Show You Should Know: Leland Sundries, Lowell, MA, July 10

I’ve been wanting to catch a Leland Sundries show ever since I stumbled on their first daytrotter session a few years ago. In writing about the band for that session, Sean Moeller wrote, “The ships in Leland Sundries songs all have holes in the hull and moths have chewed into the sails, but those hearty and worn out men are still out there on the waters, bouncing over the waves with their fuzzy and fuzzier thoughts.” The band has a new EP out–Pray Through Gritted Teeth–and is riding their ship to Providence and Lowell this week. On Tuesday, they play at Nick-a-Nee’s in Providence and on Wednesday, at The Worthen, in Lowell.

Pray Through Gritted Teeth hit me like the first time I heard Nashville Skyline–it is loose and funny and is also incredibly tight. It starts with “Food Court Blues,” which is not about the soul-sucking experience of being at the food court, but of working at the food court, and then transitions seamlessly to the loping country tune, “If You’re Gonna Drive, I’m Gonna Drink.” There is no pretense on this EP and I love it. “Song For A Girl With the Replacements Tattoo” describes the fragments of a relationship and has more shifts, musically, than the other songs, from searching verses to an almost anthemic chorus, and a stripped down and vulnerable bridge.

The record concludes with a punk version of “Lone Prairie,” a song bandleader Nick Loss-Eaton heard at The Brooklyn Folk Festival. I haven’t been able to find the original song anywhere, but really love hearing lyrics that you’d normally associate with bluegrass harmonies being delivered the way Joe Strummer might have sung them. And it reminds me of what Kendl Winter of The Lowest Pair said about the commonalities between roots and punk: play fast and play with your heart.

Check out Leland Sundries’ Paste session from last year and get out to these shows!