to describe the band’s sound, Orr described Pinecones in abstract, poetic terms:
“invisible song harvest from hammered word
ritual grin through electrified chords
or repetition in search of devotion
rock n roll themes repeating
very simple guitar rock music in search
of other worldly ways”
What that might mean is up to the listener. To get a sense of where Orr and the band are coming from, you should watch the new video from the band’s debut Sings for You Now, “Sleep is Forget”. The video is as comic as the song’s title is syntactically disorienting.
Sings for You Now will see its vinyl release via Arrowhawk in the late winter/early spring of 2015.