Band of the Week: Sea Wolf

“An old gypsy woman said to me, ‘You’re a wolf, boy. Get out of this town...’”

That baleful warning opens the first song I heard from Sea Wolf roughly a year and a half ago … a thoughtful slice of almost orchestral pop and the sole track listed on the band’s Myspace page at the time by Alex Church, the driving force behind Sea Wolf and one of the five co-frontmen of well-regarded, local act Irving.

I heard that song and was immediately hooked, but it unfortunately wasn’t released on cd for over a year later, when Church self-published a several track, hand-printed EP to placate fans. It’s the second that he’s put out one of these while working on a publishing deal with music companies, something that’s taken a mystifyingly long time to any of us on the outside.

I mean, I look at all the terrible bands that get recording contracts, on huge labels to smaller local ones, and can’t understand why extraordinary local acts like Sea Wolf, Division Day, Great Northern, Army Navy, and the like haven’t been signed yet.

Anyway, I caught Sea Wolf’s most recent packed show at The Echo a few weeks ago and it was pretty incredible … vaguely reminiscent of early Paul Simon, Leonard Cohen, and Talking Heads, though that description still doesn’t do the group’s unique sound much justice.

The band has rough plans to play in town again at the end of August or early September and I can’t recommend going enough, because frankly Sea Wolf is one of the best unsigned bands in LA and they simply nail it live. Keep an eye out for dates.

RELATED LINK: Mini-Interview: Sea Wolf